How an Ontario man’s forgotten email password resulted in a $6,255 Quarantine Act fine at the U.S. border – CBC

Confusing, changing COVID-19 border rules show need for independent oversight of CBSA, expert says

Aug 11, 2021

Crossing home from the U.S. to Canada in a taxi at the end of July, Saadi Kadhum rolled down the window and pulled out his phone to show the border officer the email confirming his negative COVID-19 test.

But as he readied his thumbs to punch in his email password, he froze. Try as he might, he couldn’t remember it — a forgetful moment that would cost him $6,255 in fines.

Kadhum, 56, said he felt increasingly frazzled as he tried variation after variation with no luck, stuck on the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor.

“The officer was on me,” said Kadhum who works in the construction industry and lives in the Toronto area. “He wasn’t even letting me leave the taxi.”

Kadhum who’d gone to the U.S. to attend his daughter’s wedding a few days earlier, said he was eventually locked out of his email account and needed to access a computer to verify his identity.

How an Ontario man’s forgotten email password resulted in a $6,255 Quarantine Act fine at the U.S. border – CBC

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