California resident who 'simply chose not to follow' Canada's COVID-19 testing rules must pay fines, B.C. judge rules

A California resident who repeatedly crossed into British Columbia at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic without meeting Canada's PCR testing requirements has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines he was issued at the border.

A California resident who repeatedly crossed into British Columbia at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic without meeting Canada's PCR testing requirements has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars in fines he was issued at the border.

Richard Alexander Ressel tried disputing the hefty fines in Surrey provincial court this month, arguing he should have been exempt from the COVID-19 testing rules on compassionate grounds because he had been entering Canada to visit his mother, who was suffering from cancer.

Judge Kimberley Arthur-Leung was not swayed, noting the emergency travel measures federal officials implemented earlier in the pandemic "did not permit any such exemption," and that Ressel's circumstances did not make him eligible for any other exemptions either.

"One simply does not freely come and go in the midst of a global pandemic," Arthur-Leung wrote in her Oct. 19 decision. "Every country was grappling with the spread of COVID-19, and even the country where he resides in the United States were no strangers to putting in place both national and state laws to control the spread of COVID-19."

Ressel was caught entering Canada without proof of a negative PCR test twice last year, on April 12 and June 11. At the time, everyone crossing the border was still required to present the results of a test taken within 72 hours of entry.

On both occasions, an officer from the Public Health Agency of Canada informed Ressel of the rules and gave him a chance to turn around and obtain a test. Ressel, who is a Canadian citizen with a valid Canadian passport, refused the offer and demanded to be allowed into the country both times.

On his first visit, Ressel was issued a $3,450 fine under Canada's Quarantine Act. By the time of his second trip, officials were growing increasingly concerned about the spread of new COVID-19 variants and had increase the fine to $5,750.