Did you know – Under the Quarantine Act Section 12 – Screen Technology – Police on Guard for Thee
Various media outlets have recently reported on individual travellers receiving fines for not submitting to mandatory COVID19 tests when arriving at Pearson Airport.
The quarantine act does not allow for his type of mass testing. In fact, section 14(1) expressly stated that screening does not involve the entry into the traveller’s body of any instrument.
As per the airport’s website the type of PCR tests being administered are bilateral anterior swabs or nasopharyngeal swabs. These tests require a swab 1-1.5 centimeters into each nasal cavity for 15 seconds.
Screening officers may perform a health assessment on travellers. This is the definition from the Quarantine Act:
an evaluation of the relevant medical history and the travel history of a traveller and a physical examination, including an examination of the traveller’s head, neck and extremities and the measurement of vital signs such as the traveller’s temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate.
Only when a Screening Officer has reasonable grounds that a traveller has a communicable disease, or the traveller is refusing to be screened in the manner prescribed in the above definition, can further health assessments or medical examinations be required (which may include a COVID test).
The reason these travellers are being ticketed and not subjected to further assessments is because the act itself says that such an invasive procedure is not lawful.
Ticketing people who are lawfully able to refuse an intrusive COVID test is a clear attempt to intimidate individuals into compliance.
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