A series of emails obtained by Radio-Canada revealed that Quebec’s former public health director was looking for scientific explanations to justify imposing a curfew mere hours before the province announced on Dec. 30, 2021, that it would enforce the measure on New Year’s Eve. It was the second curfew in Quebec since the pandemic began. In an email time-stamped at 10:31 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2021, the assistant to Dr. Horacio Arruda wrote to Quebec’s public health institute and Marie-France Raynault, a senior strategic medical adviser for the province’s public health, asking them to come up with an “argument” that could help the government justify the need for a second curfew provincewide at a press conference later that day, reported Radio-Canada on March 2. “Horacio would like you and your teams (!) to provide him with an argument in relation to the curfew in anticipation of questions from journalists at …