7 onions, 9 eggplants, eggplant seeds, and 2 yams = $200 fine

Joseph Agyekum has been fined $200 for failing to declare the 7 onions, 9 eggplants, eggplant seeds and 2 yams he brought with him into Canada on a flight from Ghana.  Even if he had declared the items, the importation would have required permits which Mr. Agyekum did not have.  He appealed the monetary penalty issued by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to the Canadian Agricultural Review Tribunal, but lost on appeal. 

Of note, the Tribunal provided the following statement about the nature of the monetary penalty:

The Tribunal wishes to point out to the Applicant that this is not a criminal or a federal offence but a monetary violation, and that he has the right to apply after 5 years to have the notation of this violation removed from the Minister's records in accordance with subsection 23(1) of the Agriculture and Agri-Food Administrative Monetary Penalties Act, which states as follows:

23. (1) Any notation of a violation shall, on application by the person who committed the violation, be removed from any records that may be kept by the Minister respecting that person after the expiration of five years from

(a) where the notice of violation contained a warning, the date the notice was served, or

(b) in any other case, the payment of any debt referred to in subsection 15(1),

unless the removal from the record would not in the opinion of the Minister be in the public interest or another notation of a violation has been recorded by the Minister in respect of that person after that date and has not been removed in accordance with this subsection.

This is the same legislation that applies to monetary penalties issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in connection with the tagging of cattle.

Read the tribunal decision at: Agyekum v. Canada Border Services Agency.