Let's agree that enacting the right policy restrictions during a pandemic is difficult.

Not all pandemic restrictions limit rights, especially those related to restrictions on business activity, but certainly some pandemic restrictions impose limits on fundamental freedoms of expression, religion, and assembly.

But the idea that the Premier's statement that the Charter requires only the most "minimal" restrictions is not the constitutional law of Canada.

Our Charter jurisprudence of "reasonable limits" requires that limitations on rights must be proportionate to the public good being achieved - in this case saving lives, among the other objectives of preserving a functioning health care system.

Courts will grant considerable deference to governments when limiting rights in the pursuit of other equally compelling rights and freedoms - like the right to life and security of the person, and the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of age or disability.

Such balancing requires trade offs and there is seldom any bright line that will constitute a "minimal impairment". Our law is that governments when balancing rights in the name of the public good have considerable leeway to craft a limit that is proportionate.

In a public health emergency, proportionate responses, and not the least that they can do, is what must be demanded and what should be expected of those tasked with the immense challenge of governing.