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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