On April 15, GSL Director Steven Hoffman was featured in an article in Canadian Lawyer Magazine discussing the possibility of a legal challenge against the Canadian government’s COVID-19 measures. While the government can use the Quarantine Act to implement restrictions, they have to inflict the smallest possible impact on rights guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In the article, Hoffman explains that the Quarantine Act is currently being used to prevent any Canadian citizen or permanent resident who shows COVID-19 symptoms from boarding a plane destined for Canada. Going forward, he says, “there’s going to be at least one Canadian who is barred from boarding a plane, who’s not going to be happy with it and is likely to challenge that order,” Hoffman says, “and it’ll be interesting for what the courts end up saying.
He was further quoted saying: “These are extraordinary times that require an extraordinary response. The government will have to show that in order for it to protect the health of Canadians, there wasn’t an alternative way that was less impairing of those travellers’ rights, other than not allowing them to board a flight destined for Canada.” However, he also posits that in times of emergency, the courts tend to side with the government
Read the full article here.
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