Problem
In April 2022, the members of a religious organization decided to celebrate the holidays together and organized an event where more than 500 people were invited to attend. Because rules that prohibited public gatherings were in place at that time, the organizers had to go to the police to get a permission to hold the gathering. The police responded negatively to the request and pointed out that the "Emergencies Act" allowed the provincial government to impose restrictions on public gatherings and therefore, the event had to be cancelled.
The group challenged the legislation as being in violation with Charter rights and specifically sec. 2(a) "freedom of conscious and religion" and sec 2(c) "freedom of peaceful assembly".
i. How would the court decide on this challenge?
ii. What kind of analysis would the court engage with to answer the constitutionality question?
iii. What are the interests that need to be balanced in this case?
iv. What are the legal tests that the court might use to respond to the question?