Case information

Civil procedure — Motion to dismiss judicial review — Theoretical question — Discretion — Whether applicants’ application for judicial review was moot — If so, whether court was justified in not exercising its discretion to allow application for judicial review to proceed to trial on merits — Whether judgments of Superior Court and Court of Appeal of Quebec violate following fundamental legal principles of Canadian constitutional architecture: (1) performance of role of courts as guardians of citizens’ fundamental and constitutional rights and freedoms; (2) performance of role of courts in reviewing legality of decisions of executive branch; (3) rule of law; and (4) right to be heard — Whether leave to appeal should be granted in view of exceptional circumstances surrounding COVID 19 pandemic, historic significance of that event and magnitude of alleged infringements of Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Charter of human rights and freedoms — Code of Civil Procedure, CQLR, c. C 25.01, arts. 10, 51.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

In April 2021, the applicants, Lily Monier, Stéphane Blais, Richard Girgis, Denis Larrivée and Sonia Grewal, filed an application for judicial review to obtain a declaration that would, in general terms, deny that COVID 19 was a threat to public health, in order to have the various orders in council, ministerial orders and other measures adopted on the basis of the existence of a public health situation within the meaning of s. 118 of the Public Health Act, CQLR, c. S 2.2, declared null and of no force or effect because they infringed the rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Charter of human rights and freedoms, CQLR, c. C 21. The applicants also asked the court to order the respondent the Attorney General of Quebec to take reasonable steps to ensure that all citizens who had been issued a citation by a peace officer in connection with the public health measures and who had paid a fine were reimbursed. In the alternative, if the court found that the public health emergency was justified under s. 118 of the Public Health Act, the applicants argued that the measures taken were unjustified or disproportionate. They therefore asked that the COVID 19 measures ordered by the government under that section be declared unconstitutional. In response, the respondent the Attorney General of Quebec filed a motion to dismiss the application under art. 51 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The Superior Court allowed the application to dismiss filed by the Attorney General of Quebec and correspondingly dismissed the applicants’ re amended application for judicial review and for a declaratory judgment. The Court of Appeal dismissed the application for leave to appeal.