Province issues 70 pandemic orders tickets in week

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2021 (1086 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba issued 70 tickets and 123 warnings last week for disobeying COVID-19 pandemic rules.

Most of the tickets (May 10-16) were to individuals: 62 were $1,296 fines for various offences, including 53 for gatherings inside private residences or on outdoor private property, six for failure to self-isolate, one for unnecessary northern travel, and two to sole proprietorships.

Five people were fined $298 for failing to wear a face covering in an indoor public place.

Three businesses were hit with $5,000 tickets.

Osborne Village pub Toad in the Hole was one of them. Co-owner Kevin Monk stressed it was a lapse by a couple of employees, rather than intentional COVID-19 rule-breaking by the Winnipeg bar.

Monk said a handful of staff stayed at the pub after it closed at 10 p.m. one day last week, when a liquor inspector attended and issued the hefty ticket.

“It was staff foolishly having a beer 20 minutes after closing,” Monk said, adding one person was later fired.

Premier Brian Pallister announced May 7 the province intended to double fines for repeat offenders, but no such doubled fines have yet been issued, a Manitoba spokeswoman said in an email Tuesday.

The province said Manitoba Justice is continuing to investigate “all large gatherings and rallies they are made aware of.”

A total of 22 individual $1,296 tickets have been issued in relation to anti-pandemic restrictions gatherings, including two from the Winkler rally May 1, six from The Forks rally May 1, and 14 from the Winnipeg Law Courts rally May 3.

A pro-Palestinian rally at the legislature Saturday remains under investigation, the province said.