Mask dust-up at Liverpool hospital

She walked into the Liverpool hospital for a doctor’s appointment and refused to don a mask.

It was mid-morning on July 10, 2023, when a COVID-19 screener at the Queens General Hospital called 911 to report the woman had shot video of her with a mobile phone and struck her on the nose.

“She was trying to record employees,” the hospital security guard told police.

“She was complaining about the masks. She was getting in people’s faces.”

It was a busy day at Queens General, said the guard.

“The clinic was open. There were quite a few people there, even children.”

The woman was “argumentative” with the screener, said the guard.

“The screener was getting a little defensive quoting protocols. The screener took it personally.”

‘THEY WERE BOTH YELLING’

The woman with the phone “got in the screener’s face,” he said. “They both began to raise their voices. They were both yelling.”

The security guard heard the screener say the woman had struck her in the face, then he “went over and got in between them,” RCMP Const. Devin Pulsifer said in information to obtain a warrant filed at Bridgewater provincial court.

The security guard told her she could record people, but not assault them, Pulsifer said, noting he also told her to keep children in the hospital out of her videos.

“The woman began arguing” with the security guard, said the Mountie.

He warned her he’d call the police if she kept shouting, then told a registration clerk to do just that, Pulsifer said.

“The woman was still yelling.” The security guard went to his office to make a report and told the screener to “calm down,” said the investigator.

‘I BET YOU LEARNED YOUR LESSON NOW’

The woman who refused to wear a mask met with her doctor with security outside the room.

“When her appointment was over – she yelled something to the effect of ‘I bet you learned your lesson now’” at the screener, the security guard told police.

The screener told police the woman, whom she described as white and about five feet tall, hit her in the face. But she didn’t want to lay assault charges, Pulsifer said.

Police met with April Klassen, the health services manager at the hospital. She told police accommodations would be made so the woman who’d caused the ruckus earlier wouldn’t have to wear a mask in the hospital.

Then at noon the same day, Charlotte Knox walked into the RCMP’S Queens District Detachment to complain that the hospital screener – whom she’d known for “her entire life” – had assaulted her.

Knox told police the screener had approached her that morning and told her she needed to wear a mask in the hospital.

“Knox told the woman it was their rules and not the law and she would not be wearing a mask,” according to Pulsifer.

‘MOUTHING OFF’

Knox told police she then sat down to wait for her appointment.

“The woman and the security guard started mouthing off to her about not wearing a mask,” Knox told police.

Knox said she started recording the screener on her phone.

“The woman said, ‘I didn’t give you permission’ and approached her,” Knox told investigators. “The woman ‘forced her face onto the camera.’”

Knox told the screener she had assaulted her, Pulsifer said.

“The woman said, ‘I didn’t touch you,’” according to Knox.

‘AGGRESSIVE MANNER’

Knox told police her hands didn’t move forward during the ruckus and the screener “only came towards her.”

Knox handed over a video to police she’d shot at the hospital.

“It shows the female in question approaching Knox in an aggressive manner after determining she was being filmed,” according to an RCMP staff sergeant who reviewed the footage. “The female’s face was brought right into the frame of the video before it was turned off.”

Pulsifer convinced a judge to grant a production order on Jan. 10 for the hospital’s surveillance video from that day “with the goal of obtaining the exact events of the altercation that took place.”

On Jan. 26, Mounties seized a memory stick containing that video.

THRESHOLD NOT MET

Neither Knox, who is 60, nor the screener are facing charges for the alleged hospital assaults.

“The threshold for an assault charge wasn’t reached therefore no charges were laid in this incident,” Const. Dominic Laflamme, who speaks for the RCMP, said in an email.

But Knox is slated to go to trial next year in Bridgewater provincial court for allegedly assaulting Pulsifer, the Mountie investigating the mask ruckus, during an earlier interaction on June 21, 2023.

During her Feb. 3, 2025, trial, Knox will also face charges for resisting a peace officer and causing a disturbance.

As part of her release conditions, Knox must stay away from the Liverpool public library.