Crown prosecutors in Ontario have entered a stay of proceedings against a woman who was ticketed and fined $6,225 for not staying in a COVID-19 quarantine hotel after returning to Canada.
JCCF said the woman suffers from chronic pain syndrome and sometimes needs a wheelchair and the help of friends or family for personal care. It added that her chronic pain had gotten worse, both during her trip and upon return, which meant she would need help with day-to-day living tasks.
The woman, whose name was not released, had made arrangements to quarantine for 14 days in a separate area of her home with help from her mother, instead of staying in one of the quarantine hotels designated by the federal government.
“She believed she had established the safest quarantine plan – one that would prevent her from contracting or transmitting Covid,” said the release. “Her traveller intake form at the Canadian border indicated that she had established a suitable alternative quarantine plan.”
Instead, she received a ticket and fined $6,225 for not staying in a government-designated quarantine hotel. Her lawyer, Charlene Le Beau, argued that she should have qualified for a medical exemption under the Order in Council in place at the time—which meant the ticket should be dropped.
In addition, Ms. Le Beau, a lawyer in the Justice Centre litigation network, pointed out that 25 months had passed from the issuing of the ticket and the trial date, arguing under the Charter that this was an “unreasonable delay.”
“The right to be tried for a charge within a reasonable time is a fundamental principle of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and a trial 25 months after the date of a charge would not have been reasonable,” said Ms. Le Beau in the news release.
‘Unscientific Policy’
The president of the JCCF said while they are happy with the stay of proceedings, it does not undo the damage inflicted by the federal quarantine system. John Carpay called it a “dangerous and utterly unscientific policy of locking Canadians up in prison hotels, thereby causing more contact and more interactions with more people.”Expenses per each traveller housed for 72 hours was around $17,000. The costs included lodging, meals, security, and traveller support and transportation, said the report.
The quarantine requirements, in place from March 2020 to September 2022, were designed for those who did not have a place to safely complete their 14-day quarantine period after travelling to Canada from abroad.
Across the country, 38 hotels were designated as quarantine centres, handing just over 22,000 travellers who had to quarantine.
Blacklock’s said the program was later criticized by the federal auditor general for being an expensive failure. Auditor General Karen Hogan said on Dec. 21, 2021 “This is not a success story. I am concerned the Public Health Agency is unable to show us whether or not these border measures are effective.”
