To Skirt COVID Curfew, She Put Partner on Leash

Effort was unsuccessful—and, ultimately, expensive
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 12, 2021 11:53 AM CST
Updated Jan 16, 2021 2:40 PM CST
To Skirt COVID Curfew, She Put Partner on Leash
Quebec City's Sous-le-Fort street is deserted as a curfew begins in the province of Quebec to counter the spread of COVID-19 on Saturday.   (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press via AP)

Quebec police issued 750 tickets over the weekend as an 8pm curfew, the first of its kind in Canada, went into effect. Two of those tickets went to a couple who got creative in trying to skirt the new coronavirus restriction. As residents are allowed to be out on the streets after 8pm to walk their dogs provided they stay close to home, police say a 24-year-old woman claimed she was doing just that. She even had a leash. But that leash was not attached to a dog, per CTV News. Instead, it was hooked to the woman's 40-year-old partner as the couple walked in Sherbrooke after 9pm Saturday, police tell the Montreal Gazette. The woman "said she was taking her dog, pointing to her partner, out on a walk, as allowed under the exceptions," a police rep tells the Gazette.

The man and woman, described as uncooperative, were each fined about $1,200. Fines for curfew violations start at $780. Repeat offenders could be charged upwards of $4,700. Quebec's first repeat offender also emerged over the weekend. After being given an initial fine, the person was caught violating curfew again, per CTV. A Crown prosecutor will now determine if a second fine is warranted. Quebec Premier François Legault had announced the nightly curfew, to last until 5am, at the start of last week, saying the province's hospitals were strained and might not be able to treat every new arrival. "We cannot accept that a few irresponsible people put the population at risk," he said Monday, per Global News. The curfew is to extend until at least Feb. 8. (More Quebec stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X