Unprecedented decision – deliberately coughing at someone is a criminal assault

Threatening physical harm or violence however is a crime. When you threaten to or perform an act of physical violence, the victim can file assault or battery charges against you. Coughing on someone with intentional malice as a threat is assault, that's just common sense. It always has been to some degree, but now that you could conceivably kill a person and their entire group of friends and family with a cough, it carries a bit more weight.

Unprecedented decisions are made all the time. It's how law moves forward. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Ending slavery was unprecedented. You can make a lot of things so outrageous if you use the right words

The short description of the incident in the article makes it sound like he removed mask to catch breath and happened to cough. People must be on their toes in Canada if that's true.

How do you distinguish deliberate coughing from uncontrollable cough?

It is precedented in the US

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/california-law-hiv-tr...

Although that is intentionally infection of HIV, not just a cough.

> Lamoureux focused on whether the gesture fit into the Criminal Code’s definition of assault as an act where someone “applies force” without another person’s consent. Advertisement Article content

> “Air pressure is a force at the molecular level in the same manner as physical force visible to the naked eye. This is basic science, uncontroverted, and not requiring any expert opinion,” wrote the judge. “Accordingly, when Mr. Pruden engaged in an intentional act of coughing, he was emitting a force consisting of lung air molecules into the atmosphere.”

Then breathing at someone is also assault, even when not in a pandemic. As is quickly walking past someone, since that disturbs the air molecules enough to emit a force on passers-by.