More COVID-19 tickets are being dropped by Canadian Crown attorneys. A Crown attorney has decided to stay COVID-19 tickets against a British Columbia resident after several rounds of negotiations. “As we've seen before, these tickets were often deficient or improperly issued in some way,” said the Democracy Fund (TDF) counsel Mark Joseph in a Monday press release. “Furthermore, the ArriveCan fines were disproportionate and unjust.”Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, TDF said the resident ran a successful cross-border business from her office in BC. With the onset of lockdowns, it said she struggled to keep it open due to the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions. Despite this, she continued to travel to and from the United States, hoping to support herself until normalcy returned. When she crossed the border, she was interrogated about her vaccine status. After discussing ArriveCan requirements with a Canadian border agent during one trip, it said she was pulled aside for a further interview. It added she learned ArriveCan was completed on her behalf by a border agent. She was issued two COVID-19 tickets totalling about $6,800 in fines for alleged non-compliance with ArriveCan and other regulations. “We're pleased that the Crown saw no public interest in pursuing these tickets,” said Joseph. A Crown attorney stayed a COVID-19 charge against Canadian resident Kathryn Salmon because of an unreasonable delay with her trial in November. READ MORE: Delay in Canadian COVID ticket trial leads to stay by Crown attorney“It was never right to discriminate against Canadians on the basis of whether or not they took the COVID vaccines,” said Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) Litigation Director Marty Moore. The JCCF said Salmon was charged under the Quarantine Act in 2022 and fined $6,255 for allegedly refusing to take a COVID-19 test upon returning to Canada.
