The proprietor of the Whistle Cease Cafe is suing the Alberta authorities for imposing mandates on companies through the COVID-19 pandemic.
A category-action lawsuit on behalf of the enterprise was licensed by the Alberta Courtroom of King’s Bench on Wednesday.
The lawsuit is open to all companies in Alberta that had been impacted by pandemic closures.
“All people who owned, in entire or partly, a enterprise or companies in Alberta that was topic to full or partial closure, or operational restrictions, mandated by the CMOH (chief medical officer of well being) orders between March 17, 2020, and the date of certification,” court docket paperwork learn.
The province had argued towards the certification of the lawsuit, asserting that “Alberta enjoys immunity for numerous causes together with that the CMOH orders had been coverage selections.”
Moreover it mentioned enterprise house owners had the appropriate to pursue unbiased authorized motion, noting some companies have already completed simply that.
The Whistle Cease Cafe in Mirror, Alta., made nationwide information in 2021 when it opened for dine-in service regardless of orders from Alberta’s chief medical officer of well being that prevented it from doing so.
The cafe’s proprietor, Christopher Scott, was charged with breaching the Public Well being Act.
Scott confronted a complete of 11 costs, 9 of which fall beneath the Public Well being Act.
He was acquitted on all costs in 2023.
Lawyer Chad Williamson, left, and Whistle Cease Cafe proprietor Christopher Scott on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023, exterior a Crimson Deer court docket following Scott’s acquittal on costs he violated Alberta public well being orders associated to the COVID pandemic. (Sean McClune/CTV Information Edmonton)
