Couple Fined For Breaking Curfew, Wife Insisted She Was “Walking Her Husband On A Leash”

• Seems like a legitimate excuse, except that the “dog” she was referring to was actually her husband.
• Quebec has a nightly curfew between 8 pm to 5 am.
• The pair said they were happy to receive the ticket and that they were following the rules.

A couple living in Quebec province, Canada was arrested for breaking curfew rules. The woman insisted she was just walking her “dog.” Seems like a legitimate excuse, except that the “dog” she was referring to was actually her husband.

The police spotted the pair, who is living in the city of Sherbrooke, around 9 pm on January 9, just a few hours after the new COVID rules came into effect.

Quebec has a nightly curfew between 8 pm to 5 am.

The couple told the police that they were following the rule for pets – walking a dog close to one’s house is one of the few acceptable reasons to be outside during curfew hours.

The wife said she was “walking her husband on a leash.”

Isabelle Gendron of the Sherbrooke Police Department said that the couple “did not co-operate with the police at all.” They couple was fined heavily – $1500 each (around $1200 in U.S. dollars) – by the police for violating the curfew.

When questioned by the police, the pair said they were happy to receive the ticket and that they were following the rules.

They are not the only ones who were caught violating the new curfew hours in Quebec. Over the first weekend after the curfew was imposed, police officers handed out 750 tickets – with fines equating to thousands of dollars – to people caught outside after 8 pm.

Quebec’s premier François Legault told residents to respect social distancing policies.

“I know it’s difficult, but Quebeckers are able to work as a team when necessary,” he said.

The situation in the province’s largest city, Montreal, was “really critical,” he said, and that hospitals are reaching the point where they would not be able to treat all patients.

Canada has become stricter with its policies after seeing a recent surge in coronavirus infections. At the moment, there are around 670,000 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.