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291The
Punitive Impact of Physical Distancing Laws on Homeless People
is imposed for careless driving causing bodily harm or death under
Ontarioâs Highway Traffic Act.13
Homeless people have received harsh fines for violating pub-
lic health acts or municipal by-laws. The Hamilton Spectator reported
that the cityâs police force issued $750 fines to a group of 10 homeless
people who were allegedly passing around a bottle of alcohol.14 In the
City of Montréal, a group of homeless youth were ticketed $1,546 each
for failing to obey physical distancing measures.15
Prior to the pandemic, empirical research showed that the vast
majority of municipal and transportation by-law offences in Montréal
were issued to homeless people, even though they made up less than
1% of the cityâs population.16 Most could not afford to pay their fines,
which in many cases tallied thousands of dollars and hung over their
heads for years. These financial penalties entrench people in home-
lessness in several ways. They must pay money that would otherwise
go toward their rent or basic necessities, such as food, clothing, and
medication. Criminal justice debt adversely impacts oneâs credit rat-
ing, which decreases oneâs prospect of securing housing, obtaining
utilities, and receiving bank loans.17 As Canada approaches an inevi-
table recession and an increase in unemployment, these financial pen-
alties will impact homeless people more than ever.
These fines raise serious legal concerns. In R v Boudreault, the
Supreme Court of Canada decided that mandatory victim surcharges
constitute a cruel and unusual punishment because they result in de
facto indeterminate sentences for indigent persons.18 The amount of
the surcharge was $100 for summary conviction offences and $200
13. City of Brampton, by-law MO 1-2020, Physical Distancing By-law MO (2020),
s 12(2); Highway Traffic Act, RSO 1990, c H.8, ss 130(3)â(4).
14. Teviah Moro, âCOVID-19: âPhysical Distancingâ Fines of $750 Issued to Homeless
People by Hamilton Policeâ, Hamilton Spectator (6 April 2020), online: <www.
thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/2020/04/06/covid-19-hamilton-police-
urged-to-not-ticket-homeless-during-pandemic.html>.
15. Ugo GiguĂšre, âDes contraventions donnĂ©es aux jeunes sans-abrisâ, La Presse
(11 April 2020), online: <https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/2020-04-11/des-
contraventions-donnees-aux-jeunes-sans-abris>.
16. Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, The
Judiciarization of the Homeless in Montréal: A Case of Social Profiling. Executive
Summary of the Opinion of the Commission, cat 2.120-8.61.2 (Montréal: CDPDJ,
6 November 2009) at 2.
17. Catherine T Chesnay, Celine Bellot & Marie-Eve Sylvestre, âTaming Disorderly
People One Ticket at a Time: The Penalization of Homelessness in Ontario and
British Columbiaâ (2013) 55:2 Can J Corr 161 at 178-79.
18. Boudreault, supra note 6 at para 76.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International