MONTREAL, QC: The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that lawyers funded by us will ask the Quebec Court of Appeal today for permission to appeal a ruling that upheld Quebec’s Covid curfew. Constitutional lawyer Olivier Séguin represents Stéphanie Pépin, who received a ticket while travelling to a peaceful protest on the first evening of the curfew in January 2021.
The hearing will determine whether the appeal can proceed. The judge may reserve that decision until a later date.
Quebec’s government maintained that the curfew was necessary to reduce social contacts and limit the spread of Covid. It argued that the restrictions were justified by the public health emergency.
The proposed appeal challenges whether Quebec’s Public Health Act gave the government the power to restrict constitutional freedoms partly to discipline the public and encourage compliance with other health measures.
“Emergency powers are not a blank cheque,” said Mr. Séguin when the application for permission to appeal was filed. “If the government invokes public health legislation to restrict Charter freedoms, it must act within the powers that legislation gives it. That is the fundamental issue we are asking the Court of Appeal to address.”
Quebec first imposed its Covid curfew on January 9, 2021, prohibiting residents from leaving their homes between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., subject to specified exceptions. Quebec was the only Canadian jurisdiction to impose a curfew during the pandemic.
With assistance from lawyers funded by the Justice Centre, Ms. Pépin challenged the curfew as an unjustified infringement of her constitutional freedoms.
During the four-day constitutional hearing in September 2023, Mr. Séguin cross-examined Dr. Horacio Arruda, Quebec’s National Director of Public Health during the pandemic, and Dr. Richard Massé, his strategic medical advisor. The evidence included testimony that the curfew was intended partly to reinforce compliance with other public health measures and send a clear message to Quebecers.
The trial court dismissed Ms. Pépin’s constitutional challenge on January 30, 2024. On July 29, 2026, the Superior Court of Québec dismissed her appeal. Although the Superior Court recognized that the curfew infringed her rights to liberty (section 7), freedom of expression (section 2(b)), and freedom of peaceful assembly (section 2(c)) under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it concluded that those infringements were justified under section 1 of the Charter.
The Justice Centre is Canada’s leading civil liberties organization defending Charter rights and freedoms in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion. Founded in 2010, the Justice Centre funds lawyers across Canada, relies entirely on voluntary donations to carry out its mission, and issues official tax receipts to donors.
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