Canadian couple fined for breaking curfew after woman found 'walking' her husband on a dog leash

A couple in Canada have been fined £900 each after they were stopped by police with the woman ‘walking’ her husband on a dog lead.

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.

“One of them had the other on a leash, and she said she was taking her dog, pointing to her partner, out on a walk, as allowed under the exceptions provided by Quebec’s premier under its curfew law,” said Isabelle Sehrdon, a spokesperson for the local police department.

The couple are from Sherbrooke, Quebec. The woman is 24 years old and her partner is 40, according to the Toronto Sun.

The province of Quebec introduced an overnight curfew last Saturday that runs from 8pm until 5am.

During that time, locals are only allowed out of their homes for limited reasons, such as going to hospital or walking their dog within 1km of their home.

The couple were stopped by police at about 9pm on Saturday evening, just one hour after the curfew was first introduced.

Police say the couple attempted to use the ‘dog walking’ excuse to justify their outing and added that the couple was “not cooperative”.

The pair were fined CA$1,546 (£893) each for the violation.

When confronted by officers, the couple said it would be a “pleasure” to receive the fines and “it would not stop them from breaking the rules in the future and they would see how many tickets they could get,” Ms Gendron said.

Canada has seen a steep rise in the number of Covid cases in the past two months. The country has suffered 17,086 deaths to date.