Quarantine Hotel Fight is Just Beginning, Canadian Constitution Foundation Says
March 23, 2021 Jim Byers
The Canadian Constitution Foundation is going full steam ahead with a constitutional challenge to the federal government’s quarantine hotel program.
The Ontario Superior Court on Monday dismissed the foundation’s request for an interim injunction against the program, a challenge filed only on behalf of five international travellers. But Mr. Justice Frederic Myers also stated in his opinion that “there is a serious issue to be tried on whether there might be a breach of S. (Section) 7 of the Charter.”
Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.”
“Yesterday the Ontario Superior Court dismissed our application for an interim injunction to stop the quarantine hotels from applying to some of the compassionate travelers in our case,” CCF Litigation Director, Christine Van Geyn, said in an email to Canadian Travel News. This injunction would have been a temporary measure, which could have suspended the policy only in those individual cases.”
Van Geyn notes that the injunction request was a procedural motion, and not the hearing of the merits of the constitutional question.
“It was the first step in the process, and we sought it in the event that some of the travellers we are working with need to travel between now and when the decision on the constitutional question is made. Their situations are quite urgent. They have loved ones overseas in precarious health and may need to travel at any moment.”
While Monday’s ruling wasn’t the result they wanted, Van Geyn noted that the court “did recognize that the applicants in our challenge have sympathetic stories and that the constitutional questions need to be heard on the merits. The court also acknowledged that the applicants’ section 7 Charter liberty interests are engaged by the quarantine hotel policy,”
“We are now going to be scheduling a case conference to set a date for the main hearing on the constitutional question,” Van Geyn said. “This will be the main show, which will have broader impact on all travellers. We believe that the individuals we are working with have strong cases and will experience real and concrete harm from these hotels, and we look forward to the case proceeding.”
Van Geyn said she’s not sure when that hearing will take place, but that the CCF wants it held quickly “due to the urgent nature of the needs of these travellers.”
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People are being held hostage by this government Ifyou have a safe place to quarentine like your own home you should be able too
We are returning to Toronto March 31st. We have a corporation in Costa Rica that required us to travel and attend to buisness here. We were advised by our lawyer here to come down and take care of the necessary paperwork and pay our taxes or risk losing it to the government. Now we get to pay an additional $2000-$3000 for a couple of nights in a Toronto hotel when we return, where as we could easily return home to self isolate there. Ridiculous
I am returning to Toronto from Boston. I live in detached house all by myself. Can I quaranteene myself in my own house? If you have a reliable legal answer, please let me know and or refer to a place on Goverment web site to find an answer to that question. Best reagrds and than you in advance. Diana
I’m not a lawyer, but to the best of my knowledge you MUST stay in a government approved quarantine hotel after you land. You’re supposed to arrange it for three nights while you wait for your virus test result. You might get it earlier and could perhaps leave after a day or two. But that’s not guaranteed.
We spend our winters in Mexico for health reasons. My wife and I have COPD, and my wife has arthritis
The heat here helps both those conditions. We left Canada before the travel restrictions and now the Government imposes all these costs upon us. While here we follow all the protocols we would at home and after 5 months are still healthy
Its just a money grad to help the hotels so the government doesn’t have to bail them out.
If this quarantine is going to continue then perhaps Canada should become more savvy? Why not have travellers entering the country have a tracking device or GPS?
This could be done on a phone or even a bracelet?
It is a bailout for the hotel industry at our expense. Not necessary. Why can’t they trust their own citizens to self quarantine?
If I was asked – I would fight for this country- if I trust you with my life why can’t you trust me to self quarantine?
It is my understanding that the three-day hotel stay policy was implemented to discourage non-essential travel. The current compassionate exemption policy applies to everyone regardless of nationality or residency flying to Canada to support anyone located in Canada but does not allow Canadians to assist Canadians family members abroad. The compassionate exemption policy discriminates against Canadian citizens residing in Canada who are travelling abroad for compassionate reasons who are being refused exemptions. If the case was reversed and the same Canadian was living abroad, he or she would be entitled to compassionate exemption if there family was living in Canada rather than abroad. Why is the policy not being uniformly applied to all Canadians in similar situations? Hopefully if the policy is not overturned, at the minimum the compassionate exemption policy could be applied equitably to all travellers.