Superior Court Justice Janet Leiper dismissed Adamson BBQ owner Adam Skelly’s constitutional challenge this week, ruling that public health’s takeover of his restaurant was not a ‘seizure’ as he claimed.

Following a four-day trial at the end of February, Justice Leiper ruled that the forcible shuttering of Skelly’s business did not violate his constitutional rights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Lieper, to protect the public from “serious risk of illness, hospitalization, and death,” both the city and province acted appropriately, reports the Toronto Star.

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Adam Skelly first came under fire in November 2020 when his renowned barbecue business took a stand against indiscriminate, sweeping lockdown mandates. After a three-day standoff, Toronto Public Health deployed the tactical resources of the Toronto Police Service to shutter the BBQ joint and arrest Skelly.

For the crime of economic freedom, Skelly was fined, charged criminally, held in jail for 30 hours, and put out of business, permanently.

“The city and the province have raised basically no evidence to support that lockdowns were demonstrably justified,” Skelly said ahead of the proceedings. “When we deposed then-medical officer of health Eileen de Villa, she refused to provide the evidence supporting restaurant closures.”

This once celebrated spot – featured in Toronto Life’s 2017 “Best New Restaurants” – a popular destination for wood-fired smoked meats and hand-sliced brisket, is now no more.