As schools and businesses shut down in March 2020, the bustle of the city came to a halt – a noticeable difference to Feb. 2025.
Five years after the first reported COVID-19 case in Quebec, the province’s curfew remains controversial — more than half the fines are unpaid, legal battles continue and health experts still debate whether the benefits outweighed the costs.
Quebec was the only province to prohibit its citizens from leaving their homes at night during the pandemic.
Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government imposed a nightly curfew on two separate occasions.
Was it worth it? Dr. Horacio Arruda, who was the province’s director of public health when the curfews were imposed, said it was a necessary move at the time.
“We needed it because of the indicators of the health-care system, the numbers of people who were getting sick,” Arruda said in a recent interview with CBC News.
“For me, a …