Rebel News employee loses quarantine fight

Legal challenge after covering Trump event

THE STATEMENTS ... ARE NOT

SUFFICIENT IN THE CONTEXT

TO SHOW THAT HE IS NOT

A RISK TO SPREAD THE VIRUS ...

A journalist for far- right news site Rebel News has lost a court challenge to the quarantine order he faced after crossing the border to cover a campaign event for President Donald Trump in Michigan.

It was a rare legal test of the cabinet order that largely closed the Canada-u.s. frontier eight months ago.

A Toronto-based Federal Court judge said Efrain Oswaldo Flores Monsanto failed to qualify under any of the exemptions to the edict requiring people entering Canada from the United States to isolate for 14 days.

Monsanto, Rebel's head of video, said he spent only a day in the U.S. before heading back to his home base in the Toronto area.

He argued he fell under part of the cross- border quarantine rules that make an exception for people returning after an “everyday function” that requires entering the U.S.

The section is generally considered to apply to individuals who commute back and forth regularly for work.

Justice Andrew Little ruled the section did not apply to a journalist like Monsanto, who said he travelled to the U.S. about once a year.

The judge rejected a request for an injunction suspending the quarantine order until a full “judicial review” of it could be heard.

Monsanto said 14 days of isolation would seriously impede his ability to do his job, but Little said that was outweighed by the “harm to the public interest,” noting the journalist had not told court about the nature of his activities in Michigan and potential there for coming in contact with COVID-19.

“The (Rebel employee's) statements that he takes appropriate precautions are not sufficient in the context to show that he is not a risk to spread the virus following his overnight trip to the United States.”

Monsanto's lawyer said Monsanto attended a Republican event Nov. 2 in Traverse City, Mich., the same day President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence appeared there for a rally. Such Trump gatherings are known to attract large numbers of supporters in close quarters.

Rylee Raeburn- Gibson, the Rebel employee's lawyer, said he appreciated Little's lengthy ruling on the issue and called it well-reasoned.

But he suggested the rules should be modified to reflect the importance of journalists doing their jobs in other countries. The requirement to quarantine is a barrier to outlets that lack permanent U. S. correspondents, Raeburn-gibson said.

“Canadians I don't think should be able to travel willynilly across the border,” he said. “(But) there must be a way to at least provide some certainty on what kind of journalistic work cross border is going to be allowed without quarantine.”

The current rules provide exemptions for a variety of groups, including truck drivers, fishermen working international waters, soldiers, airline crew, critical-infrastructure technicians and students working in health care.

In fact, about 80 per cent of the millions who have entered Canada since March have fallen under one of the exemptions, according to government statistics.

Sergio Karas, a Toronto immigration lawyer not involved in the case, said the Monsanto judgment was logical and sent “a very strong message that the court will not entertain this sort of application.”

But he said that the isolation requirement generally is having a serious economic and human impact.

While many of his clients qualify for one of the exemptions, many others do not and it impacts their operations, said Karas.

“There is no question that the quarantine of 14 days is creating a very serious issue for business,” he said.