Windsor, Ont., resident Michael Mazuran says he was “retroactively punished” after being told to quarantine because he “did not qualify as fully vaccinated,” even though he’s had three COVID-19 shots.
Mazuran admits he forgot to fill out the ArriveCAN app and wasn’t asked about the government’s screening tool or his vaccination status before returning to Canada after a grocery-shopping trip in the United States.
Mazuran told CBC News he realized after coming home Aug. 10 that he hadn’t submitted the ArriveCAN form.
A frequent cross-border traveller, Mazuran said he’s completed the form before. CBC News has seen a copy of Mazuran’s vaccine passport.
“It’s been so frustrating,” he said.
“Why am I being retroactively punished when something should have been done at the border then and there? I feel like that was their negligence. They should be held accountable for missing their step.”
In an email to CBC News, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said, “Each entry requires a new ArriveCAN submission and without it, [travellers] are not considered fully vaccinated.”
CBC News also reached out to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), to get more details about how border officers are enforcing the app and what happens when it isn’t filled out, but hadn’t received a response at time of publication. The agency has previously said it doesn’t comment on specific cases.
Mazuran’s story comes amid criticism about the app.
In recent months, the government has acknowledged app glitches that have sent travellers erroneous notifications instructing them to quarantine.
Ottawa faces mounting pressure from politicians and tourism groups to scrap ArriveCAN, arguing it impedes tourism and creates headaches for some travellers.
Most recently, some organizations have filed lawsuits against the government, claiming the app breaches sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Traveller says he felt like a ‘criminal’
Mazuran said the email he received recently told him he had to quarantine for 14 days and get a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to screen for the virus, on Day 1 and Day 8.
CBC News has seen a copy of this email.
Mazuran said he also got a call from the Canadian government telling him that since the system didn’t recognize him as vaccinated, he was required to follow orders under the Quarantine Act or he could be fined or face prison time.
Mazuran says he crossed back into Canada using the Ambassador Bridge and the border officer didn’t ask him about his vaccine status or ArriveCAN form. (Carlos Osorio/The Associated Press)
He said he told the government he could share proof of his vaccination status, but he was denied being able to do so.
As a result, Mazuran spent some of his vacation days and three unpaid work days at home.
“[I’m] pretty angry. [I’m] being treated like a criminal, being treated like a prisoner,” Mazuran said, adding he got vaccinated so that he could travel, but didn’t expect to face consequences the one time he forgot to fill out the app.
Current rules include having at least two doses of an approved vaccine to cross the border into the U.S.
Brenda McPhail, director of the privacy, technology and surveillance program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), said it’s “reasonable” for Mazuran to feel like he was treated unfairly.
“There’s a real question if a border agent didn’t do what they were supposed to do in asking for the app to be shown, why an individual would then subsequently face consequences of that lapse, which was then not their fault,” she said.
In an email to CBC News, PHAC said people entering the country need to provide contact information and proof of vaccination status, “by electronic means specified by the minister of health.”
On the Canadian government’s website, it says ArriveCAN is “mandatory” for all travellers to Canada and “it is also required to qualify for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption from quarantine and testing.”
If this is for public health measures, a certificate of vaccination status should satisfy those requirements.– Eva Chipiuk, lawyer with JCCF
The website adds that people crossing at land borders who haven’t completed the app will be told by a border officer to submit their information, and can:
Provide that information on entry if there’s no history of the person previously neglecting ArriveCAN entries.
Go back to the U.S. to fill out the form and then re-enter.
If a person refuses, the website says, you can be fined $5,000 per infraction, with other provincial surcharges possible.
CBC News reached out to Windsor-Tecumseh Liberal MP Irek Kusmierczyk, but he was unavailable for comment.
Lawsuits filed against Canadian government
According to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), a non-profit organization whose mission is to “defend the constitutional freedoms of Canadians through litigation and education,” Mazuran’s situation is not unique.
JCCF filed a lawsuit on Aug. 24 against the Attorney General of Canada on behalf of 11 vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians who were either fined for not using the app or ordered to quarantine for 14 days after returning home.
Eva Chipiuk, a lawyer with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, has filed a lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of 11 vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians who were fined for not using the app or ordered to quarantine for 14 days. (Jennifer La Grassa/CBC)
“[There’s] such a wide variety of cases that it’s really hard to understand where the justification is for this [app] requirement,” said Eva Chipiuk, the lawyer who filed the JCCF lawsuit.
She added the lawsuit challenges the quarantine requirement for unvaccinated Canadians and mandatory ArriveCAN form submission. She said these breach Canadian rights, including around privacy and mobility.
“If this is for public health measures, a certificate of vaccination status should satisfy those requirements,” Chipiuk said.
CBC News reached out to the attorney general of Canada, but did not hear back in time for publication.
The group involved in the lawsuit is looking to have mandatory use of the app struck down, have it be declared unconstitutional for Canadians who refuse to fill out the app to undergo a 14-day quarantine and get $1,000 each in damages.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
