Pursuant to an emergency management plan filed by the City of Ottawa with the Province of Ontario, Ottawa has enlisted its by-law officers to launch a ticket pandemic, in the name of responding to the COVID19 pandemic. Although Ottawa Police Service have aligned themselves with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, such that its public health policing is all about education and prevention and not about enforcement, charging and ticketing, Ottawa by-law officers are doing the opposite, notwithstanding that they lack police accountability and training.
We the undersigned believe that penalties and punitive powers will not better our country during the COVID19 pandemic. Public health efforts should be 99% education and coercion and 1% enforcement. So call off the by-law enforcers as enforcers and enlist them to take direction from Ottawa Police Services to educate and warn residents.
And fix your Provincial Offences Act system to invalidate those tickets issued in the absence of an online means of disputing the ticket. Fair trials, presumption of innocence and constitutional compliance is more important to us than municipal fine revenues.
You can further help this campaign by sponsoring it
The Fix or Nix COVID tix petition to Mayor Jim Watson was written by Michael Bryant and is in the category Human Rights at GoPetition.