By Tim Binnall
A Flat Earth enthusiast who sued the Canadian government after he was arrested for flouting coronavirus-related lockdown laws saw his claim dismissed by a judge who reportedly declared the lawsuit "patently absurd and nonsensical." The strange saga of Mak Parhar began last autumn when he journeyed to North Carolina for a convention devoted to the controversial conspiracy theory and, upon his return home, refused to adhere to regulations stating that out-of-country travelers must quarantine for two weeks. Things came to a head when the Flat Earther attended an anti-mask rally in Vancouver, where he boasted about rebuffing the authorities, which led to him being arrested and held for four days.
Shortly after his release, Parhar subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against the Canadian government wherein he cited a fringe and debunked legal theory which, he believes, exempts him from not only the country's quarantine rules but all of the nation's regulations as well. Additionally, the Flat Earther alleged that the authorities had committed a litany of misdeeds against him including kidnapping, terrorism, extortion, and fraud. Parhar's claim finally came before a judge last Friday and, unfortunately for the conspiracy theorist, it would seem that his legal argument did not hold up in court.
In dismissing the lawsuit, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Murray Blok declared that Parhar's claim was "patently absurd and nonsensical." In what one might also say about the Flat Earther's belief in the shape of the planet, the judge mused regarding the conspiracy theorist's legal argument that "it is difficult to understand how anyone could come to believe any of its concepts." While Blok lambasted the premise of the lawsuit, he did express some sympathy for Parhar, in light of the conspiracy theorist's apparent misunderstanding how the Canadian legal system works.
"He spent four days in jail, evidently the result of alleged breaches of the Quarantine Act," the judge wrote in his decision, "and it appears this occurred because someone convinced him, or he convinced himself, that statute law does not apply to him. It was a hard way to learn that laws do not work on an 'opt-in' basis." Unfortunately for Parhar, this is not the end of his legal battle as he is set to go on trial later this summer for multiple charges stemming from his alleged violation of the Canadian Quarantine Act later and could receive a sizeable fine as well as a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.