To Skirt COVID Curfew, She Put Partner on Leash

The faux canine incident took place in Sherbrooke, a city in southern Quebec. 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.

A Quebec woman and her husband were each fined $1,500 (R18,300) after she walked him on a leash at 21:00, an hour after the region's Covid-19 curfew, reported CTV News.

The unnamed wife tried to argue with police that she was not breaking coronavirus rules, as it is permitted to break curfew in order to walk your dog.

Walking of a pet is included in one of the acceptable reasons to be out of the house during curfew hours, unfortunately for the couple, a human being can not legally qualify as a pet.

She reportedly told officers that she was "walking her dog" when she was confronted by police.

During a phone call with Daily Hive, a Sherbrooke police spokesperson said the couple "was happy to receive" a curfew infraction after not collaborating with local authorities.

The province imposed a curfew starting Saturday and extended an existing lockdown through Feb 8 to curb the spread of the coronavirus, as it worked to speed up a vaccination campaign to counter soaring cases of COVID-19.

Quebec is wrestling with more than 2,500 COVID-19 cases a day, a surge that threatens to increase hospitalizations beyond their spring peak in the next few weeks.

The curfew is needed to prevent gatherings that have fueled the rampant spread of the virus, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said.

"Pfizer and BioNTech's Phase 3 study for the COVID-19 vaccine was created to evaluate the vaccine's safety and efficacy following a two-dose schedule, separated by 21 days", Christina Antoniou said.