Woman sentenced to 18 months probation for deliberately coughing on grocery store worker at start of pandemic

UPDATE Feb. 9, 2024: A B.C. Supreme Court judge overturned both of Woolman's convictions, ruling she should have been allowed a character witness in her 2022 trial. Read updated coverage here.

A woman who intentionally coughed on a front-line grocery store worker at the beginning of the pandemic has been sentenced to 18 months probation. The judge said her behaviour displayed an "astounding level of selfishness."

In April 2023, Kimberly Brenda Woolman was found guilty of assaulting two Save-On-Foods employees in Campbell River, B.C., and causing a disturbance at the store.

The judge, who reviewed video footage of the incident and heard witness testimony, ruled Woolman was guilty of assault based on public health concerns that respiratory droplets carried the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The judge also concluded that Woolman's cough was deliberate and intentional and, under the Criminal Code of Canada, considered assault. 

The incidents happened on April 24, 2020, shortly after B.C.'s public health officer had put a physical distancing order in place, which meant that anyone working at or shopping in a store had to maintain six feet of distance from others.

The July 19 sentencing, which took place in a Campbell River courtroom, orders Woolman to "keep the peace and maintain good behaviour" and not be in contact with the employee she coughed on or go anywhere near the employee's home or workplace. Woolman is also barred from shopping at the city's Save-On-Foods.

Crown counsel had asked that Woolman be fined $1,000, but Judge Barbara Flewelling declined to fine her, writing that Woolman has a limited income and would be unable to pay.

The judge noted that Woolman has no prior criminal record but said that the public health order was "far from an onerous law to follow."

"Her actions were intentional, and her moral blameworthiness is high," Flewelling wrote.

Anti-COVID tirade

According to court documents, when Woolman went shopping at Save-On-Foods in 2020, she refused to follow the store's policies which asked people to maintain six feet of distance.

Staff members asked Woolman to leave the store, but she refused and yelled that she thought COVID-19 was fake. The judge wrote that staff were able to move her towards the exit but that at one point, Woolman stopped abruptly, turned toward an employee who was about three feet away from her, leaned toward her, and "forcibly coughed" twice in her direction.

According to the documents, when staff finally got her near the exit, she refused to let go of her grocery cart, which was full of unpaid items. Another employee attempted to block her by standing in front of the cart and holding onto it, but she "forcibly pushed" the cart into him and "rocked it back and forth" to try to break his grasp. 

Woolman was found guilty of assaulting both employees.

"It would have been very simple and easy for her to have simply complied with the reasonable and lawful request to adhere to social distancing," Flewelling wrote in her sentencing decision.

"Instead, she embarked on a tirade about her belief that COVID-19 was not real and was fake."

Front-line workers at risk in early days, judge says

In the sentencing document, the judge described Woolman as "aggressive and rude" both in court and on the day of the incidents.

The gravity of the COVID-19 pandemic and the health risk that front-line workers faced in service to their communities influenced the judge's sentencing decision.

"The streets were empty, and many employees and professionals who were able to work remotely from their homes did so … except the front-line workers who worked in businesses or professions that were classified as essential services," she wrote.

"Those front-line workers were the people that Ms. Woolman derided and assaulted on April 24, 2020."

The judge noted that Woolman's actions happened when people were dying from the COVID-19 virus, and there were no vaccines or medications. Front-line workers, she wrote, like those at Save-On-Foods, were exposed to the public and faced the greatest risk of catching the virus.