(LifeSiteNews) — Hundreds of freedom fighters in British Columbia are celebrating after nearly 300 fines given over COVID regulations have been dropped.
On August 18, The Democracy Fund (TDF) announced that the Crown dropped nearly 300 Quarantine Act-related fines issued to 212 British Columbia citizens for allegedly violating the federal legislation.
“The fine amounts start at a mandatory $5,750 – that’s a mandatory minimum,” TDF lawyer Adam Blake-Gallipeau told Rebel News.
Blake-Gallipeau added that the fine is nearly six times as much as the fine for drinking and driving in the province of B.C.
Most of the cases defended by the TDF were Canadians fined for not following the Quarantine Act when they crossed into Canada between 2020 and 2022. The so-called violations included not showing a vaccine passport or valid PCR test at the border and failure to fill out the notorious ArriveCAN app.
Blake-Gallipeau pointed out the COVID regulations were changing almost every 30 days, making it hard for judges and lawyers to keep up, not to mention average citizens.
Robert and Jamie Leib are among those who were cleared of their charges thanks to the work of TDF. The retired couple received close to $25,000 in fines after a single U.S.-Canada border crossing to return to their summer home in Penticton, B.C., to care for Robert’s ill and elderly father.
The couple was charged with a total of six tickets as border guards argued they failed to properly fill out the ArriveCAN app, did not show PCR tests, and refused to answer questions put to them by the quarantine officer.
“I’ve just always been that type of person to stand up for my rights,” Robert said.
“It’s a serious problem, not just for the Leibs. This is a serious problem generally for everybody,” Blake-Gallipeau stated.
In April 2020, the ArriveCAN app was issued by the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau government, costing Canadians $54 million. The mandatory app forced all travelers entering Canada to provide their travel and contact information, as well as any COVID vaccination details, before crossing the border or boarding a flight.
Top constitutional lawyers at the time had argued that ArriveCAN violated an individual’s constitutional rights, adding that people’s civil liberties on paper had been rendered “meaningless effectively in the real world” because of COVID.
Now, both the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and TDF have filed lawsuits against the federal government’s once-mandatory ArriveCAN travel app, arguing the program was in direct violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.