Alaskan Romeo escorted out of Banff after breaking border rules to meet Calgary woman

'He was a little bit irritated that we said, "No, you’re not allowed to have your spa appointment"'

National Post Staff
Aug 07, 2020  •  August 7, 2020  •  2 minute read
Banff has become a destination for U.S. visitors, some of whom don't seem to be taking COVID-19 regulations all that seriously. Photo by Marie Conboy

The New York Times reports that an Alaskan man has been hit with repeated tickets and faces possible jail time after breaking COVID-19 regulations to head to Banff to see a Calgary woman he met online.

The man was issued not one but two tickets in June, the Times reports, after being pursued by hotel staff, concerned citizens and local police after repeatedly flouting the border restrictions in place since March 31. So far, his identity remains unknown.

Since the border has been closed to all non-essential travel between the two countries, and with COVID-19 cases in the U.S. at far higher levels than in Canada, Canadians have been increasingly eager to report outside visitors who may be disregarding COVID-19 rules and putting people in danger. Many Americans have been stopped at the border, Canadian authorities say, but still they are trying to cross in relatively high numbers.

The Alaskan in question was first apprehended by locals in Banff in June, the Times reported, with the plates on his vehicle at the Rimrock Resort Hotel proving to be a giveaway. When he was called to his room at the resort and asked by staff to confirm that he had been abiding by the local quarantine laws, he couldn’t do so, and staff called the police.

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The incident marked just the fourth time guests had been questioned since the pandemic closed the U.S.-Canada border in March. According to the Times, the man wasn’t taking the rules at all seriously, and was in fact annoyed at being put out by the query by staff. The next day, he presumed it would be business as usual, despite the fact that he had been slapped with a ticket for $870 and told to get out of town.

“He was a little bit irritated that we said, ‘No, you’re not allowed to have your spa appointment,’” Trevor Long, the Rimrock’s manager, said, adding that the man was a “challenging fellow.”

When the couple then drove towards the Banff Gondola, RCMP were once more called when a member of the public spotted the Alaska plates. This time, they were escorted by a police car to the edge of town, and the Alaskan was charged with breaking the Quarantine Act. He could be imprisoned for six months and fined as much as $560,000.

A court date has been set for November; it’s unclear if he has actually left Canada.

In Alberta, Americans weren’t hit with any such tickets in all of April, May and July, but June saw nine issued, all focused in Banff National Park. The Times reports that there were 53 reports about foreign plates in Alberta between mid-June and the end of June, and 121 between the start and end of July.