Legal groups eye courts to roll back restrictions

As lockdown provisions continue across Canada, at least two legal advocacy groups are mulling over the possibility of heading to the courts to force provincial governments to roll back some of the more draconian rules that are in place to fight against COVID19.

In particular, New Brunswick’s travel ban and Alberta’s measures allowing health data to be given to police, in some circumstances, have raised the ire of legal groups.

“We’re considering considering it,” said Joanna Baron, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, the same outfit that tried to tackle New Brunswick’s cross-border beer ban, when reached by the Post on Saturday and asked about the travel ban.

“It is a pretty clear-cut constitutional violation.”

New Brunswick — along with other jurisdictions, including Nunavut and Quebec — has a strict ban on travel in and out of the province. Blaine Higgs, New Brunswick’s premier, and health officials in Nunavut, have been explicit in their belief strict travel provisions have shielded many citizens from the outbreak.

IT IS A PRETTY CLEAR-CUT CONSTITUTIONAL VIOLATION

The Canadian Constitution Foundation is not moving forward with a challenge of New Brunswick’s ban at the precise moment, Baron clarified, because even taking a challenge to the courts is a complicated procedure during the pandemic. At this point, she’s on more of a fact-finding mission.

“Courts aren’t open,” she said.

Elsewhere, in Alberta, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, has taken issue with a government diktat that allows health authorities to hand over COVID19 health information if a person intentionally coughs or sneezes on a police officer. The group says it’s considering legal action.

“Individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding their personal medical information, including and especially the results of laboratory tests,” said

JCCF lawyer Jay Cameron in a news release. “The existence of a declared public health emergency does not suspend the protections of the Charter.”