INNISFAIL – The owners of Bladez 2 Fadez Barbershop are seeking legal “constitutional” help after being served with a summons to appear in court on March 8 for violating a provincial COVID restriction that hair salons be closed until at least Jan. 21.
The Innisfail barbershop was served with two violation tickets late yesterday afternoon (Jan. 13) by local RCMP, confirmed Innisfail RCMP Staff Sgt. Chris Matechuk.
Co-owner Natalie Klein has been ordered to appear in Red Deer provincial court on March 8 to answer to charges she removed a notice posted for public information and another for contravening an order of the medical officer of health.
As for the continuation of her battle, which includes defiantly and illegally re-opening against provincial government COVID shutdown orders, Klein would not comment if her business would be open today (Jan. 14) for business.
“We are just kind of taking a day to just re-evaluate things,” she said. “I am not going to comment on that right now.
“I am all over the news. I want to kind of pull back from it a little bit. I have to speak to a constitutional lawyer at this point before I proceed with any other statements,” she added.
“I hope the public would understand…we are going to have a talk with a constitutional lawyer to see what our rights are.”
In the meantime, Alberta Health Services (AHS) issued another statement late in the afternoon of Jan. 13.
“AHS Environmental Public Health carried out a follow up inspection of the business today as part of the process that occurs when closure orders are issued,” said Heather Kipling, AHS’s communications director for Central Zone, in the written statement. “As the facility was again operating and taking client appointments, a second closure order was issued.
“AHS is considering next steps at this time, including legal action,” the statement added. “Enforcement partners such as the RCMP may also issue fines for failure to comply with current public health orders as issued by Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.”
Klein said today (Jan. 14) she did not receive a statement from AHS, other than the first one on Jan. 12, the day the barbershop first opened during the current lengthy COVID shutdown of hair salons and other small businesses that has been in force since Dec. 8.
“I only received the one on the first day (Jan. 12). That’s it. I didn’t receive anything yesterday.”
However, she confirmed the RCMP came to the barbershop and issued her the violation tickets to appear in court on March 8.
“There is no fine. All the information on the ticket is wrong, so I don’t know what this is about,” she said. “I don’t know what I am disputing. There is no relevance to this ticket at all.”
The latest development comes a day after the barbershop attempted to rebrand itself as a pet food shop as pet stores are considered an essential service by the provincial government during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Klein said on Jan. 13 she was even going to change the signage on her storefront.
