More Than 200 Passengers Fined for Skipping Hotel Quarantines: Court Cases Loom
April 16, 2021 Jim Byers
As of March 30, 219 tickets have been issued to air passengers entering Canada who refused to quarantine at a designated hotel,
Those figures come from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), according to the CBC.
Beginning Feb. 21, all travellers coming to Canada by air have been required to book an airport hotel (there are now 59 in the program) near one of the four Canadian airports open to international traffic (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary). Rooms must be booked for three days, and the costs can rise higher than $2,000.
The fine for violating the requirement is $3,000.
The program has been rife with complaints and loopholes. Global News recently reported that some arriving passengers have simply told officials they don’t have the money to pay for a hotel, which meant they were sent to a government-approved quarantine hotel and put up at taxpayers’ expense.
Others have complained of crowded lobbies and shuttle buses from the airports to the hotels, an issue cited by one of the people interviewed for the latest CBC story.
As well, there are reports of many Canadians flying into airports in the U.S. and taking taxis across the border to avoid the hotel quarantine. Under Canadian law, everyone coming into Canada is supposed to quarantine for 14 days. But the hotel quarantine is only for arriving air passengers. If you drive over the border or are driven over, you can quarantine at home and avoid the cost and inconvenience of a hotel stay.
The Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms was in federal court on Wednesday seeking an injunction against the Trudeau government’s quarantine hotel program.
A spokesperson for the centre told Canadian Travel News that judgement was reserved in the case and that they’ll post the judicial decision on their website when it becomes available.
The Canadian Constitution Foundation was in an Ontario court last month seeking an injunction of its own. That request was denied, but a full hearing on the constitutionality of the program is slated to go ahead at an undetermined date.
According to the foundation’s Twitter feed, evidence for the case is due April 23.
Canada’s current quarantine laws are due to expire Wednesday, April 21.
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