Curfew Penalty: Activities for about twenty Hasidic Jews were halted

About two dozen members of Montreal’s Hasidic community will not have to pay tickets they received for not following a curfew during the pandemic because of unreasonable delays in court.

The latter wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the Quebec government-imposed curfew in court, saying it violated “their religious freedom and their right to liberty.”

22 members of the community, represented by M^e Jessy Heroux received these tickets in 2021 and 2022, while Quebec imposed a curfew from 8 p.m.

At that time the Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec went to court so that its members could escape the curfew, because the third prayer must be held no later than 2:30 p.m. after sunset. However, their request was rejected.

After receiving the infringement notices, the members moved the court to quash them. Because of the Jordan ruling, these types of cases must be heard within 18 months.

However, between 23 and 32 months were scheduled last April between the start of prosecutions initiated by the Director of Criminal and Penal Cases and the dates for unconstitutional cases and motions.

In all, 23 files had to be compiled together, all with the help of a Yiddish-French translator, which “complicated a file that was initially simple,” said Justice of the Peace Johan White. In his decision handed down this week in a Montreal court.

Labor shortage in Montreal

Trials for offenses under the Public Health Act must be held before justices of the peace. The latter, of which there are only eight in Montreal, must hear thousands of cases each year in areas as diverse as occupational health and safety, environmental protection and road safety.

No judge was assigned to hear the hundreds of additional cases created by the various findings published in connection with the pandemic, Judge White emphasized.

“It is not entirely wrong for the counsel for the applicants to assert that the legislator has created new offenses in public health matters without allocating sufficient resources to process these files,” he clarified. .