Two week quarantine imposed on Ontario woman after day trip to Buffalo

A Toronto-area woman has been forced to isolate for 14 days after returning from a day trip to the United States and forgetting to fill out her ArriveCAN app.

Laurie Fonseca spent just seven hours shopping across the border in Buffalo, New York, but when the fully vaccinated Mississauga woman and her friend were returning to Canada at the Rainbow Bridge crossing, they were told to quarantine for two weeks due to not pre-registering on the ArriveCAN app.

“It was like being kicked in the gut,” Fonseca told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. “I'm basically bound in my house for 14 days and I'm a Canadian citizen, fully vaccinated — this makes absolutely no sense to me.”

The Canada Border Services said in a release issued Tuesday that the ArriveCAN app “remains mandatory for everyone, regardless if travellers enter by land/air/marine or how long they were away from Canada.”

Canadian citizens, permanent residents and persons registered under the Indian Act will not be denied entry if they do not submit their information in the ArriveCan app, but will not be eligible for the fully vaccinated traveller exemption, may face additional delays at the border for public health questioning and may be subject to fines or enforcement action.

Fonseca says she asked the CBSA officer whether she could park her car and fill out the registration then but was denied.

Fonseca’s travelling companion will miss an important family event due to the imposed quarantine, she says.

“She's got a flight on Dec. 14th at 9 p.m. to go back home to England for her brother's 60th birthday,” Fonseca said. “The border guard said, ‘Well she won't be going because quarantine ends at 11:59 p.m.’”

Canada Border Services declined to speak on the specifics of this case, but highlighted that it's a must to have the ArriveCAN app filled out and to do your homework before travelling across the border.

With files from CTV News Toronto's Austin Delaney.