Adamson Barbecue Owner in Court for Challenge of Ontario’s COVID-19 Lockdown Measures

Adamson Barbecue Owner Adam Skelly is in court for a three-day hearing to challenge the COVID-19 restrictions that were imposed on his business in 2020, which he says infringed on his Charter rights.

Skelly was arrested by Toronto police in November 2020 after he kept his Etobicoke restaurant open for in-person dining for three days despite the city ordering all restaurants to close. The Ontario government had issued a lockdown order in Toronto and Peel Region, which limited “non-essential” retailers to curbside pickup and online sales.

Skelly was charged on 13 counts, including attempting to obstruct, mischief, and trespassing, as well as failing to comply with a continued order under the Reopening Ontario Act.

The City of Toronto also ordered Skelly to pay $187,000 in costs it incurred when police tried to prevent him from reopening his restaurant. The restaurant has since gone bankrupt and closed. Meanwhile, Skelly raised more than $300,000 through a GoFundMe to cover his fines and legal fees.

After more than five years, the three-day hearing will take place at Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27, with Ian Perry of Toronto law firm Perrys LLP representing Skelly.

Court documents say the province of Ontario, the City of Toronto, Toronto’s board of health, and former medical officer of health Eileen de Villa are the respondents in the case.

The court document, authored by Perry, argues several of Skelly’s Charter rights were infringed upon by the city and province, including freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, life, liberty, and security of the person, unreasonable search and seizure, arbitrary detention, cruel and unusual treatment or punishment, and equality before the law.

“This constitutional challenge is a reckoning with the unchecked exercise of state power that devastated small business owners, silenced peaceful dissent, and trampled core constitutional protections, all without a shred of cogent evidence to justify the destruction,” Perry wrote.

Skelly is asking the court to declare that the pandemic measures were “unlawful” and “unconstitutional,” the document says.

The City of Toronto told The Epoch Times that it is unable to comment on the matter while it is before the courts. Similarly, Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the matter at this time.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in November 2020 that the lockdown was needed to get high levels of community transmission of COVID-19 in Toronto and Peel under control.

‘Civil Disobedience’

Skelly opened his restaurant for in-person dining on Nov. 24, 2020, and was charged by authorities with bylaw and public-health infractions. The City of Toronto closed the restaurant that afternoon because it said the owner was providing both indoor and outdoor dine-in services with many patrons not wearing masks or practicing physical distancing.

After Skelly reopened his restaurant on Nov. 25, 2020, police changed the locks on the restaurant early the next morning and seized the establishment. Skelly was arrested by police on Nov. 26, 2020, amid dozens of patrons and supporters after he defied an order to vacate the restaurant.

The court document says Skelly defied the lockdown order in an effort to “begin a public conversation about lockdown measures he believed were disproportionate, unscientific, and ruinous to small businesses, and to invite legal scrutiny of their lawfulness.” It said Skelly’s decision to open the restaurant was “an act of civil disobedience.”

Additionally, Perry said that Skelly complied with all pandemic measures during the summer of 2020, including collecting customer contact information, enforcing mask requirements, and implementing social-distancing measures.

However, by September 2020, Skelly’s restaurant had taken a toll financially and he had to lay off more than half of the restaurant’s 56 employees, Perry said. He added that Skelly became “increasingly frustrated and confused by what he perceived as inconsistent public messages,” while “big box” stores remained open and smaller businesses were forced to close.

The document alleges that the respondents failed to exercise “measured enforcement,” noting the response included seizing the restaurant, surrounding it with police officers, forcing patrons off the property, arresting and detaining Skelly, and imposing “extraordinary civil and criminal consequences.”

Public Health Ontario said in November 2020 that lockdowns were “effective and proved essential in decreasing the burden” of COVID-19, and pointed to decreased COVID-19 related hospitalizations, deaths, and self-reported flu-like symptoms after implementing lockdown measures.