At Thursday’s news conference, Premier Blaine Higgs outlined some statistics on the COVID rules enforcement effort by public safety officers, the RCMP, and other police forces in the province.

Higgs’s stats covered the eight day period from November 20 to 28. He said that out of 2500 sites visited, police and public safety officers issued 87 tickets related to what he called “non masking”. About half of those were in the southeast region.

Higgs also said 38 tickets were given to businesses for other COVID-related matters. 17 of those tickets were issued in the southeast region.

And at least one of them was issued in Sackville, to Derrick Dixon, owner and operator of Hounds of Vintage on Bridge Street.

Dixon was visited by two RCMP officers on Tuesday, November 24. The officers issued Dixon a compliance order, requiring him to do things like make sure he has an additional paper copy of his operational plan behind his counter. Then, in the same visit, the officers gave Dixon a ticket, for the same issues identified in his compliance order.

Dixon says the simultaneous ticket and compliance order was unfair, and he felt targeted by the police officers, particularly because the ticket came shortly after he commented that the visit from the officers was “anxiety-inducing”.

The RCMP would not tell CHMA how many other tickets or compliance orders they issued in Sackville.

Here’s Derrick Dixon in conversation with Erica Butler on CHMA’s Tantramar Report:

Dixon says he’s still not sure whether he will pay the fine associated with his ticket, $292.50, or go to court to contest the charge on January 5.

“I do want to challenge it,” says Dixon. But he points out there’s not much time before his court date, and most of that falls in the holiday season.

“I do think it was pretty unfair that I was fined for that reason, for not having the extra copy of my plan,” says Dixon. “And as far as I know, still, I haven’t heard of any other businesses in town getting fined. So it seems a bit strange to me. So I’m definitely going to fight it as best as I can.”

But Dixon does feel overwhelmed, and is also unsure of the protocol for challenging the ticket.

“I know a lot of business owners right now are just feeling really overwhelmed in general,” says Dixon. “So when I think about the government going around, and fining all these people who are just trying to stay afloat, when most of them are following protocols as they should be. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

Dixon also says that the RCMP officers have not been back to his shop to check that he met the requirements of the compliance order they issued at the same time as his ticket.

The community has rallied to Dixon’s defense, citing his care and concern with public health measures in comments on social media. After an online comment suggesting that a fundraiser was in order, Alice Cotton of Deus Ex Macina did just that. Cotton says she’s raised $177 in donations to go towards Dixon’s costs, whether it be paying his ticket or contesting it.

“I’ve been super grateful for the response and the support I’ve had from the community,” says Dixon. “It’s been overwhelming in a really positive way.”