City says thousands in fines remain unpaid one year after 'Freedom Convoy'
CBC
One year after the self-styled "Freedom Convoy" arrived in Ottawa, the city says only about half the value of the tickets handed out during the protests has been paid.
Between Jan. 28 and Feb. 18, 2022, officials issued 3,812 parking tickets and 318 provincial offence notices for illegal parking, including on private property and in no-parking zones.
Those fines totalled $320,545 – and just over $141,000 of that is still outstanding.
Unpaid fines can lead to licence plate denial or the fines can be transferred to property taxes, garnished from wages or referred to a collection agency – though it is not clear whether Ottawa has taken any of these steps.
The weeks-long protests cost the city about $7 million and cost Ottawa police $55 million, as demonstrators opposed to COVID-19 mandates and the federal government blockaded downtown streets.
The city has asked the federal government to pick up the tab for those costs, but no funding announcement has been made.
Last year, the government set aside $6.9 million to cover costs of the protests in Windsor, Ont., where protesters blockaded Canada's busiest border crossing.
The actual amount Windsor will receive is still under discussion, but the city had asked for millions in compensation for the cost of business closures and restoring public order at the Ambassador Bridge.
Similar protests shut down border crossings in Saskatchewan, British Columbia and near the town of Coutts, Alta., last winter, however, the majority of "Freedom Convoy" demonstrators camped out in the streets near Parliament Hill.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to give government, police and banks extraordinary powers to end the protests.
A public inquiry was held last fall into the decision to use the law for the first time since it replaced the War Measures Act in 1988. A final report from that inquiry must be presented to Parliament in February.
Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club has asked a judge to decide whether the City of Winnipeg can ignore a provincial decision about residential housing slated to rise next to the club.
A Saskatoon woman says she watched her neighbour's police standoff play out in real time on social media.
One person is dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, following an incident Friday at a building in Regina.
A wind storm that caused the cancellation of all daytime ferries between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland stranded passengers on both sides of the Salish Sea, adding challenges for travelers in an already hectic holiday travel week.
Maritime Electric has officially filed plans with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission for the rotating power outages it says may be necessary this winter to prevent a provincewide blackout.
A Toronto hotel has organized a Christmas Eve buffet lunch for some Thorncliffe Park residents forced out of their condo units by a complex fire.
Residents in Fort Liard, N.W.T., are being advised to use filtered or bottled water and take other measures to protect themselves from high levels of disinfection byproducts called trihalomethanes in the tap water.
Alberta's election agency announced Monday it has approved a proposed referendum question on the province separating from Canada.
One person has been shot by police after allegedly stabbing two people in Toronto's northwest on Monday, police say.
Prince Edward Island's housing market is becoming more balanced, according to new data.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is presenting a new plan worth more than $35.5 billion to keep First Nations children connected to their communities, culture and families.
The RCMP arrested two men who allegedly used a classified ads website to recruit women to smuggle cannabis out of Canada to Nigeria via the country’s biggest airport.
One person is in a critical condition after an incident in Inukjuak, Que., which led to a shoot-out with police.