When Amanda Vandenberghe opened her mailbox a few weeks ago, she was surprised to find a ticket from the city of Montreal.

It accused her ex-partner of “having thrown, deposited, or left snow,” in front of their house between February 15 and 27. 

The problem is Vandenberghe’s ex-partner has been living in Seattle since 2015.

He hasn’t been involved with any snow in Montreal since he left the country for good close to ten years ago.

 “Apparently they have pictures. Pictures of snow,” says Vandenberghe. 

“Maybe somebody has something against me? But then they didn’t even address the ticket to me,” she says. 

Her ex-partner’s name is still on the deed of the house, which they co-own. This makes her liable for the fine even if her name isn’t on the ticket.

Vandenberghe says the only snow that ever ends up in front of her house happens by accident, and comes as a natural by-product of shovelling her driveway with her two teenage sons.

“We take the snow from the driveway and we pile it up, like everyone else, in order to make enough space to drive through. Sometimes a bit of the snow from the driveway ends up near the sidewalk. We are doing it by hand,” she says. 

Vandenberghe says when she first got the $150 ticket, she experienced anxiety, which quickly turned to anger. 

“I felt like life threw a pile of bricks at me. I was dealing with COVID. I had a business that I had to shut down for two and a half months and then the city of Montreal gives me this ridiculous ticket, as if they had nothing better to do,” she says. 

Her first reaction was to try and get the ticket cancelled. 

“I called the borough mayor’s office and spoke to Sue Montgomery’s assistant, he’s very nice. He listened to me vent and swear. He told me he had never heard of anyone getting a ticket such as this,” she says. 

He referred Vandenberghe to the city of Montreal ombudsman. Vandenberghe sent the ombudsman an email pointing out that her ex-partner could not possibly have illegally manipulated the snow in front of her house all the way from Seattle. 

But the ombudsman told her there was nothing he could do. He said his office has no power over the city of Montreal fines. 

“If it’s not to stand up for citizens when the city is in the wrong, then what is their job? What is their role?” says Vandenberghe. 

From the ombudsman’s office, Vandenberghe says she was tossed around to about five different civil servants at the borough level, the city level and within the city of Montreal court system. Everyone she spoke with reached the same conclusion, that she had no choice but to contest the ticket.

“They were all trying to save face. No one could take responsibility and say it was a mistake. They can’t admit wrongdoing,” she says. 

 Vandenberghe says she doesn’t have time to contest the ticket. 

“I am refusing to do it because it’s just going to give me a court date. I have to be at my store. I can’t afford that. I am raising two kids, two cats and a dog alone and trying to maintain a house. And shovelling all this snow by hand. I am not conceding. I am not appearing in court. I am not wasting my day with this,” she says. 

But Bernard Levy-Soussan, a criminal lawyer and the founding partner of Ticket 911 says Vandenberghe has no choice. She has to contest the ticket. 

“If she doesn’t contest, she can get a judgement by default. We see things like this  often when the fine is very little, the person says, ‘I’m not guilty so I’m not going to court’ then it becomes a big problem.” 

“It’s a very clear-cut case to win. The ticket is issued under [Vandenberghe’s ex-partner’s] name. But once a ticket is issued under his name, the judgement is rendered against him. They can make a seizure and come to the house with a bailiff and take items such as a computer because he’s the co-owner of the house,” he says. 

Levy-Soussan says has seen fines for things such as garbage being put out on the wrong day. But snow shovelling, “not so much.” 

“What makes it ridiculous here is the length of time,” he says. He adds that the city has up to a year to issue a ticket, but they normally issue them a week or two after an infraction. 

He says the only thing for Vandenberghe to do at this point is to plead not guilty and send in a request to see a copy of the evidence. 

After hearing Levy-Sousson’s advice, Vandenberghe says she’ll have her ex-partner write a letter from Seattle asking to see proof that he was in Montreal throwing snow on the sidewalk in February. 

Although it’s been a few weeks now, Vandenberghe is still pretty angry about the ticket. 

“It feels like a cash grab. It feels crooked, almost like a mafia thing,” she says.

She also wonders if she received the ticket because a particular city snow cleaner has it in for her. 

“One time this guy came barreling down the street. I pointed at him not to deposit the snow he had just cleared in front of my driveway, and he just looked at me, laughed and flipped me the bird and then just kept going really fast. He had no right to be so rude. I’m sorry, but the city of Montreal works for us, not the other way around,” she says.

The ticket has and will continue to waste a lot of her time, but it’s the absurdity of it all that bothers Vandenberghe the most.

“The ticket says, ‘there is reason to believe’ snow was shovelled unto city property, but there is reason to believe there is a tooth fairy too,” she says.