04-23-2021
Ontario Premier Doug Ford. (Screenshot credit: Toronto Star/YouTube)
Through tears, Ontario Premier Doug Ford admitted Thursday his government’s recently imposed draconian lockdown measures “went too far.”
“Last Friday, in response to extremely troubling modeling that told us we could see well over 15,000 cases a day, we moved fast to put these measures in place to reduce mobility, but we moved too fast,” Ford told reporters. “And I know that some of those measures especially around enforcement they went too far.” As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.
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Retirees Michelle and Rich Hamilton (not their real names) have endured what they call “abuse and harassment” since returning to Canada via the Thousand Islands crossing last week.
Reached while in quarantine in her Ottawa home, Michelle said her problems started when they turned up the border after two days on the road and her negative PCR COVID test taken in Bradenton, Fla. hadn’t been posted online (her husband’s test results had been posted).
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Ontario Pandemic Stay-at-Home Order Clashes With Charter Rights: Lawyers
After pushback from police and civil liberties advocates over extending police powers to enforce enhanced COVID-19 measures, the Ontario government walked back some of its new guidelines.
However, there are still constitutional issues with the current policy, says Joanna Baron, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
“A police officer now must have ‘reason to suspect’ an individual may be participating in a gathering, and that it is ‘in the public interest’ to question them,” Baron said in an interview.
“This raises the spectre of the right to silence (Section 7 of the Charter) and the right against self-incrimination (Section 13). Both ‘reasonable suspicion’ and ‘public interest’ are extremely broad, subjective categories, and the law essentially imposes an onus to disclose your purpose for being out.”
Courts to hear churches constitutional challenge of Manitoba public health orders May 3 thompsoncitizen.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thompsoncitizen.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Pastor James Coates of GraceLife Church in Edmonton, Alberta, speaks to the Canadian news outlet Rebel News on March 29, 2021. | YouTube/Rebel News
A Canadian court ruled earlier this week that the government of Alberta will not be required to show scientific evidence backing up its COVID-19 restrictions during the upcoming trial of Pastor James Coates, who was arrested and jailed for holding in-person worship gatherings.Â
Alberta will not be required to produce scientific evidence supporting the orders of Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health for the province, during the May 3 trial of Coates from GraceLife Church in Edmond, the Provincial Court in Stony Plain has ruled. The court added that the challenge to the constitutionality and legality of those orders will be heard at an unknown later date, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said in a statement released Friday.