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WINNIPEG, Manitoba, March 26, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian mother, who, along with her four children and the children’s grandmother, were each fined $3,000 after Canadian border agents refused to accept the results of their COVID tests — because the results were 2 hours expired — will fight the charges in court if they are not dropped by the Crown.
“We have rights as Canadians and these rights are being violated. I am ready to fight the good fight,” the mother, a registered nurse (RNBN) who works in chronic care, told LifeSiteNews under condition that her name not be published due to fears of retaliation.
“If the charges are not dropped by the Crown, the next step is to set a court date. Our deadline is April 2, 2021.”
LifeSiteNews reported last month how the mother and her family were returning from the U.S. to Manitoba after having attended the 79-year-old grandmother’s medical appointment and visited family.
They all received negative COVID tests prior to crossing the border by car to return home. Due to car trouble, by the time they reached the border, the tests, which have a 72-hour window of validity, were two hours expired. Border agents not only rejected the tests but went on to slap the family with the maximum fine for failing to “comply with an order reguarding [sic] a treatment measure for preventing the introduction and spread of a communicable disease.”
The family was then hustled off to a government-run COVID quarantine facility where they were forced to stay until they could receive additional COVID tests.
The mother related details to LifeSiteNews this week about their stay in the quarantine facility.
“We stayed in the hotel, 3 days and 2 nights. We did our schoolwork, prayed, had zoom dancing lessons, and ate our meals,” she said.
“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.”
“We were so happy to get to go home. We were all still puzzled why we needed to go to the hotel in the first place,” she added.
For the next number of days, government agents, empowered by the Quarantine Act, would call the family to make sure they were compliant with the rules related to quarantining at home.
“They called 6 times a day,” the mother related, “one call for each person.”
“They were very concerned about where the non-traveler, my husband, was living in the house. They kept asking how were we keeping separate, even though we all had 2 negative tests each. They also made one house call where we needed to show ID and answer a bunch of questions again.”
The mother did not sit idle at home. She related how she called the border agents numerous times, asking why her children had been fined and how the children were expected to pay the fines.
“I explained the situation, focussing on how I did not understand how my 9-year-old, or 12-year-old, etc. were expected to pay this fine. Within that week, I received a letter sent by registered mail from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada stating that the ‘the Crown will not be prosecuting your children.’”
The mother said that she wished at the time of the border crossing she had known more about her rights as a Canadian citizen. She would have insisted on the agents respecting her rights.
“I wish I knew more about my rights and what to say and how to stand up for them. I’ve learned a lot by reading endless posts about how to oppose the stringent measures. We have rights as Canadians and these rights are being violated. I am ready to fight the good fight.”
The mother has secured the legal services of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms to help in her battle.
The mother said she is “disappointed” with how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is handling the virus with measures that attack Canadian rights and freedoms.
“I would hope that the intent of these fines was not to put a middle-class family (and a front-line worker) through such an incredible amount of stress, during an already stressful time,” she said. “Safety is one thing, what happened to us was not about safety.”
“In February I was trying to comply. 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.”