Amish farmers fined for not using COVID-era ArriveCan app as legal battle over religious freedom continues

A pandemic-era border rule has sparked a legal battle for Amish families who say they could not comply with a smartphone requirement that conflicted with their beliefs.

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Article by Rebel News staff

Tonight on The Ezra Levant Show: Amish farmers fined, an old-world way of life under threat, and a battle over religious freedom.

Picture rolling fields, hand-built barns and a way of life largely untouched by modernity. Around two and a half hours west of Toronto, Amish communities continue to farm using animal and human power, rejecting electricity, automobiles and most modern technology.

For the Amish, this is not simply a lifestyle choice. It is a religious practice rooted in their Christian faith. Their communities live much as they have for generations, keeping a low profile, avoiding conflict and turning to a simpler way of life.

That changed during the COVID pandemic hysteria.

Amish families regularly crossed the Canada-U.S. border for family, religious and everyday reasons. When returning to Canada, they were asked the same question as other travellers: had they downloaded the ArriveCan app?

For the Amish, the question created an impossible situation. They do not use smartphones, and their faith prevents them from adopting much of the modern technology required by the app.

Without realising it, Amish families were issued fines that eventually totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars across the community. Some only discovered what had happened when liens were placed on their farms, threatening properties that had been passed down through generations.

Around 40 farms were affected, leaving Amish families facing a legal battle they never expected to fight.

The Democracy Fund stepped in to challenge the cases, with lawyers Marc Joseph and Adam Blake-Gallipeau working to reopen the convictions. So far, 24 families have had their cases reopened and stayed, removing the immediate legal threat. However, eight families were denied that relief and are continuing their appeals through the Ontario courts.

The cases have highlighted the challenges faced by a community that avoids conflict and does not use modern communication systems, yet found itself navigating a complex legal process involving courts, paperwork and technology.

The legal fight continues, with the remaining families seeking to have their cases reconsidered through the appeals process.

COMMENTS

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  • David J Paddison
    commented 2026-08-05 10:27:11 -0400
    Perhaps this goes much deeper than ArriveCan. So 24 farms not affected but 8 are…mmm. Look at the location of those 8 farms. Are they located where developers will eventually want to build? Wouldn’t surprise me at all if that’s the case/reason. Remember the government expropriated land in Pickering back in the 70’s to build an airport that never came and now a small city is being built there. This may be just a different tactic the government’s using to eventually obtain the Amish lands for future development…
  • John Van Vliet
    commented 2026-08-05 08:49:35 -0400
    This is so absurd. I was in the Philippines when Covid19 started and tried to return home. I got a note to apply for Arrive Canada, and every time my flight was delayed, I was sent a number. I must have received a different number 4 or 5 times, and finally I was booked by Air Canada. When I was at the airport, I was told my flight was cancelled- a hopeless situation.
    I was allowed to fly to Manila with Cebu Air so that I would have a better chance to book another flight from Manila to Vancouver and from there to Edmonton. I was able to book a flight with Philippine Airlines but had to wait 9 days for this flight. At that time, there was so much confusion, and I did not get another number. I was told I could not fly without a number, but when it was time to depart, I was in a line of several hundred people. Philippine Airlines did not ask for the number, and someone asked me if I had booked a hotel, and I said I would make arrangements when I arrive in Vancouver.
    I was allowed to board without an Arrive Canada number, and when I arrived in Vancouver, Customs did not ask for an Arrive Canada number but told me to pay the $1500 because I had to be quarantined; the delay of my flight caused this.
    At Customs, they did not even make a remark in my passport.
    But by refusing to pay the $1500, I was fined $3500 and put in a hotel, which was a good place, and I was treated well with good food and services despite COVID-19 restrictions, and was released after 9 days to book a flight to Edmonton, but I was refused to use my original ticket from my cancelled flight.
    I wrote to the Department of Justice, and after three letters explaining the complications and problems created by Air Canada, which, by the way, never reimbursed me for the cancelled flight, my fine was cancelled.
    But Arrive Canada looked very confusing and to me looked like a huge scam, and it did not make any sense!!
    This is a horrible thing that they are doing to the Amish people; instead of doing an investigation and fining bureaucrats for the Arrive Canada scam, they fined the innocent. The whole COVID-19 rules and regulations by the Liberals were a total and horrible mess, and Arrive Canada did not make any sense!.
    Canadian citizens were treated like cattle with absurd laws, and Arrive Canada’s policy looks retrospectively like a total and complete failure.
  • Tony Salotti
    commented 2026-08-05 07:31:25 -0400
    Welcome to the dictatorship of Canada .Time to fly our flags upside down .
  • Michael Guillery
    commented 2026-08-04 23:05:09 -0400
    What can we do about holding the bureaucrats, behind fining the Amish, accountable?
  • Terri Carter
    commented 2026-08-04 22:57:49 -0400
    Extreme is the word. Govt trying to take your will
  • Hugh Jacobs
    commented 2026-08-04 20:58:38 -0400
    Re Tamara Ugalini’s comments on the Edmonton Police pre-crime interventions:
    I went to a large, well known Canadian high school in the 1960’s. Our English literature teacher in grade 11 used 1984 as a subject for the English course we took. Today I consider this gentleman a true prophet! The next year we studied Brave New World! I still have these books all annotated!
  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2026-08-04 20:47:41 -0400
    The Amish have a right to live the way they want to. But we have power-mad bureaucrats who figure they’re always right. And while this prosecution goes on, REAL hate crimes against Jews and Christians are ignored or shrugged off. This is Carney’s Canada.
  • Bernhard Jatzeck
    commented 2026-08-04 20:22:48 -0400
    Odd how the law works. The Amish are Christian and they’re being penalized for not using certain 21st century hardware. Yet, we have “refugees” and “immigrants” who are let off the hook for not knowing that certain of their practices are illegal in this country.