Maxime Bernier Ticketed in Regina
Channel: Lee Harding
Date: 2021-05-09

Read my article on this in the Western Standard. https://westernstandardonline.com/2021/05/maxime-bernier-gets-covid-ticket-in-regina/

Despite covering the event as a journalist, I also received a $2,800 fine. 

People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier received a ticket from the Regina Police Service following a speech to an illegal assembly in Victoria Park on Saturday.

“That's my second ticket,” Bernier said. “[When] I was in Peterborough, I received my first ticket over there. I won't pay it, you know, because these tickets are illegal, unconstitutional, unfair. And we need to fight these tickets out to the Supreme Court, like I said in my speech, and I will do it. I will do it for everybody here. You know, don't be scared about that. You won't have to pay, just fight it. And they know that what they're doing is unconstitutional. But we'll have a court to say that maybe in a year, two years from now, because it will take that time to go up to the Supreme Court.”
The province placed a limit of ten people on outdoor gatherings. Perhaps not coincidentally, the province announced that they would increase that limit to 150 as of May 17 the same afternoon as the rally.
“I hope they're going to be fair, I hope they’re going to give tickets to everybody. We were at about 500 people,” Bernier said.
“Fairness, it's very important. But… we are the one that they choose. So that's discriminatory, that's unfair. 
Bernier said he would not ask his supporters for money because he would not pay the ticket. However, he thanked the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms for supporting him and others who had received tickets.
“I'm not scared. It's too bad that these policemen are acting like in a communist country…. Are they supposed to protect Canadians and not giving tickets to a politician and Canadians and citizens that are speaking in a park?... That's against the common sense,” said Bernier.
“I didn't have the obligation to give them my license. But I did it because I want to have the ticket. I want to fight it and I will win it.”
Bernier received the $2,800 ticket in the parking lot of the Hotel Saskatchewan as he prepared to leave the rally for subsequent events in Lumsden, Davidson, and Saskatoon. Others in his entourage that spoke at the rally received tickets for the same amount. These included past PPC candidates Laura Lynn Thompson and Mark Friesen, as well as activist R. B. Ham. All four are summoned to appear in court September 27.
Bernier will put his tickets on display at his home in Saint-Georges, Quebec. 
“I'll use all these tickets to put…on the wall of my office. The more tickets I have, I think that means that I'm fighting for Canadians. And, you know, I don't have any problem with that.”