While I do agree that the Ontario government has way overstepped by granting the Police power to charge people for not staying home during COVID, I am wondering the spin it may be putting on this whole situation - it is MSN afterall...
When the Ford Government gave the Police the power to inforce the lockdown and gave the Police power to pull over cars they suspected of violating the lockdown, several Police Forces refused to use such powers - many stated this on their websites and even gave live interviews - as they publically stated that using such powers would harm relations they have built with their communities.
I did some quick Google-Fu and as far as I know, there are only two instances where cars were stopped and people were charged. This is over a 5 month period of time. So it is good to see that our police are still making solid judgements.
I did some looking and the car was pulled over as it was "suspicious". I have yet to find anything which suggests why the vehicle was suspicious; however when the vehicle was pulled over, the driver did "falsely identify himself". I have seen how some people respond to being pulled over by the police and am wondering if this may be what really caused the tickets. Perhaps the occupants of the car were giving the cop a rough time and the cop finally just had enough and awarded everyone a ticket.
I had a friend who rented an Air BNB during this time despite being in provincial lockdown. An angry neighbour did call the OPP (provincial police) who paid my buddy a visit. He politely explained the situation with the officer and the officer bid him a good day and left - despite two families sharing the same Air BNB which clearly violates the lockdown in multiple ways.
So again, it looks like this law is still up to the discretion of the police and is not being blindly enforced. I do agree the police should never have been given this power, but maybe the charges were more "self-inflicted?"
And just a fyi, when the Ford government really ramped up the lockdown and granted more power to the police - which I believe was a Thursday or Friday - by Monday, the government retracted and actually apologized for over stepping its boundaries.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...ence-1.5997521
And to clarify, I am not trying to support or justify the Ontario government's actions. I am just trying to provide more of the story...
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