A Canadian native who has lived in the United States for nearly three decades but maintains a strong bond with his family in the border city was confronted with a difficult choice.
His sister urgently called him one day this spring, telling him that their mother was in palliative care and would most likely die within hours. So the 60-year-old guy had to choose between entering Canada legally and risking missing his ailing mother while in the then-mandatory 14-day quarantine for overseas travellers during the global pandemic, or sneaking in illegally to be at her side.
Justice Krista Lynn Leszczynski, a Sarnia-based judge, told the man this week she had “compassion” for the conundrum he faced.
“Having said that, facing that decision you clearly made the wrong one,” she said shortly before granting him an absolute discharge following a single conviction under the Customs Act.
The man, who won’t be named due to the discharge, slipped into Canada on April 30 by boating across the St. Clair River and evading border officers at Walpole Island First Nation, about 60 kilometres south of Sarnia. He was arrested soon after, though, when a concerned citizen called local police about a suspicious person following a “brief encounter” at a local dispensary.
He readily admitted his plan to police and border officials, as well as his family-related motivation. After spending most of the day in custody, he was charged, released and sent back to the U.S. in a taxi.
Assistant federal prosecutor Brian Higgins said at “first blush” he was “very” concerned when he read the alleged facts.
“But having watched and listened to the entire interview that he provided to Canada Border Services (Agency), it painted a picture of somebody who was making a very, very poor decision in what he saw as a desperate circumstance for himself and his family,” he said.
Defence lawyer Veronica Ceponis admitted her client, who is “extremely” family-oriented, made “poor” choices, but they were out of a sense of panic.
“This was done out of absolute desperation and panic as opposed to a nefarious intention to skirt authorities,” said Ceponis, a Sarnia-based lawyer who focuses on immigration law and litigation, according to her website.
After pleading guilty this week to one charge of failing to present himself to an officer under the Customs Act, the man apologized.
“All I wanted to do was to see my mother. I recognize I made a mistake. I was prepared to take that risk to see her,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
Based on the specific situation, the man’s co-operation with border officials and potential “unforeseen consequences” on his life in the U.S. – he has a family there and runs his own business – both Higgins and Ceponis asked the judge to impose the discharge.
Leszczynski first said she was “very” concerned with the man’s actions that day.
“It’s very risky and had the potential to put many other people at risk or their health at risk, especially if your intention was to attend at the place where your mother was in palliative care,” she said.
But, the judge added, she was satisfied an absolute discharge wasn’t contrary to the public interest.
“And, in fact, is appropriate and fit in order to meet the objectives of sentencing,” Leszczynski said.
Other charges were withdrawn.
The health of the man’s mother was not disclosed in court, but in an email to The Sarnia Observer Ceponis confirmed the woman died Thursday morning. “The family is currently grieving,” she said.
About two months ago, another Sarnia judge blasted a different U.S. man for giving Sarnia border officers a single-fingered salute as he illegally raced through the city’s closed international crossing in late May, prompting a lengthy and dangerous high-speed chase through London.
Image credit: Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images