Court Refuses to Order Government to Lift COVID-19 Emergency Measures

Three citizens claiming that there’s no decisive evidence to prove that COVID-19 poses a serious health and safety threat pose asked the court to order the Qu‚bec government to lift the public health emergency and face covering order and refrain from adopting any other restrictions. The Superior Court declined. Courts are generally reluctant to grant a ‘stay’ and will do so only if the evidence shows that the stay is necessary to prevent ‘irreparable harm.’ The citizens in this case failed to meet their burden of proving that the population of the province would suffer such harm if the COVID-19 emergency orders remained in effect [Platania v. Attorney General of Quebec, 2021 QCCS 3627 (CanLII), September 3, 2021].