B.C. drops more than two dozen COVID-19 tickets against religious groups since December

Churches and religious organizations around B.C. which have been fighting COVID-19 violation tickets are having success in the courts.

During earlier waves of COVID-19, multiple religious groups around the province refused to comply with COVID-19 rules, resulting in $2,300 violation tickets.

In some cases their lawyers insisted there was a misunderstanding of the rules, or that police officers did not interpret the law correctly when issuing tickets.

Those tickets were issued by different police agencies in the province, after the implementation of various provincial pandemic restrictions — but as this works its way through the courts, it appears many of those tickets are being dropped.

Since December, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has seen tickets against 25 of its clients accused of breaking COVID-19 rules dropped, with Crown prosecutors directing a stay of proceedings.

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Marty Moore is a staff lawyer with the Justice Centre, and argues it was a violation of Charter rights to issue some of these tickets in the first place.

“As you can imagine, very small faith communities in rural places — they don’t have a lot of money to be throwing around and when they’re facing a $2,300 quasi-criminal prosecution, it’s incredibly concerning for them,” Moore told CityNews in an interview. “Especially for a religious community that was trying its best to comply with the rules they thought were in place at the time. For them to have the consideration of the prosecution and for the prosecution to issue a stay — it’s a huge relief for them.”

“They’ve been living with this cloud over their church for the last year now, and to be out of that legal system which is very unfamiliar to most of them, is certainly a relief to them.”

The BC Prosecution Service has confirmed Crown lawyers directed a stay of proceedings in relation to these tickets.

It added that prosecutors apply a two-part test when deciding whether to proceed — whether there is a substantial likelihood of conviction, and whether a prosecution would be in the public interest.

“In determining whether this test is satisfied, Crown Counsel must consider what material evidence is likely to be admissible and available at a trial; the objective reliability of the admissible evidence; and whether there are viable defences, or other legal or constitutional impediments to the prosecution, that remove any substantial likelihood of a conviction,” Dan McLaughlin with the BC Prosecution Service wrote to CityNews in a statement. “If Crown Counsel is satisfied that the evidentiary test is met, Crown Counsel must then determine whether the public interest requires a prosecution.

“In assessing the public interest, Crown Counsel should take into account the particular circumstances of each case and the reasonable public safety concerns of the local community. Hard and fast rules cannot be imposed. In the 25 cases referred to above the Crown Counsel with conduct of the prosecution concluded that the charge assessment standard was not met and directed the stay of proceedings.”