Quebec COVID curfew violated Charter rights, but court upholds it anyway
Quebec remained the only province to impose a province-wide COVID curfew, issuing roughly 22,500 curfew tickets worth an estimated $30 million in fines.
Quebec’s COVID curfew violated Charter rights, but the government still won in court.
In a ruling released more than 15 months after arguments wrapped up, the Superior Court of Québec upheld the province’s controversial pandemic curfew despite finding it infringed Charter rights to liberty, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
The court dismissed Stéphanie Pépin’s appeal after she was fined in January 2021 while driving to a peaceful protest against the newly imposed nighttime curfew. Backed by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, Pépin argued the measure was unconstitutional, but the court ruled the Charter violations were justified during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Quebec was the only province in Canada to impose a province-wide COVID curfew.
