Trudeau ‘Open’ To Tighter Travel Restrictions As Feds Track COVID Variants

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is leaving the door open to tighter journey restrictions, together with a attainable ban on outbound air journey as COVID-19 case counts climb throughout the nation.

“We’re always open to strengthening them as necessary,” Trudeau mentioned, referring to measures proscribing worldwide flights.

Officials are preserving an in depth eye on international locations the place extra simply transmissible strains of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 have damaged out, he mentioned.

The prime minister pointed to worrisome mutations in Brazil in addition to the United Kingdom, whose outbound flights Canada banned in December.

Those flights have been permitted once more after authorities started requiring incoming passengers to current proof of latest detrimental COVID-19 exams earlier than boarding.

“We will continue to look at various variants, various geographies, and make sure we’re taking the right decisions and the right measures to keep Canadians safe,” Trudeau mentioned at a press convention at Rideau Hall on Friday.

The alternative of whether or not to bar journey to the United States lies largely with the U.S., not Canada, for the reason that nation of arrival has jurisdiction over who enters, he added.

Earlier this month, a survey by Léger and the Association for Canadian Studies discovered that 87 per cent of respondents mentioned they might help a complete ban on worldwide journey till there are a number of consecutive days of decreased numbers of COVID-19 instances.

Léger vice-president Christian Bourque mentioned the response is in keeping with comparable questions requested all through the pandemic, but in addition displays a rising want by Canadians for governments to take more durable motion to curb the unfold of COVID-19.

That urge comes amid a backlash to provincial and federal politicians travelling to seashores overseas over the vacations.

The prospect of a hard-nosed journey bans raises constitutional questions round freedom of motion.

Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that “every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.”

All rights are topic to affordable limits, however can solely be reined in when it’s “necessary and proportionate,” Michael Bryant, government director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, mentioned in an interview.

“While the precautionary principle would suggest that when in doubt keep people home, our constitution demands more than just a when-in-doubt approach for particular activities.”

Overseas sojourns shoulder the blame for under a fraction of outbreaks.

Under two per cent of all coronavirus instances reported in Canada stem from overseas journey, in keeping with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

A ban on outbound journeys makes little sense to Michael Feder, a Vancouver-based lawyer with experience in constitutional legislation.

“It’s the coming back that’s trouble,” he mentioned.

“No one’s annoyed that Alberta politicians went to Hawaii. They’re annoyed that they went to Hawaii and came back.”

The requirement for worldwide passengers to point out detrimental outcomes on a just lately carried out COVID-19 take a look at adopted by two weeks of self-isolation on dwelling turf quantities to a robust barrier in opposition to viral unfold. An outright flight ban would do little to bolster that defence, however it might encroach on mobility rights, Feder mentioned.

“I think it’s infuriating to see elected leaders taking off for sunnier climates,” he mentioned, calling it an “act of hypocrisy.”

“But I don’t actually see how a restriction on outbound travel does anything to help Canada combat the pandemic.”

Trudeau sought to elucidate the disparity between stringent lockdown measures corresponding to Ontario’s stay-at-home order or Quebec’s curfew and the open runway on jetting off to a Caribbean all-inclusive.

“Different jurisdictions will set up the rules that they think are best based on the best advice of their public health officials. On the federal side we have discouraged non-essential international travel, including by imposing mandatory quarantines for anyone returning to Canada and now mandatory testing for anyone before they get on a plane to come back to Canada,” he mentioned.

The new curtailments prompted airways to slash flight schedules over the previous week, with Air Canada and WestJet asserting 2,700 layoffs.

Air Transat flight numbers have fallen by greater than 90 per cent yr over yr, the corporate mentioned. 

A ban on non-essential journey would imply a complete shutdown, a minimum of for a time, mentioned Air Transat spokesman Christophe Hennebelle.

“However ‘essential travel’ is defined, such a ban would probably mean that we would need to stop our operations entirely, unless specific support is granted to help us maintain some form of connectivity,” he mentioned in an e mail.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Jan. 15, 2021.