Ontario court rules PCR test for returning air travellers violated Quarantine Act
https://www.rebelnews.com/ontario_court_rule_pcr_test_for_returning_air_travellers_violated_quarantine_act
Nasal swab tests were an 'unlawful requirement or demand,' wrote Justice Paul Monahan in the ruling.
An Ontario court has ruled the Trudeau government's requirement of COVID-19 nasal swab tests was unlawful. Justice Paul Monahan's decision was shared online by lawyer Daniel Freiheit.
In the ruling, Justice Monahan found demanding polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests was a violation of the Quarantine Act.
The case involved Meththa Fernando, a traveller returning to her home in Mississauga. Fernando, who was apparently vaccinated, was charged after arriving at Pearson International Airport on April 9, 2022, and rejecting a COVID-19 test after following a random selection by screening officers.
She was originally convicted for failure to comply with Section 58 of the Quarantine Act, receiving a fine of $5,000 along with additional charges bringing the total to $6,255.
Justice Monahan overturned the decision on appeal, citing Section 14 of the act, noting “the screening test cannot involve the insertion into the traveller’s body of any instrument or foreign body.”
“The prosecution raised the point that perhaps the insertion into the nasal cavity did not involve the entry into the body,” Justice Monahan wrote in the decision. “I disagree. The insertion of a nasal swab into the nasal cavity is most definitely an insertion into the body.”
Some on social media expressed sentiments that the decision was too little, too late.
“Not necessarily,” was Freiheit's view. “This case will be mostly relevant for anyone who pled guilty or paid a fine under Section 58 of the Quarantine Act, for refusing to submit to Trudeau's hired PHAC officers when they demanded travellers force wires into their sinus cavities.”
It remains to be seen how this decision will affect other travellers charged under the act.
“I do decide that the nasal swab test, which the screening officer in this case required or demanded Ms. Fernando submit to, was an unlawful requirement
or demand,” wrote Justice Monahan.
“Ms. Fernando’s refusal to comply with the requirement or demand was lawful on her part. Because the requirement or demand made of her by the screening officer was not lawful, Ms. Fernando should not have been found guilty by the Justice of the Peace.”