Montreal advocates call attention to curfew s impact on migrant workers mcgilltribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mcgilltribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Following the death of “Napa” Raphael André, an unhoused individual who froze to death on Jan. 16, Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Masse ordered on Jan. 26. that unhoused populations be exempt from the province-wide curfew. In Justice Masse’s decision, which came after much public outcry, she stated that the province-wide curfew is discriminatory towards the unhoused.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault introduced the curfew, which is currently in effect between the hours 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., as a measure to control a record number of COVID-19 cases in the province. After he ordered the curfew, many individuals online were quick to raise their concerns about how this policy would affect the unhoused.
The rule violated âthe right to life, liberty and security protected by the Canadian and Quebec charters (of rights and freedoms),â Masse wrote. âFor objective reasons,â she trenchantly noted, many homeless Montrealers fear contracting COVID-19 in the cityâs shelters, âwhich are crowded in this winter period and have been the site of outbreaks.â Homeless people are likely to hide from curfew-enforcing police, and thereby be placed at greater risk of terrible injury or death, she argued â and for no goddamn good reason, I might add.
Indeed, rights and freedoms aside, forcefully rounding up people sleeping in Montrealâs bleak nighttime winterscape and shutting them up in warm shelters is thunderingly moronic anti-pandemic policy. It would make far more sense to buy and distribute proper winter-camping equipment to them.
Quebec exempts homeless from cruel curfew after court rules order endangered safety - Canada News castanet.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from castanet.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The premier previously refused to allow exemptions after a man was found dead in Montreal. The Canadian Press
01/27/2021 12:34pm EST
MONTREAL The Quebec government said Wednesday it will not challenge a temporary court order granted Tuesday that exempts the homeless from a provincewide curfew imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Lionel Carmant, Quebec’s junior health minister, said in a tweet that the government will modify its curfew decree to ensure those without shelter will not be subject to the measure.
“We are aware of the ruling last night and do not intend to challenge it,” he wrote. “Since the start of the curfew, our desire has been for people experiencing homelessness to be guided to the right resources and not to judicialize them.”