The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to assess the constitutionality of a COVID-19 pandemic-related restriction that restricted travel for public health reasons.
The country’s highest court has agreed to hear arguments over a 2020 order from Newfoundland and Labrador’s chief medical health officer that limited the circumstances in which non-residents were allowed to enter that province.
Kimberley Taylor, a resident of neighboring Nova Scotia, went to court when she was denied an exemption to attend her mother’s funeral in Newfoundland four years ago.
The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador later ruled that the public health law underlying the order fell within provincial jurisdiction as a valid public health measure.
The court accepted that this order violated Ms.me Taylor to travel anywhere in Canada. But the judge considered that the circumstances of the pandemic justified the violation of this right “in the context of a free and democratic society”, according to article 1 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The province’s Court of Appeal refused to hear an appeal and a cross-appeal, on the grounds that they were moot because the travel restrictions were no longer in effect at the time.
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