Supreme Court denies churches’ bid to appeal lockdowns

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This article was published 15/03/2024 (825 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canada’s highest court declined to hear an appeal of Manitoba’s lockdown restrictions brought by a group of churches, including one from Brandon.

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the application on Thursday, bringing an end to the Manitoba churches’ legal challenge of the province’s pandemic restrictions.

The Bible Baptist Church — on Fourth Street in Brandon — was named, along with a minister, a deacon and a restrictions protester, in a leave to appeal application that was filed last September requesting the court grant an appeal of their case.

“Our clients are disappointed in the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear their appeal,” Allison Pejovic, the lawyer representing the group, stated in a Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms press release.

“It was past time to have a conversation with Canada’s highest court about whether Charter-protected rights such as rights to worship and assemble ought to be prioritized over economic interests, such as ensuring that the Winnipeg Jets could practise indoors and that movie productions could continue,” Pejovic said.

The application argued that public health orders unreasonably infringed on the group’s Charter right to religious worship, claiming that some groups and businesses were permitted to remain operating while the province closed churches.

A caretaker for the Bible Baptist Church confirmed that the Brandon church was part of the application to the Supreme Court. The four other churches named in the lawsuit are Gateway Bible Baptist Church (Thompson), Pembina Valley Baptist Church (Winkler), Grace Covenant Church (Altona) and Slavic Baptist Church (Morden).

The case was first heard in May 2021 in Manitoba Court of King’s Bench, where the churches argued that public health orders in 2020 and 2021 that temporarily closed in-person religious services and later reopened them with caps on attendance violated their Charter rights.

Chief Justice Glenn Joyal ruled that while the public health orders did restrict the Charter rights of freedom of religion and freedom of peaceful assembly, they were constitutionally justifiable limits as a pandemic response based on scientific evidence.

The churches appealed Joyal’s decision on multiple grounds, including that sections of the Public Health Act were unconstitutional, the restrictions were not constitutionally justifiable, and that the public health orders did not comply with the Public Health Act.

Last June, the Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal on all grounds and upheld Joyal’s ruling, asserting that the COVID-19 public health orders placing restrictions on in-person church services were constitutional.

The Supreme Court of Canada is the final court of appeal and only agrees to hear cases that are of national importance or that pertain to unsettled areas of law.

If it does not agree to hear a case, the decision of the court of appeal stands.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

» X: @geena_mortfield