Expert Says Curfew 'Would Make No Difference' In Ontario Right Now For Several Reasons

After Quebec Premier François Legault announced a 4-week provincial curfew on Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford said that a curfew in Ontario wasn't off the table.

However, Dr. Colin Furness, assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said to Narcity in an email that a curfew would have a limited impact right now — for a few reasons.

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It would have been most useful to have had a curfew in place over the holidays. To do one now would have [a] limited effect. Dr. Colin Furness

The curfew "would make no difference to occupational exposure during the day," as well as "essential workers’ routines and risks," wrote Furness.

It also wouldn't prevent "COVID-19 spread through travel" and "those who are crafty enough and determined enough to congregate anyway."

Furness pointed out that a curfew could make parties become sleepover events, "which might be considerably more risky."

"If daily case counts continue to rise and our health care system starts to buckle, then we’ll need to [implement the curfew] as a strategy to stem increases," admitted Furness.

However, if it comes to that, "it will represent a failure of the government to manage the pandemic."

Roxane Borges Da Silva of the Université de Montreal’s school of public health told CTV Montreal that "by instituting a curfew we encourage individual awareness of the risks associated with going out."