An unvaccinated Calgary woman, who travelled across an Alberta land border into the United States, said her ordeal upon return was "horrific" and now faces a $5,750 ticket..Brooke Paterson, a restorative exercise-Pilates therapist and manual osteopath — who said she's remained unvaccinated due to a previous medical condition — decided to take a gamble at the Canada-US border to see if she could cross over and join her husband who was in the US for a work-related trip. .Paterson, a 50-year-old wife and mother of two, said she and her family have enjoyed travelling for many years and watched as her mental health declined over the pandemic with the lockdowns and inability to get on a plane due to the federal government's travel restrictions.."I drove down to a US border and handed them my passport," Paterson told the Western Standard in an exclusive interview.."They said where are you going, how long, have a great trip. I was stunned. I figured if I got turned around, I would get turned around, but the fact that I had made it through with such ease, I was sort of euphoric," she said..Once in Montana, she caught a flight to Florida to join her husband and "just had the most remarkable, remarkable time" and found everything so " absolutely normal" like the pandemic "didn't even exist.". Picture of Brooke Paterson on a Florida beach .Her arrival back at the border to re-enter Canada was, on the other hand, "horrific." .Paterson said when she arrived at the Alberta border on May 9, she was heavily questions by the border agent and was instructed to pull over for a vehicle search. She agreed to speak to a public health agent via phone who she said was "extremely upset" with her responses and yelled at her that she would be fined and would need to quarantine. ."It was just threat after threat after threat; how I'm putting my fellow countrymen at risk," she said. .After the border agent let her go, Paterson said she pulled over and "had a cry." ."That was a lot of work to enter my own country. A lot of stress." Paterson said. ."And, I had a moment where I thought, 'I wished I hadn't had that freedom,' because coming back was so horrific. So horrific, that, it's like them opening up the cage for you to go freely, and then you have to come back into the cage and just happily accept it, and it was ... yeah, it took me a bit to compose myself." .Paterson said about 30 minutes into the drive home she saw an RCMP officer parked on the side of the road and once she passed, saw the lights turn on and she thought, "here we go." . RCMP in pursuit .She said she was pulled over and given a ticket for $5,750 for being in contravention of the Quarantine Act. Paterson said the officer was sympathetic and told her "all of the tickets that he knows have been thrown out." ."The Contraventions Act provides police (including RCMP, provincial and local police) the authority to enforce the Quarantine Act" for failure to comply with an Emergency Order, says the Government of Canada website. ."Additionally, if you receive a fine, you’re considered at high-risk of non-compliance, and flagged as a high priority for follow up by local law enforcement."."What a waste of their resources for them to have to deal with this," said Paterson. .Planning to fight the ticket, Paterson said she has mailed it in and has not heard anything back as of yet. She also said she suspects someone who knows she is not vaccinated and saw her social media posts during her trip may have reported her to public health. ."The psychological effect of being trapped in your own country. People fight for that — China, Korea — we're horrified at that in other countries and it's happening right here," said Paterson. .On Monday, the Liberals, NDP, Bloc Québécois and the Green Party voted down a motion by the Conservatives to end COVID-19 restrictions for travellers 202 to 117. .On Thursday, MP and Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre tabled a Private Member's Bill to abolish the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine mandates for federal workers and travel and ban all future mandates. .“Trudeau’s unscientific restrictions and mandates must be repealed,” said Poilievre.."He is dividing Canadians, violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and using divide–and-conquer politics to marginalize people while countries around the world move on from the pandemic."
