Ontario concedes that Hillier’s freedom of assembly was violated, but claims it was done in a manner that can be justified under the Charter.
Ryan Cookson, counsel for Ontario, said that the laws under which Hiller was charged “were part of a series of interconnected public health measures designed to combat the spread of COVID-19 during the most serious and dangerous phase of the pandemic in Ontario.”
Hillier’s counsel Sayeh Hassan said he accepts there was a pressing objective to the law, and that this was to reduce transmission and hospitalization. But the Charter also requires the government’s violation of a Charter freedom to be rationally connected to this goal in a way that only minimally impairs the freedom. Hillier’s position is that neither of these requirements were met.
To do so would get Hillier off the hook for his provincial offences, and his lawyer Parmar argued it would also contribute to the underdeveloped jurisprudence on freedom of assembly, which too often gets swallowed up by the more high-profile freedoms of expression or religion.Article content Ontario’s top court found in March that the churches’ case “engaged the limits of institutional pluralism, balancing the accommodation of religious freedom with achieving Ontario’s objective of reducing the spread of COVID-19. This balance led to policies which satisfied neither goal completely.” The religious institutions “were affected, but no more than was reasonably necessary and for no longer than was reasonably required.
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