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Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/7443179/quebec-covid-19-fines-deterrence/
Quebec threatens COVID-19 fines as researchers question if penalties deter behaviour
By Jacob Serebrin The Canadian Press
Posted November 4, 2020 6:58 pm
There’s little evidence the threat of heavy fines is encouraging Canadians to follow COVID-19 rules, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Toronto and Carleton University.
Researchers Alex Luscombe and Alexander McClelland say provinces such as Quebec are increasingly turning to threats during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the criminologists, who have been tracking police responses to the pandemic since early April, say people tend to follow rules they perceive as legitimate.
“If you’re going to create a rule, that rule needs to have legitimacy,” Luscombe, PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, said in an interview Wednesday. “People need to understand it, they need to agree with it.”
An example of the government’s confusing orders was recently illustrated, he said, by Quebec’s second opposition party, Qu?bec solidaire. The party said it didn’t understand why a pork-processing plant where more than 100 workers contracted COVID-19 is still operating but the province’s COVID-free cinemas are shut.
During the first wave of the pandemic, Quebec issued more fines than any other province, followed by Ontario and Nova Scotia, Luscombe said. Quebec is also the province hardest-hit by the novel coronavirus, reporting significantly more infections and deaths than any other part of the country...
Quebec threatens COVID-19 fines as researchers question if penalties deter behaviour
By Jacob Serebrin The Canadian Press
Posted November 4, 2020 6:58 pm
There’s little evidence the threat of heavy fines is encouraging Canadians to follow COVID-19 rules, according to a new report by researchers at the University of Toronto and Carleton University.
Researchers Alex Luscombe and Alexander McClelland say provinces such as Quebec are increasingly turning to threats during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the criminologists, who have been tracking police responses to the pandemic since early April, say people tend to follow rules they perceive as legitimate.
“If you’re going to create a rule, that rule needs to have legitimacy,” Luscombe, PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, said in an interview Wednesday. “People need to understand it, they need to agree with it.”
An example of the government’s confusing orders was recently illustrated, he said, by Quebec’s second opposition party, Qu?bec solidaire. The party said it didn’t understand why a pork-processing plant where more than 100 workers contracted COVID-19 is still operating but the province’s COVID-free cinemas are shut.
During the first wave of the pandemic, Quebec issued more fines than any other province, followed by Ontario and Nova Scotia, Luscombe said. Quebec is also the province hardest-hit by the novel coronavirus, reporting significantly more infections and deaths than any other part of the country...