kyla

Over $143,000 in tickets were handed out to people not wearing a mask when it was mandatory on Metro Vancouver transit, but the vast majority of those fines have not been paid.

Transit police data shared with NEWS 1130 shows 626 tickets were issued between November 2020 and the end of June 2021.

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Lawyer Kyla Lee says the number of unpaid tickets is not shocking.

“I think that what we’ve seen over the last 10 months that we’ve had masks on transit and in B.C., is we’ve seen the type of people who are opposed to wearing masks on transit are the type of people who are generally defiant to any type of COVID-19, protections including vaccination and other social distancing measures,” she says.

“The fact that they’re not going to participate in the process of paying their tickets when they don’t agree with all of this — that doesn’t surprise me in any way.”

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After hearing the news that essential workers would be prioritized in the next phase of B.C.’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout, many in the selected industries said they were pleased with the plan, while others expressed they felt left behind.

On Thursday, Dr. Bonnie Henry announced employees like first responders, educational staff, postal workers, grocery store workers and bylaw officers will be next in line to receive an AstraZeneca shot. Appointments for those doses are expected to begin in April.

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Kyla Lee, a criminal lawyer in Vancouver, said she was disappointed that court staff, defence counsel and Crown counsel weren’t included in the most recent priority list either.

“Our professions have put us at risk for months,” Lee wrote on Twitter. “Court proceedings are integral to our democracy and cannot all be done remotely or with distancing.”

Read the full story here.