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NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Despite being “fully vaccinated,” a 71-year-old Canadian woman was forced into a 14-day quarantine because she refused to use Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s quarantine-monitoring ArriveCAN app when crossing the border from America back into Canada.
“I cannot obviously compel you to perform ArriveCAN if you refuse to do it. That is your choice,” a Canadian Border Services agent told 71-year-old Joanne Walsh on July 19, in a video obtained by True North Centre.
An elderly woman who is fully vaccinated but didn’t download Trudeau’s ArriveCan application has been sentenced to 14 days of house arrest in Canada for not complying with the Liberal government’s expectations of its subjects. pic.twitter.com/dmyCkDS9Uq
— Keean Bexte 🇳🇱 (@TheRealKeean) July 21, 2022
“I’m not going to sit here and strong-arm you or convince you [to use the app, but] current policy … is that we are supposed to issue you a [14-day] quarantine order at that point, so that’s what I’m going to have to do then today,” the agent added.
“But I’m vaccinated. Isn’t that just for unvaccinated?” Walsh asked.
“Well, it comes down to this is what I have to do as a screening officer, I don’t have the ability to make that decision,” the CBSA official answered.
After clarifying that the border worker does not work for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) — the agency behind the nation’s so-called public health measures — the man filming Walsh’s interaction asked the border official, “OK, so, why is CBSA being forced to do PHAC’s dirty work?”
“That’s a question above my paygrade, sir. I don’t know,” the employee replied.
While the two-week-long quarantine can be done at her personal residence, the CBSA worker did inform Walsh that local police are sometimes deployed by PHAC to ensure “compliance” with the public health directives.
“This is insane,” Walsh stated to the man filming the interaction. “I shouldn’t have to go through this, no Canadian should, just because I don’t want to put an app on my phone. It’s insane.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Trudeau government’s ArriveCAN app has been a source of major controversy in recent weeks, particularly since the nation’s Public Safety Minister announced the government’s intention to expand the scope of the app “beyond” COVID.
Top Conservative politicians, including leadership candidates Leslyn Lewis and Pierre Poilievre, have both taken to social media in the last few days to condemn the app, with Lewis doubling down on her promise to not only scrap ArriveCAN but “ALL digital ID programs” if elected prime minister.
A top constitutional law group has also taken issue with ArriveCAN on the legal front, warning LifeSiteNews that “the growth of the scope of the ArriveCAN app is troubling.”
“Under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, every Canadian citizen has the right to enter Canada. The app infringes that right of mobility by acting as a barrier to returning,” wrote Justice Centre lawyer Hatim Kheir to LifeSiteNews by email last week, adding, “The app also poses serious threats to privacy” as “Canadians should not be required to disclose personal, medical information as a precondition to exercising their right to return home.”