A routine visit to the United States for a Canadian family turned into a nightmare when they were threatened with fines of $3,000 apiece because the negative COVID-19 tests they presented to border agents had expired two hours earlier. Now they are vowing to fight the fines.
Last month, a Winnipeg, Manitoba, mother, her four children, and the children’s grandmother traveled to the United States for a medical appointment for the grandmother and a visit with relatives.
While they were in the States, the Canadian government decreed that “all travelers, with some exceptions, arriving to Canada by land, will be required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 molecular test result taken in the United States within 72 hours of pre-arrival.”
According to LifeSiteNews, “the mother, a registered nurse (RNBN) who works in chronic care,” plus the rest of her party, dutifully took PCR tests on Friday, February 12. On Sunday, five test results arrived; the sixth didn’t show up until 1:30 a.m. Monday. All the tests were negative.
Despite the delay, the family still had time to make it to the border before the tests expired. Unfortunately, they had car troubles along the way, and by the time they reached the border, they were two hours and 15 minutes late.
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Even though they had the negative test results and a plan to self-quarantine once they got home, the border agents refused to release them, saying they had “zero tolerance” for violations of the order, the mother said. Instead, they all — including the children — were issued citations with fines of $3,000 each, the maximum allowed under the law. Then they were ordered, under the threat of further fines and a call to the police, to drive to the nearest Designated Quarantine Facility (DQF), which turned out to be a hotel in Winnipeg.
“We stayed in the hotel, 3 days and 2 nights. We did our schoolwork, prayed, had zoom dancing lessons, and ate our meals,” the mother told LifeSiteNews.
“We were escorted outside once a day for a walk around the property. A nurse came to the room for a wellness/symptom check every morning. Finally, we all received our negative results at 8:00 pm Wednesday, February 17. We needed to wait for the quarantine officer to email a ‘discharge’ note for each of us and this happened quickly.”
While in the DQF, she told the website “she can’t believe keeping her family there is really about safety because they’ve been in contact with many more people such as nurses, quarantine staff, and maintenance personnel than if they had just stayed at home according to their original quarantine plan.”
She said she also spoke to a border agent on the phone while in quarantine. “She basically told me that they gave us the maximum fine possible, that we were the first ones in this area to receive this and that they wanted to make an example of us so that other people would not travel.”
After the family returned home, the mother said government agents called them six times a day — “one call for each person” — to make sure they were staying home. They also asked about her husband, who had not traveled with them, and they made a “house call” in which family members were forced to provide identification and answer questions.
After repeated calls to border agents, the mother got word that her children’s fines were being dropped. The family now owes $6,000 rather than the original $18,000, an improvement but still $6,000 more than they believe they should have to pay.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), a Canadian legal-advocacy organization, has taken up the family’s case. JCCF believes the travel restrictions to be a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the charges are not dropped by Friday, JCCF will take the matter to court.
As for the mother, her treatment at the hands of her own government has turned her against it.
“In February I was trying to comply,” she told LifeSiteNews. “Now, I want to tell our political leaders, ‘I do not consent,’ as was so eloquently said by Dr. Anne McCloskey. I am ready to stand up for our rights.”
