(THREAD) Quarantine Act - we should all know what we are dealing with

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/q-1.1/page-1.html
1/ The devil is in the details. The first couple of sentences raise a red flag.

A communicable disease need to pose "a risk of significant harm to public health"

How is significant defined? Do the covid deaths meet that bar?
2/ While looking for a definition of significant harm to public health I found this gem!

2007 Jun 19:

"When I trained in public health, some 25 years ago, quarantine had fallen into disrepute because of the widespread perception that it did not work" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1891118/
3/ "Mass quarantine gained further currency when it was adopted as a control strategy against severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003. Now, quarantine is re-entrenched in the mainstream of public health theory such that it is being proposed as a measure to fight pandemic
4/ "The Control of Communicable Disease Manual4 provides an authoritative summary of control measures for more than 150 infectious diseases of public health concern."
"The manual does not recommend any quarantine measures for influenza, smallpox or SARS, and it does not recommend mass quarantine for any disease in any circumstances."

and there you have it
5/ "For quarantine to be effective, 3 conditions must be met. First, the disease must be efficiently transmissible in its incubation period or very early in its symptomatic stage."
6/ "Case isolation, not quarantine, is appropriate for diseases that are spread only during symptomatic illness"
7/ "Quarantine will be ineffective for diseases that can be spread by people with only asymptomatic illness. Second, it must be possible and practical to identify all, or virtually all, people incubating the infection."
8/ "Third, infected people must comply with the conditions of the quarantine."

You think.....well now apparently people are rethinking voluntary compliance altogether
9/ The (Quarantine) act should be used almost exclusively for case-specific measures and rarely, if ever, for true quarantine.

.....
10/ "Could border quarantine protect Canada against an influenza pandemic? No. It would be impossible to identify all people potentially exposed to a disease infecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide."
11/ "In addition, people with asymptomatic infections would still slip through a quarantine net"
12/ "Our real defence lies in sanitation and hygiene, overall health and general medical care, and in immunization, antibiotics and antiviral drugs"
13/ Ok now back to the act.

"Every traveller shall comply with any reasonable measure ordered by a screening officer or quarantine officer for the purpose of preventing the introduction and spread of a communicable disease."
This is section is for people entering Canada from abroad.

....what are reasonable measures? This leaves a lot of room.
14/ Travellers: "The screening officer may, without directives from a quarantine officer, isolate the traveller, individually or within a group, until the traveller is assessed by a quarantine officer."
15/ "18 A peace officer may, at the request of a screening officer or quarantine officer, arrest without a warrant and bring to a quarantine officer any traveller......
16/ "who the peace officer has reasonable grounds to believe has refused to be isolated or refuses to comply with a measure under subsection 15(3)."
17/ so the message is that whatever "reasonable" measures the Quarantine officer or peace officer sets out you have to comply with or risk being arrested
18/ "The health assessment shall be undertaken as soon as reasonably practicable but in any case within 48 hours after the quarantine officer requires the traveller to undergo it."

* Or a medical exam
19/ If you don't pose a significant risk and they think you may have a communicable disease or have been in contact with someone who has they can direct you to report to the public health authority
20/ Said health authority will let the Quarantine officer know if you've reported to them
21/ Section 26 is worrisome: "the quarantine officer may order the traveller to comply with treatment or any other measure for preventing the introduction and spread of the communicable disease"

ok....
22/ .....and they only need to have "reasonable grounds" to believe you have a communicable disease or were in close proximity to someone who MIGHT have a communicable disease
23/ Section 27: if "a traveller has failed to comply with an order made under subsection 25(1) or section 26 may issue a warrant directing a peace officer to arrest the traveller and take them to a quarantine officer."
24/ They can detain you and there's a lot of room here. If you don't comply with the health screening or medical exam etc but more importantly if you

"failed to comply with an order made under section 26"
so what are the treatments they can compel you to take?

That's not comforting at all.
25/ Arrest without warrant

(2) A peace officer may, at the request of a quarantine officer, arrest without a warrant and bring to the quarantine officer any traveller referred to in subsection (1) who resists detention.
26/ Section 29 (1) The quarantine officer shall immediately inform a traveller detained under subsection 28(1) of their right to a review of the confirmation of detention.

But what exactly is a "review"
27/ you may be in for a while before they have to get a doctor in to see you

"(2) The quarantine officer shall provide the traveller with the opportunity to undergo a medical examination by a medical practitioner at least every 7 days after the day on which the detention begins"
28/ (3) A quarantine officer has confirm every 7 days, on the basis of the most recent medical examination, that continued detention is necessary because of continued risk to public health. They also have to give you a copy of confirmation of detention
29/ Here's the review process:

1. You send a written request to your Quarantine officer
2. The quarantine officer sends it the review officer
3. in 48 hours they have to conduct a review
4. If there's no risk the traveller has to be released
30/ The minister can also review the case and release the traveller if they are deemed not to be a risk
31/ Section 31: Mandatory application for court order

The quarantine officer shall, as soon as reasonably practicable, apply to a judge of the superior court of the province in which the traveller is detained, or to a judge of the Federal Court, for an order requiring:
32/
(a) to submit to a health assessment;
(b) to submit to a medical examination;
(c) to be treated;
(d) to be disinfested; or
(e) to undergo any other measure for preventing or controlling the spread of a communicable disease

If the traveler refused to do so
33/ A quarantine officer who detains a traveller who has not refused to undergo the medical examination may apply to a judge of the superior court of the province in which the traveller is detained or fed court for an order referred to in any of paragraphs (1)(b) to (e).
34/ A judge may order medical intervention if it's "appropriate to prevent or control a risk of significant harm to public health" and "other reasonable means are not available to prevent or control the risk"
35/ Section 33 "A quarantine officer may at any time transfer a traveller detained by the quarantine officer under subsection 28(1) to a public health authority with the agreement of the authority or the province."

......hmmm ok
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