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Covid-19 hotel quarantine legal challenge to be heard today

Day in court: lawyer Mark Pettingill is representing pressure group Constitutional Freedom Bermuda (File photograph by Akil Simmons)

A legal challenge to planned controversial public safety restrictions is scheduled to be heard in the Supreme Court today.

Pressure group Constitutional Freedom Bermuda filed a summons yesterday to ask for an injunction against the Government proposals, which it claimed discriminate against people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The measures, expected to come into effect on Sunday, will mean that non-vaccinated residents returning from overseas will have to quarantine at a Government-approved hotel at their own expense rather than in their own homes.

CFB confirmed that it will present its case at a hearing in the Supreme Court today.

The group said: “The overwhelming and obvious reality is that the proposed mandatory quarantine is not reasonably required, as a matter of medical science or law.”

It added that the proposal would “unreasonably require unvaccinated Bermudians to be effectively imprisoned, at their expense”.

The group added: “We are extremely confident that the Government will be restrained from implementing the wholly unreasonable proposed mandatory quarantine until the court has determined the substantive constitutional challenge.”

CFB said the application was supported by the expert opinions of three doctors, including the former head of the Bermuda Medical Doctors Association, Dr Henry Dowling, along with Dr Amani Flood and Dr Amne Osseryan.

The pressure group has raised more than $70,000 to fund the legal challenge.

The group added: “CFB would like to take this time to thank the Bermudian public for their overwhelming support.

“We look forward to updating the public at the conclusion of the hearing and take this time to send a huge thank you to all who have supported the preservation of Bermudians’ constitutional rights

“We would like to send a huge thank you to our legal team, led by Mark Pettingill of Chancery Legal and Courtenay Griffiths QC of 25 Bedford Row Chambers, who are assisted by Eron SL Hill.”

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Published June 04, 2021 at 7:53 am (Updated June 04, 2021 at 7:53 am)

Covid-19 hotel quarantine legal challenge to be heard today

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