Canada:Curfews violate freedom of movement

[Brendan Perez]

Nice to see.
From The Gazette 07/14/04.

'The Quebec Human Rights Commission declared yesterday that a curfew proposed by the town of Huntingdon contravenes the province's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In its statement, the commission said it decided unanimously that the proposed curfew for minors in the border town violated freedom of movement and of peaceful assembly guaranteed by the charter.'
===SNIP===
'A spokesperson for the Surete told The Gazette earlier that Huntingdon does not have more acts of mischief than other parts of the region.

"Where you have youth, you have a certain level of criminality," Ronald McInnis said.

His words echo those of Chenail, who accused the mayor of exaggerating the town's record of youth crime and, thus, tarnishing its reputation.

While the commission recognizes that cities can adopt measures to ensure the peace, no measure can contradict the laws of Quebec, Canada and the charter.

Other towns with high youth crime, such as nearby Ormstown, or Red Deer in Alberta, reported a decrease in vandalism after building skate parks for teenagers.'

[This message has been edited by Brendan Perez (edited July 18, 2004).]

[Euripus]

Where you have PEOPLE you have criminality, schmuck!

[Yasha]

hmm.. can anyone find the full transcript of the court ruling?

it would be a good resource to add the the nyra curfew page.

[evilsaltine]

http://www.cdpdj.qc.ca/fr/accueil.as...noeud2=0&cle=0 it's in french though..
translated with worldlingo.. er

this isn't the full transcript i've tried to translate that but it won't let me copy and paste from the PDF and I don't know French...

THE COMMISSION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PERSON AND THE RIGHTS OF YOUTH
QUESTIONS THE LEGALITY OF THE MUNICIPAL CURFEW IMPOSED TO THE
MINORS

Montreal, July 13, 2004 - the Commission of the rights of the person and the
rights of youth thinks that a local by-law instituting a curfew on its
territory would undermine the exercise of the fundamental freedoms
recognized in the Charter, in particular the freedom of circulation and peaceful right to meet.

Joined together at an extraordinary sitting, the Members of the Commission unanimously adopted an opinion on the
imposition of a curfew for the minors in a municipality. This opinion was prepared by keeping in mind the responsibility which
falls on the Commission, according to article 71 of the Charter of the rights and freedom of
the person, to ensure, by all adapted measures, the promotion and the respect of principles which are stated there. The Commission wanted to hold account of the caused interest, in the whole of Quebec, by the question of curfews, and wished to give to its opinion a general range, preventive and educational.

Under the terms of the Loi sur les cités et villes, a town council can adopt a Regulation allowing him to ensure peace, the order, the good government and general wellbeing. However, this Regulation cannot be against the laws of Quebec or Canada. It cannot also be incompatible with some provision of the Charter. In particular, the Charter recognizes in article 10 the right to the equality without
discrimination based on the age.

When a local by-law contains a distinction based on the age and that
this distinction causes to destroy or compromise the right to the
equality in the exercise of a right or a freedom of the person, one cannot claim, under the terms of the Charter, that there is discrimination. Indeed, acting of a measure provided for by the law, within the meaning of the Charter, discrimination is not prohibited.

However, this Regulation could be discriminatory under the terms of the
Canadian Charter of the rights and freedoms. In this case, a test of justification based on rationality and the proportionality
will have then to be implemented. In order to determine in which circumstances a law which undermines
freedoms and basic rights can be justified, the courts worked out criteria based on the rational bond between the
adopted measure and the had aim. The adopted measure must be also proportional to the aim had in order
to carry the least possible attack to the rights and freedoms.

The Commission estimates that a local by-law imposing a curfew to
minors restricts fundamental freedoms of those and that this attack
with their rights would not meet the criteria of justifications of
article 9.1 of the Charter of the rights and freedom of the person.

The Commission is thus convinced that the Regulation of the
municipality of Huntingdon could be disputed on this basis.

The opinion of the Commission was forwarded to Mr Stephan Gendron, mayor of Huntingdon, like with the city council men of the City. The Commission also forwarded a copy of it to the Minister for the
municipal Affairs, Sport and Leisure, with the Minister for public Safety, with the Québécois Federation of the Municipalities thus, that with the Union of the municipalities of Quebec.

[This message has been edited by evilsaltine (edited July 18, 2004).]

[Yasha]

maybe we can get some of our french speaking members to translate it in full...

[Euripus]

Jess?

[MJB_919]

I never knew there were curfews in Canada.

[OmegaWolf747]

In some place there are. The cops usually just tell the kids to move on, rather than arrest them.

------------------
Rights are for all citizens, not just those who can vote.
Keep YOUR laws out of MY life!
That custom title is a lie. I'm quite lame.

[colonel]

If there are any curfews, I believe there are far less than in the United States. Either way, the province of Quebec - one of Canada's largest, is affected positively by this ruling which rightly rules that curfews go against young people's human rights. That is good news.

Colonel John Doe
Commanding Officer, the Cameron Highlanders Militia for Freedom and Democracy

[kerplunk]

just skimmed through this..being a canadian and all, and seeing that Huntingdon would be a 5 hour hop along the 401 away from me in toronto, I have to comment.

when you have youth, you don't neccessarily have criminality.
when you have bored youth insanely frustrated with their boring redneck town, yes, you may have that small tendency..

before they interfere with mobility rights, the town should organize productive and enjoyable things to do! I read that article in the star, and they interviewed a bunch of young people from Huntingdon. They all gave variations on a similar theme. boredom.

to whoever wanted a translation, I'm a francophone and would be happy to help

[Yasha]

That'd be great. Can you post a translation here?

[kerplunk]

sure..uh
which thing specifically? the whole text on the page or just a particular segment?

[M29]

I thought that only US cities imposed curfews.

[OmegaWolf747]

Oh no, they have them in Canada too. They're just not as rigorously enforced.