Who would have thought that before the pandemic started at the end of 2019 we were going to experience a great upheaval with regard to our fundamental freedoms?
Freedom of movement is a right enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Currently in order to counter the spread of the virus we are allowing this right to be limited. Indeed, Dr. Mylène Droin, Montreal’s director of Public Health, recalled the rules that have been in effect since March 27, 2020 and which allow the police to give tickets. The fines vary between $ 1,000 and $ 6,000 for offenders who do not comply with the 2 meter social distancing and non-gathering in public places instructions. In the case of non-essential businesses that continue to open their doors, the fines are from $ 3,000 to $ 5,000. Moreover, today on April 2, 2020, in his daily press briefing in Quebec, Premier François Legault warned Quebecers that the police had been instructed to issue tickets to those who violate the rules.
In order to control the spread of COVID-19, South Korea is using data from surveillance cameras, cell phones and credit card transactions to map the social ties of people they suspect have the virus. In Hong Kong, the names of those infected are not released, but health officials disclose each person’s age, gender, street address, medical symptoms and even the location of where the person works. The purpose of these measures is to allow other residents to determine whether they may have been in contact with the infected individual. Obviously, this is a big violation of the right to privacy.
We must control the virus to save lives, but to what extent will we accept serious violations of our fundamental rights to do so? If we accept these violations, how can we go back?
In the current situation, people are so afraid that they are willing to give up some of their fundamental rights that were so difficult to obtain. However, can we afford to live as in the famous film The Matrix or under the influence of “big brother” as in the famous 1984 book by George Orwell?
The reduction of liberty is a major issue presently, but must under no circumstances allow the state to establish a regime of surveillance in our private lives and of the destruction of our fundamental rights set out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Lawyers will have to be extremely vigilant in order to ensure that the current situation does not allow governments to justify the continuity of these constitutional violations.
– Me Jean Dury and Me Samantha Di Done
