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On Apr. 4, a Black father was punched and fined $2010 by an Ottawa bylaw officer while in his own neighbourhood with his daughter. 4 In Quebec and Ontario, people experiencing homelessness have been fined for being unable to physically distance in public spaces. 4 In Ontario, 2 concerning COVID-19–related expansions of policing powers include an order that enables provincial offences officers to require people to produce identification (ID), with fines up to $1000 for failure to do so, and a decision to provide police with access to identifying information and COVID-19 test results. 5 Although physical distancing recommendations may not be followed for various reasons, decades of research has made clear that those living at intersections of poverty, racialization and/or Indigeneity, among other forms of marginalization, bear the brunt of policing and criminalization. 6, 7 Privileged rule-breakers are not punished in the same way, and measures such as fines do not impose the same burden. 8

A long history of police violence against Black and Indigenous people and criminalization of poverty in Canada cannot be ignored simply because we are in a pandemic. The recent police killings of D’Andre Campbell, Chantel Moore, Rodney Levi and Ejaz Ahmed Choudry—all racialized and Indigenous people—demonstrate the tragic, racist violence inherent to Canadian policing. Expanded COVID-19 policing promises to continue racial profiling and violence, crippling punishments for those living in poverty, and criminalization of mental health, addiction and those with precarious immigration status. These groups may not logistically be able to have ID …