During a COVID-19 briefing held on January 29, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the Canadian government’s new safety measures, affecting international air travel. When these rules were announced, travelers were given five days to prepare for them to take place, beginning on February 3, 2021. This would limit planes to land in four major airports throughout Canada, including Montreal-Trudeau International Airport; Toronto Pearson International Airport; Calgary International Airport; and the Vancouver International Airport. This not only includes international flights, but private, business, and charter flights, as well.
During the conference, Prime Minister Trudeau also announced that “The government and Canada’s main airlines have agreed to suspend air services to sun destinations right away. Air Canada, WestJet, Sunwing, and Air Transat are cancelling air service to all Caribbean destinations and Mexico starting February 3, up until April 30, 2021. This new restriction will prevent any travelers from fulfilling their regular plans for March break, avoiding a spike in cases as seen last year. For those who are abroad in any of these destinations, arrangements to return them to Canada have been the focus of these airlines, similar to March of 2020, when the country was entering its first lockdown.
Prior to boarding flights to Canada, passengers are required to provide a negative COVID-19 test result. The new restrictions also require passengers to stay in a pre-approved hotel for three nights for an estimated cost of $2000, which the passenger must cover on their own.
If a traveler tests negative, they will be required to continue self-isolating in their pre-arranged destinations. If a traveler tests positive, they will remain in a government arranged facility until they have recovered. The Canadian government also announced that there will be a heavier presence of Screening Officers, who will confirm that travelers are completing their quarantine with daily check-ins as well as conducting visits.
These new restrictions will affect everyone who relies on air travel for work, education, personal matters, or emergencies. Students at the University of Toronto have continually expressed their concern regarding the ongoing restrictions, especially those studying internationally. Some international students have not returned home since Christmas break 2019. Some have remained within Canada since the start of the pandemic, and this has left international students and recent graduates to consider if risking their own health as well as their families’ health is worth returning home. This issue becomes heavier when observing that their home country could have a lower or larger number of cases than Canada. While many agree that these changes will slow the spread of COVID-19, there is concern for how these restrictions will impact those who cannot afford these accommodations. While there has been a demand for Canada to implore heavier travel restrictions for international flights, only now will the government be able to confide that flights were a major culprit in the spread of COVID-19 cases.
Well, international flights were never prohibited from flying into and out of Canada, only those who flew to ‘sunspots’ from where variants did not arise. Trudeau is placating Quebec and Ontario, who handled their outbreaks poorly and who have the largest number of votes to deliver him in an election. With thousands of truckers allowed to travel in and out of canada w/o testing we can see how covid is allowed unfettered access to Canada. Demonizing travellers for votes is a lousy idea. Also variants are not the boogey man they make out. In 30 days there will be hundreds of variants, including from here, and they will not be more transmissable or lethal than the original. However these constituents: “everyone who relies on air travel for work, education, personal matters or emergencies” will not forget how they were treated. I am one of them. The best comment I ever read in all the sanctimonious, hateful and uninformed comments on these good canadians vs travellers non-news stories (and I was made terrified, sick and depressed by them) was this: Why does Trudeau hate the sun?