Farmers Forum columnist John Schwartzentruber says that governments and over-zealous bureaucrats ran roughshod over international and local laws and health policies and, because of it, numerous farmers, including local Amish farmers, suffered heavy fines.
Will not comply:
Amish farmers get hammered with COVID fines including one who says he would rather go to jail than pay almost $25,000DESBORO, GREY COUNTY – Nestled in the narrowing neck of land between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay, the peaceful beauty of the rolling, fertile farmland belies a hideous, ongoing struggle. Seldom do we witness a greater clash between virtue and vice, victimization and villainy, than the nightmarish scenario that has gripped a quiet, Amish farming community near Desboro, Ontario.
The conflict is rooted in the bizarre, inconsistent application of rules that Ottawa-driven officials served up in response to the engineered COVID-19 panic of 2021-2022. The antagonists are governments and over-zealous bureaucrats who ran roughshod over state and international laws, health policies and established scientific knowledge.
The victims, in this case, are a significant number of farmers and business people who have discovered they are unable to conduct normal commerce as a result of government muscle cracking down on them. Their offense? Peaceful, non-compliance with unconstitutional, scientifically unsupported COVID-19 policies.
No real names of the injured are being used here. Further, it should be understood that the effects suffered under unjust government COVID-19 dictates have affected multitudes of Canadians outside of this Amish community recently featured by Rebel News.
“David” first found out that he was in trouble when his bank refused him a loan to buy cattle because of an unpaid Provincial Offences fine. The lien was applied to secure a $6,220 ticket he received at the Canadian border because of his alleged non-compliance with COVID-19 rules when coming home from attending a child’s funeral in Ohio.
In conversation with those who received similar tickets, it became clear that there was a general lack of understanding of the court system. Each one believed that they would be notified of any legal proceeding before it took place. They weren’t.
Ironically, David’s wife and sister, accompanying him on that trip, were not ticketed by the border official. David alone was singled out for punishment.
The simple solution? Just pay the fine and get on with life, right? But it’s not as simple as it seems, as was demonstrated by subsequent events.
David made another trip to Ohio to attend a family funeral. Coming home, upon arrival at customs, his group of ten fellow-travelers faced the usual rote about vaccination status, COVID-19 tests and quarantine instructions. When asked to present their identification, this time David included with his a letter from the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) which detailed the Charter right of re-entry to Canadian citizens.
The customs official eventually returned and gave back their papers. But in his hand he held the CCF letter and asked which of the group it belonged to. David replied that it was his. The official handed it back and said to the entire group,
“You’re good to go”. After this incident, David came to realize that he could have avoided a lot of hardship by handing over that weighty document on his previous trip.
Some officials recognized their limits when they faced informed citizens.
Other family members who had traveled to Ohio were relieved when their re-entry was relatively uncomplicated, despite one COVID-19 test coming back as “Invalid.” Upon being told to go back for retesting, they refused and were then allowed to continue their journey home. No tickets were issued for their firm but respectfully stated non-consent.
Another group was returning from the funeral without having taken a Covid-19 test and had a similar experience when crossing the border. Upon being sent back for testing, they refused. They were ordered to go into government-mandated quarantine, which they also refused.
Next, they were told that the group would be issued $30,000 in fines for non-compliance. Still they refused. So the threatened fine was dropped to $3,000. Another steadfast refusal.
After three silent hours of waiting, they were sent home. They also held the CCF letter.
David’s father was less fortunate. During his numerous trips to Ohio to share the family responsibility of providing care to his dying father-in-law, he received numerous fines which totaled nearly $25,000. Rather than pay the fine, “I may go to prison,” he said.
How many Canadians were similarly punished by COVID-19 rules and fines for lack of knowing their rights? And further, these Amish do not own electronic devices. How were they supposed to comply with government travel mandates that required such technology?
Although the Amish and other plain, Anabaptist communities enjoy a public perception of being a special people, they will quickly decline any portrayal. They just want to live a separate, unassuming lifestyle. They strive to be honest and open in their dealings.
And this is where the great dichotomy is fully displayed: A purposefully-ethical people being punished by a boondoggle created by shameless, unethical, government-funded paper shufflers. Auditor General Karen Hogan reported to Parliament that governments broke so many rules in response to the vastly-overblown COVID-19 threat that it is impossible to quantify the looting of the public purse. For example, two men were paid $20 million for developing the problem-ridden ArriveCan app which could have been developed for $80,000. It ended up costing us nearly $60 million.
Beyond losing their freedoms, Canadians were robbed of hundreds of millions of tax dollars which lined the pockets of the well-connected who profiteered from the COVID-19 scandals while exacting a heartless, unconscionable price from people who posed no threat to society. They call this justice? Was one observer correct when he said, “The government is a bunch of thugs”?
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