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BC officials have dropped five more COVID-19 related tickets in response to pressure from the Justice Centre.
BC officials have dropped five more COVID-19 related tickets in response to pressure from the Justice Centre.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) is funded by voluntary donations and represents its clients free of charge.
On Tuesday, the JCCF announced five more “public health” tickets issued to its clients have been dropped by Crown prosecutors in BC.
Three tickets totalling $6,900 were issued to a health care worker named Nadine Podmoroff, who organized three outdoor events in Castlegar and Nelson.
Podmoroff said, according to JCCF, that leading up to the Dec. 21, 2020 event she was in contact with Castlegar RCMP who gave her the green light to proceed without being ticketed as long as the laws were followed.
Policed “monitored the event throughout and said we behaved peacefully,” said Podmoroff, who added RCMP did not issue any tickets until two days after the event when they arrived at her home and issued a ticket of $2,300.
Podmoroff organized two additional outdoor rallies shortly after, for which she was also ticketed.
JCCF filed a Notice of Constitutional Question on Nov. 5, 2021, challenging the validity of the tickets issued to Podmoroff. On Nov. 15, 2021, the Crown dropped two tickets challenged by the notice, as well as an additional ticket issued to an unnamed individual who spoke at a protest with Podmoroff.
Podmoroff has one remaining ticket from Dec. 21, 2020 which JCCF is attempting to have dropped.
“The scientific data unequivocally shows outdoor public gatherings are not, and never were, a public health risk,” said Jay Cameron, litigation director at JCCF.
Additional tickets issued to JCCF’s clients for protesting or holding in person religious services have also been recently dropped in BC, according to the organization, which is in the process of having dozens of more tickets dropped in the province — such as a church in Fort St. John that was fined for recording a Zoom service in its building with staff present.
“The Justice Centre will continue to defend BC citizens against the Government’s unjust violation of their Charter rights,” said Cameron.
BC-based non-profit the Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public Policy’s (CSASPP) Executive Director, Kip Warner, among others involved in combating state overreach, speaks highly of the JCCF.
“The problems Canadians are facing are across the country and are best met with areas of responsibility allocated to different competent campaigns,” Warner told the Western Standard.
“For that reason Alberta’s JCCF and BC’s CSASPP have a complimentary, productive, and professional working relationship.”