No fines in Quebec for hotel quarantine violations

Quebec's public prosecutions bureau says it hasn't issued tickets or filed criminal charges for violations of the national health order requiring travellers arriving in Canada to quarantine at a designated hotel.

The Montreal airport is one of only four in Canada where international flights are permitted to land.

The Public Health Agency of Canada says at least 1,098 tickets have been issued and 15 people have been criminally charged for violations of the Quarantine Act since March 2020. The agency did not immediately reply to a question about how many of those were for violations of the hotel quarantine requirement.

Audrey Roy Cloutier, a spokeswoman for Quebec's prosecutors office, says prosecutors have not issued any fines — or filed any charges — for violations of the Quarantine Act. She says Quebec prosecutors are responsible for issuing tickets for violations of the law and share responsibility with their federal colleagues for laying charges.

Montreal police say they have submitted 43 reports of alleged violations of the Quarantine Act to prosecutors since Feb. 22, the day the hotel quarantine requirement went into effect. They declined to say whether any of those reports were related to violations of that requirement.

Amélie Paquet, a spokeswoman for Quebec Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault, says police in the province are enforcing the law and submitting infraction reports to provincial prosecutors. While police can issue fines on the spot for some violations of Quebec's Public Health Act, fines under the federal Quarantine Act must be issued by prosecutors.