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Toronto Chair Girl says she didn't break mandatory quarantine orders

Judge lest ye be judged, grown men and women of Twitter: Your hysterical calls for Toronto Chair Girl to be thrown in prison over a violation of Canada's Quarantine act appear to have been for naught.

Marcella Zoia, known for throwing a chair from the 43rd-floor balcony of a downtown Toronto condo building in February of 2019 and the fascinating court case that followed, says she didn't just return from vacation.

Rather, the 20-year-old Instagram model tells blogTO that her recent photos from Tahiti and Bora Bora — all posted between Aug.15 and 19 — were taken in January.

Being that her travels to French Polynesia took place before the COVID-19 pandemic, there's no way she could have violated the federal government's 14-day mandatory quarantine order.

You'd be forgiven for thinking so, however, based on the timing of her vacay posts, and the fact that Zoia did not indicate any of them had been taken at an earlier date.

In fact, dozens of the Instagram Stories she uploaded last week contain location tags for places in Bora Bora and Tahiti.

When asked why she waited at least seven months to upload the photos from January over the span of a few days, in faux-real time, Zoia did not respond.

Regardless, if she wasn't out of the country less than 14 days ago, the young woman did not violate emergency orders by going out in Toronto this weekend, nor was she flouting the law posting photos of herself in the city.

Under the Quarantine Act, effective until at least Aug. 31, Canada's federal government requires all people entering the country, whether by air, sea or land, to "quarantine (self-isolate) themselves for 14 days if they are asymptomatic in order to limit the introduction and spread of COVID-19."

Failure to comply with an order made under the Quarantine Act comes with a maximum fine of up to $750,000 and six months in prison.

Ironically, last month, Crown prosecutors were recommending a four to six-month-long jail sentence (among other things) for Zoia's role in the chair tossing incident.

Instead, she got two years of probation, 150 hours of community service, a $2,000 fine and the ability to say she appeared in a Drake video one time... however briefly.

Lead photo by

Marcella Zoia


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