Five Manitobans who repeatedly violated pandemic public health orders have been handed fines.
Provincial court Judge Victoria Cornick said during sentencing that a message must be sent that public health orders are to be respected and tickets did not deter the five after each offence.
Tobias Tissen, Patrick Allard, Todd McDougall, Sharon Vickner and Gerald Bohemier admitted to breaking limits on outdoor public gatherings that were in place over several months in 2020 and 2021.
The Crown had asked for fines of between $18,000 and $42,000, plus costs and surcharges because the five had organized and spoke at rallies and urged others to not follow health orders.
Defence lawyers had asked for no fines.
The judge imposed lower fines than the Crown sought, ranging from $14,000 to $34,000.
Convictions were doled out Wednesday.
All five told court they have already been punished for their actions. Two said they have lost their jobs. Bohemier, 72, said the stress has harmed his health. All five spent brief periods in jail after being arrested and before being released on conditions.
"We were peacefully, publicly rejecting government overreach," Vickner said.
Allard and McDougall have already said they plan to appeal to a higher court, where they hope to challenge the public health orders under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They were not allowed to do so in provincial court, they said.
"We… have to finalize the whole trial in order to go forward on an appeal," Allard said in a social media post earlier in the week.
Tissen was part of a group of several churches that lost a Charter challenge last year against Manitoba's COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings and religious services.
A Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled the restrictions were permissible under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as a response to a public health emergency.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 25, 2022
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