$2,900 fine against Montreal record store dropped less than 24 hours before court date

Phonopolis’s Jordan Robson Cramer has confirmed that the $2,900 fine against the Montreal record store was finally dropped this week, less than 24 hours before the case was due to go to court. The same fine was issued to Phonopolis, la Rama, Sonorama and Death of Vinyl by Quebec’s Ministry of Economy of Innovation in April of 2019 following a tour of the shops by an inspector on Record Store Day.

“Finally! It was really down to the wire and the prosecutor told us we were still going to have to go to court less than 24 hours before the time they gave, despite the fines already having been dropped for Death of Vinyl and la Rama. I refused and then CC’d the other prosecutors who had dropped the charges for the other two stores. It was one big giant game of chicken and it’s pretty astounding all the tactics and pressure that the provincial government went to try and scare us all into paying the fines.

“We tried contacting our prosecutor twice for a month leading up to our court date and they never got back to us. I believe that this is a deliberate tactic they often do to discourage people from being able to take matters into their own hands. A large portion of this system exists only to penalize, not to help.”

Cramer confirms that Sonorama is the only Montreal record store still fighting the fine. Their court date is scheduled for September.

---

For the latest news updates, please visit the News section.