April 2021

B.C.’s Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General has announced a legal order to restrict travel of people outside their own health regions.

“We need to work together to get through the coming weeks. For now, we have to hunker down and stay local,” Minister Mike Farnworth said at a Friday press conference.

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Kyla Lee, a Vancouver-based defence lawyer specializing in driving and traffic stops, says the government should immediately provide clarification on the documentation that would be required, and the permissible scope of questioning that police are going to have.

“How far can (police) go, or are there going to be limits?” she told the Star.

Read the full story here.

Details of B.C.’s new plans to restrict travel within the province won’t be announced until Friday, but lawyers are already predicting that it will spell trouble.

The new order will give police the power to conduct COVID-19 road blocks aimed at curbing travel between health regions, and civil rights and criminal lawyers are saying that aspects of it are likely to be challenged in court.

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Lee expects she will hear from British Columbians who are issued fines for crossing health region boundaries.

“Everybody who is getting a ticket for this I think will seriously consider fighting it, and I think a lot of people will.”

Watch the full news story here.

B.C. Premier John Horgan on Monday announced sweeping new travel restrictions that prohibit people from travelling outside their health authority to stop the spread of COVID-19.

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Vancouver lawyer Kyla Lee said police would have the power to question people on where they are going, creating an obligation for people to answer.

“That raises important questions about your right to silence,” Lee said.

“If you are compelled to provide information to police, in an accident for example, under our system of law those statements that you make can’t be used as evidence against you.

Read the full story here.