ROTHENBURGER – Here’s one party host who didn’t play his cards right
SOME GUY IN PINEVIEW VALLEY is more than three thousand dollars poorer today and I don’t feel at all sorry for him.
For those who missed the story yesterday, police were called to a home on Hugh Allan Drive about 1 a.m. Friday to break up an illegal card game. Those flashing lights outside were on a police cruiser, not a Christmas tree. Inside, RCMP found an “allegedly very uncooperative” host who was entertaining nine others.
The 37-year-old home owner ended up being fined $2,300 for contravening the order on gatherings and events, and $230 each for failure to comply with directions from an enforcement officer, promoting or encouraging attendance at a non-compliant gathering, and abusive or belligerent behaviour.
A poker party host having to cash in his chips and fork over three grand to the law is delicious enough in its irony that even the RCMP couldn’t resist a play on words in their news release.
Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.
I’m for that too, Pierre.
I think each of his guests should be fined also . It’s not like they didn’t know the regulations about COVID gatherings.
You’re dead on, Mel. In addition to the consequences listed above I would enact the following:
1. Increase the fine to a minimum of $10,000, to be paid within 1 week.
2. Give the guy an option to #1. He has the choice to choose between that and a $100/day jail term until $10,000 has been paid (that would be 100 days).
I hope he chooses the first, because as a taxpayer, I don’t wish to subsidize the costs of his incarceration.
I wish they would do a minimum of $ 10,000 for speeders and people talking on their phone while driving, Ian Mac.