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Alberta woman held in indefinite detention after flight despite negative COVID test

Tiffany Burroughs
Updated: 3 June 2023
1 min to read

Jason Kenney’s statement that there are no ‘COVID interment camps’ in Canada is looking more inaccurate by the day.

Nikki Mathis left for Dallas on work-related matters Monday. Her husband, Pastor Chris Mathis of the Summit Church in Edmonton, informed us that his wife had ensured all available precautions were respected during her time abroad, taking a mandatory nasal swab test prior to her return home Thursday:

Upon arriving in Calgary, however, Nikki was informed that her test was “insufficient,” even though Canadian airlines do not let passengers board without documentation certifying the individual in question is COVID-free. Other passengers who had taken tests before the flight were taken to rapid-testing upon arrival, Chris tells us—Nikki wasn’t.

Although Nikki asked the police and AHS officials who greeted her if she could return home to her husband and children to quarantine there, her request was denied. Nikki was instead told she would be escorted to a government-run isolation facility. Officials promptly failed to disclose to both Mathis and her husband where she was being taken, calling it “confidential”; Chris consequently told us that he was only able to find out his wife’s location by telling her to leave Location Services turned on on her phone .

Transported to a former hotel near the Calgary Airport in an unmarked white van under heavy police surveillance, Chris informs us that his wife remains in a guarded room, unable to leave. Although Nikki was informed she could leave as soon as officials administered her another negative COVID test, Chris told the Buffalo Tribune that no one has yet to reach out to his wife.

Member of Parliament David Yurdiga and his staff have been closely monitoring the situation, stating that “this incident goes against everything that makes us Canadians. We should demand far better from our government; to not even know where our loved ones are being held is a both a breach of government trust and a massive instance of state overreach.”

The Buffalo Tribune will be closely monitoring the ongoing situation and extends our thoughts and prayers towards Pastor Chris Mathis for his wife’s quick release. We have reached out to several Alberta ministers for comment, presently without response.

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Updated: 3 June 2023
1 min to read

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