Kelowna man claims he was unable to dispute a parking ticket because he refused to wear a mask

Photo: Contributed

A man who refused to wear a mask at Kelowna City Hall last December while trying to dispute a parking ticket is bringing his complaint to the B.C. Supreme Court.

In a petition filed against the City of Kelowna earlier this month, Brian Rogers argues he wasn't able to attend his hearing at Kelowna City Hall to dispute a ticket he'd received in September for an expired parking meter because he refused to wear a mask. The province's indoor public mask requirement was in effect at the time.

Rogers says three Commissionaires security guards stopped him from entering the council chambers for his hearing, and escorted him outside. An adjudicator ruled against him in the ticket dispute since Rogers was unable to attend.

Rogers argues he has the “absolute, Constitutional and fundamental right/duty/power for unrestricted access to all courts and places for adversarial hearings against him by the government,” and he claims the mask requirement was a restriction on his “rights and/or freedoms.”

A Brian Rogers ran for the People's Party of Canada in the Kelowna-Lake riding in last year's federal election, on a platform opposed to COVID-19 restrictions. He came fourth, securing about seven per cent of the vote.

Rogers claims the adjudicator in his case in December walked into the council chambers without a mask on, but Rogers was not allowed to do the same.

He wants the BC Supreme Court to rule that the decision on the parking meter ticket be overturned, and a new hearing be ordered. The City of Kelowna has not yet responded to the petition.

The altercation between Rogers and the Commissionaires security guards isn't the first time local security guards have had to deal with those opposed to COVID measures.

Local protest leader David Lindsay is currently facing criminal assault charges for allegedly trying to push past two security guards during a protest outside the Interior Health building on Doyle Avenue, while Bruce Orydzuk is facing a charge of causing a disturbance for hurling racist remarks at a South Asian security guard outside a Kelowna vaccine clinic last summer.