{"id":26824,"date":"2020-12-04T11:20:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T16:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=26824"},"modified":"2020-12-11T11:25:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T16:25:17","slug":"dixon-thankful-for-community-support-still-considering-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/dixon-thankful-for-community-support-still-considering-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Dixon thankful for community support, still considering options"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Thursday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Higgs\u2019s 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 \u201cnon masking\u201d. About half of those were in the southeast region.<\/p>\n

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

And at least one of them was issued in Sackville, to Derrick Dixon, owner and operator of Hounds of Vintage on Bridge Street.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u201canxiety-inducing\u201d.<\/p>\n

The RCMP would not tell CHMA how many other tickets or compliance orders they issued in Sackville.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s Derrick Dixon in conversation with Erica Butler on CHMA\u2019s Tantramar Report:<\/p>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

Dixon says he\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to challenge it,\u201d says Dixon. But he points out there\u2019s not much time before his court date, and most of that falls in the holiday season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it was pretty unfair that I was fined for that reason, for not having the extra copy of my plan,\u201d says Dixon. \u201cAnd as far as I know, still, I haven\u2019t heard of any other businesses in town getting fined. So it seems a bit strange to me. So I\u2019m definitely going to fight it as best as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Dixon does feel overwhelmed, and is also unsure of the protocol for challenging the ticket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of business owners right now are just feeling really overwhelmed in general,\u201d says Dixon. \u201cSo 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\u2019t make sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The community has rallied to Dixon\u2019s 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\u2019s raised $177 in donations to go towards Dixon\u2019s costs, whether it be paying his ticket or contesting it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been super grateful for the response and the support I\u2019ve had from the community,\u201d says Dixon. \u201cIt\u2019s been overwhelming in a really positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Thursday\u2019s 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\u2019s 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":23760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,218,3265],"tags":[3618,2385,525],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26824"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26824"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=26824"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=26824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}