Court Sends Customer to Jail for Violent Refusal to Wear a Mask

A hardware store attendant politely asked a customer wearing a plastic face shield to remove it and put on a cloth face mask required by COVID restrictions. The customer flew into a rage. He screamed and yelled at the attendant. Then, when the manager arrived, he began throwing punches and shoved an employees into the counter. The histrionics continued for a long period, including after he left the store where the customer shoved another employee, age 62, who wanted to help in the parking lot. Saskatchewan judge found it all quite appalling and sentenced the customer to 4 months in jail, follow by 12 months’ probation. A conditional, rehabilitative sentence wouldn’t be enough to deter others from engaging in this kind of conduct, he reasoned [R v Russell, 2021 SKPC 31 (CanLII), May 28, 2021].