Vaughan family struck by COVID-19, angered by 'nitpicky' parking tickets

Thestar.com
April 26, 2021
Jeremy Grimaldi

David Rubin remembers the day he began to feel light headed and dizzy, the beginnings of the "very, very intense" COVID-19 symptoms he'd soon feel.

It was on April 11 that he would park his vehicle horizontally in his Maple driveway, leaving his rear wheels partially on the boulevard grass so that the rest of his family could exit without having to move his vehicles.

"I didn't expect to be getting up from bed very soon," said the 24-year-old recent graduate of York University. "I didn't want people coming into my room when I had COVID-19 to get my keys to move it."

He, along with his other four family members, caught COVID-19 from his brother who was working as an "essential service."

The next 10 days were dreadful for Rubin, during which he was left freezing cold in the daytime and sweating buckets at night, so much that he'd have to wake up from his slumber to change his clothes nightly.

When he finally awoke from the symptoms, his mother told him that, on two separate occasions, a Vaughan traffic warden had showed up to ticket his car: on April 21 and 22.

Each ticket was worth $50 and dolled out at around 3 a.m..

When Rubin's mother called the city, the person on the other end said someone had likely complained about the parking job.

"Everyone is struggling right now. For me, I'm a student and need to use CERB to pay for this," he said. "We're all inside trying to follow the rules. I don't feel as though they should be giving tickets to people for this nit-picky kind of thing. It's just not fair."

Vaughan insists that it's taking a measured approach in its response to the pandemic.

Spokesperson Justin Gaul further advised that should anyone wish to dispute their tickets, they can contact bylaw services to "initiate dispute process."