REGINA – The gloves are off and constitutional lawyers are taking their fight against the province's 10-person limit on outdoor protests during COVID-19 to Saskatchewan's highest court.
Lawyers from Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms filed a notice of appeal with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on Oct. 20. This comes after Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench upheld $2,800 tickets last month for anti-lockdown protesters Jasmin Grandel and Darrel Mills. The lower court agreed that the 10-person limit on outdoor protests violated freedom of expression but ruled that it was justified.
Grandel and Mills had attended a peaceful outdoor protest at Vimy Memorial in Saskatoon’s Kiwanis Park on Dec. 19, 2020. Those at the protest exceeded the province’s 10-person outdoor gathering limit in place since COVID-19.
Andre Memauri, one of the lawyers representing Grandel and Mills, seeks to overturn the lower court’s findings that the outdoor gathering restrictions were justified. Other grounds for the appeal include the court’s collective treatment of distinct Charter rights, the irrationality of imposing greater gathering restrictions on outdoor than on indoor gatherings, the finding that the restrictions were “minimally impairing to people’s rights,” and the level of deference given to government decisions.
“There was clear expert evidence in this case that outdoor transmission of Covid-19 is negligible, and Dr. Shahab had even encouraged Saskatchewan residents to go outside,” said Memauri.
“To impose greater restrictions outdoors than indoors, and to undermine the Rule of Law with regard to these types of heavy-handed restrictions, is unwarranted and concerning.”
Memauri said that the lower court refused to independently consider the Charter freedoms of peaceful assembly and association.
"The Charter rights of Canadians to express themselves, to assemble, and to associate are each distinct rights from each other. They are each fundamental rights of our democracy that require cautious examination before their breach can simply be justified collectively.
"It’s important to appreciate that many lost their lives for the existence of these rights and that they should not be easily discarded or selectively available based on the ideology behind their exercise," he added.
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