Union shocked after Ottawa Police ticket striking government worker for excessive honking

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Union leaders are criticizing what they view as a shocking double standard after Ottawa Police ticketed a striking public servant for honking at a picket line and city bylaw officers have repeatedly fined another picketer for an unauthorized hot-dog stand outside the Prime Minister’s Office.

Police and bylaw officers were denounced by many downtown residents for failing to properly respond to last year’s trucker convoy protests, where anti-lockdown protesters blocked traffic in the area for weeks with illegally parked trucks and engaged in incessant honking.

Yet it was honking in support of her colleagues at a picket line near Treasury Board President Mona Fortier’s constituency office in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood that led Ottawa police to fine one government worker last Friday.

“I’m actually quite shocked,” said Public Service Alliance of Canada national executive vice-president Sharon DeSousa in an interview. “With the juxtaposition of what we’ve seen when the convoy movement was in here, I’m just appalled that this would even happen.”

Ms. DeSousa said honking is a common way of showing support at picket lines and the union is considering legal options to defend its member, who was pulled over by police. The union is also looking into how it can support Jean-Paul Surette, a striking Correctional Service Canada employee who has been fined by bylaw officers for serving hot dogs to his union colleagues on Wellington Street.

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That is the same street that was at the heart of the trucker convoy protests, where cooking, concerts, dancing, hot tubs and bouncy castles were common amid the honking transport trucks.

The strike affecting more than 155,000 federal public servants entered its tenth day Friday. The two sides are primarily at odds over pay and the terms of future work-from-home arrangements. Ms. DeSousa said talks have resumed and bargaining is expected to continue into the weekend.

The union released an update Friday afternoon saying it had received a new offer from the government. A Treasury Board spokesperson described the offer as “comprehensive,” but declined further comment.

The worker who received the ticket for honking spoke to The Globe and Mail Friday. The Globe has not identified her because she was concerned that she would face harassment.

She said she drove past the picket line early that afternoon on her way to find a parking spot and honked about five or six times, for a total of about 10 seconds. She said she was later pulled over by an unmarked police vehicle and received a $110 ticket. She said a large number of other vehicles honked in support of the striking workers as they drove by throughout the day and were not ticketed. She intends to contest the fine.

A spokesperson for the Ottawa Police confirmed that a ticket was issued on April 21 for excessive noise under the Highway Traffic Act. The police said officers responded to complaints from local businesses related to excessive honking.

Roger Chapman, the city’s director of bylaw and regulatory services, said in a statement that the bylaw team “respects the right to protest, demonstrate and strike and does not issue tickets to individuals as a result of protesting, but rather for failing to follow officer direction and contravening municipal regulations.”

After receiving three tickets from bylaw officers Thursday, Mr. Surette was back on Wellington Street serving hot dogs to a long line of picketing public servants on a sunny Friday afternoon.

“If they’re hungry, I’m going to feed them, but I guess, you know, bylaw has other thoughts,” he told The Globe.

The tickets Mr. Surette received said he was “encumbering a highway [sidewalk].”

“I was a little disappointed, but I get they’re just doing their job, so I don’t hold a grudge,” Mr. Surette said.

The City of Ottawa and the federal government are currently at odds over the future of Wellington Street, which had been closed to traffic since the convoy. The city reopened the street to traffic on Friday, over objections from some federal politicians who want the street permanently closed for security reasons.

Mr. Surette said PSAC not only told him to keep coming out, but to not worry about the tickets he’s been given. He said the union believes the tickets are a mistake and intends on taking the issue to court.