Police need to stand up for our rights says Quebec man charged $1,500 while protesting
Philip Merleau has submitted a $1,546 fine to us through our Fight The Fines portal. He is the second person to submit to this initiative after being fined on December 20, 2020, by police in Montreal, Quebec.
Philip and his wife decided to check out the protest that was taking place out-front of Premiere Legault’s office that day. When they arrived, he stood back and stayed near police where he thought he would be “safe” from harms way. While standing alone, a police officer asked Philip to come with him. As it turns out, he was being hit with a fine for not wearing a mask while outdoors.
Police threatened and seemed to taunt him with further fines if he did not comply with the outdoor mask mandate so he pulled up his collar and went to march with the protesters for a short while.
Philip was surprised that his exemption was not respected that day and notes the conflicting information being put out by government and health officials around the mask mandate, being outdoors, and exemptions. He states that there is no choice but to engage in civil disobedience, claiming that he has seen several instances online of these fines being cancelled by the courts.
He has pleaded not guilty to this fine and will be continuing to consult with the lawyer that we have crowd funded for him at Fight The Fines.
If you can, please consider donating to help our initiative so that we can continue to help people like Philip Merleau fight these egregious fines.
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