WASHINGTON —
Fully vaccinated U.S. citizens wasted little time Monday seizing their first chance in 17 months to venture into Canada, while lawmakers south of the border urged the White House to hurry up and follow Ottawa’s lead.
As of 12:01 a.m. Monday, American citizens and permanent residents were allowed back on Canadian soil, provided at least 14 days had elapsed since receiving a full course of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada.
“I’m honestly just relieved to be here,” Kansas resident Tom Hanson said during a stopover at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, where he was en route to a long-delayed conference in Edmonton.
“There weren’t a lot of flights, so I had take the longer route.”
To be eligible, travellers must also live in the U.S., use Canada’s ArriveCAN app or web portal to upload their vaccination details and show proof of a negative molecular test that’s no more than 72 hours old.
David Plotkin, who flew to Toronto from Atlanta to see his brother and pregnant sister-in-law, was relieved to get the chance to visit again when he did.
“It’s a weight off my shoulders, honestly, to be able to see them,” Plotkin said. “It’s the kind of thing you hate to miss if you can help it.”
John Adams, a Florida resident who has been waging a relentless advertising campaign against the travel restrictions, said he was expecting to be back at his property on Vancouver Island before the supper hour.
“So far, our experience has been totally hassle-free given the substantial new requirements,” Adams wrote in an email from the airport in Tampa.
The restrictions had barely been eased 10 minutes before Adams got text messages from two separate people who had already crossed — one at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo, N.Y., the other in B.C.
“I asked both to rate their border crossing on a scale of one to 10 and both rated it as a 10.”
Travellers likely felt differently at the Fort Frances bridge between northern Ontario and Minnesota, where CBSA was reporting a seven-hour delay. Crossing from Maine to New Brunswick was taking upwards of four hours.
Elsewhere across the country, midday delays at various land crossings ranged from just a few minutes to nearly an hour.
“The CBSA continuously monitors traveller volumes and wait times to allocate resources and adjust staffing levels during peak travel periods,” the agency said in a statement.
“Travellers should plan for the possibility of additional processing time when crossing the border due to the enhanced public health measures.”
Fully vaccinated travellers who have recovered from the disease and are otherwise eligible to enter Canada can show proof of a positive molecular test taken between 14 and 90 days before crossing the border.
Denis Vinette, vice-president of the CBSA’s travellers branch, said the agency learned a lot when eligible Canadian citizens were allowed to return under similar conditions last month.
About half had to be turned away during the first week because they hadn’t received a Health Canada-approved vaccine, or had not waited the full 14 days after their last shot before travelling.
Canada has approved four vaccines: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, also known as Covishield, and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson option. All except AstraZeneca have been approved and widely deployed in the U.S.
As of now, border agents won’t be setting up separate queues for vaccinated and unvaccinated visitors — Vinette said a pilot project last month found that doing so had a negligible impact on wait times.
It took just as long — and sometimes longer — to ensure that travellers claiming to be fully vaccinated were indeed eligible to skip the otherwise mandatory 14-day quarantine, he said.
However, as both travellers and agents grow accustomed to the new rules, separate lines could be put in place in the future as travel volume increases.
“If it brings particular flow and additional relief in some of our constrained operations, then we will look at it at that time, but it’s not currently in place.”
The U.S. has so far resisted easing restrictions on non-essential travel at land crossings, and won’t say when that might change. Air and sea travellers are exempt, though passengers by rail, ferry and pleasure boat are not.
Critics of that lack of action were quick to point out the discrepancy Monday.
“We should work in a co-operative way to find out how we can meet in the middle ground,” Pennsylvania congressman Dwight Evans told an online panel hosted by the Canadian American Business Council.
“I believe that it can be done, and I think it is something that we just have to kind of get our heads together (on).”
New York Rep. Brian Higgins, one of the most persistent congressional voices on easing restrictions in the Canada-U.S. corridor, reiterated his demand for a U.S. plan to let travel resume.
Keeping the restrictions in place “harms separated families and hurts opportunities for economic recovery,” Higgins tweeted. “The time to act is long overdue.”
U.S. border communities have been “decimated” by the restrictions, “with steep losses in employment, wages and sales tax revenues, among other economic impacts,” says a new report from the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash.
The White House is exploring whether, when the time does finally come, to require visitors from outside the country to be fully vaccinated, although it is unclear whether that discussion specifically includes Canadian travellers.
The Canadian government is currently planning to allow vaccinated visitors from outside the U.S. to come to Canada for non-essential reasons as of Sept. 7.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 9, 2021.
MONTREAL – One expert says entry-level pay under the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement.
Under their current contract, pilots earn far less in their first four years at the company before enjoying a big wage increase starting in year five.
The Air Line Pilots Association had been pushing to scrap the so-called “fixed rate” provision entirely.
But according to a copy of the contract summary obtained by The Canadian Press, the proposed deal announced Sunday would merely cut the four-year period of lower pay to two years.
John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, says as many as 2,000 of Air Canada’s roughly 5,200 active pilots may earn entry-level wages following a recent hiring surge.
After the airline averted a strike this week, Gradek says the failure to ditch the pay grade restrictions could prompt pushback from rank-and-file flight crew and jeopardize the deal, which is up for a vote next month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
ROME (AP) — Salvatore “Totò” Schillaci, the Italy striker who was top scorer at its home World Cup in 1990, has died. He was 59.
Schillaci had been hospitalized in Palermo following treatment for colon cancer.
The Palermo Civico hospital said in a statement that Schillacci died on Wednesday morning after being admitted 11 days ago.
Schillaci scored six goals for Italy during the 1990 World Cup. He came on as a substitute during Italy’s opener against Austria, scored in a 1-0 victory, and went on to earn the Golden Boot awarded to the tournament’s top scorer. He only scored one other goal for Italy in his career.
Italian soccer federation president Gabriele Gravina announced that a minute of silence would be held in memory of Schillaci before all games in the country for the rest of the week.
“The uncontrollable celebrations, in which his face was the symbol of shared joy, will remain forever part of Italian soccer (history),” Gravina said. “Totò was a great player, a symbol of tenacious desire and redemption. … His soccer was full of passion. And that fearless spirit made everyone appreciate him and will make him immortal.”
Schillaci also won the Golden Ball award at the 1990 World Cup as the tournament’s top player ahead of Lothar Matthaus and Diego Maradona.
Schillaci played for Messina, Juventus, Inter Milan and Japanese team Jubilo Iwata during his club career.
“You made an entire nation dream during the Magical Nights of Italia ’90,” Inter said on its social media channels.
West Germany won the 1990 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final, while Italy beat England for third place with a winning penalty kick from Schillaci.
Roberto Baggio, who scored Italy’s opening goal in the third-place match, wrote on Instagram, “Ciao my dear friend.”
Having been born and raised in Palermo, the Palermo soccer team announced that it would hold a public viewing of Schillaci at its Renzo Barbera stadium ahead of the funeral, the Gazzetta dello Sport reported.
French soccer player Wissam Ben Yedder will stay free ahead of his trial on charges of sexual assault while intoxicated, one of his lawyers told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Marie Roumiantseva said Ben Yedder will remain under strict judicial supervision after a woman filed a lawsuit for sexual assault earlier this month.
The 34-year-old Ben Yedder, a prolific striker in the French league, was briefly detained then released after the alleged incident in his car on the French Riviera. Ben Yedder had been stopped by police after he first refused to do so. He was then put in a jail cell.
After he was summoned to appear in court on Oct. 15 and placed under judicial supervision, the Nice prosecutor’s office appealed the decision not to remand the player in custody. The investigative chamber of the Court of Appeal of Aix-en-Provence did not grant this request and kept Ben Yedder under judicial supervision.
Ben Yedder attended a hearing Tuesday during which he offered to go to rehab. He has admitted he drove while under the influence of alcohol but has denied any sexual assault.
In a separate legal case last year, Ben Yedder was charged with “rape, attempted rape and sexual assault” over another alleged incident in the south of France.
Ben Yedder has been without a club since his contract with Monaco expired at the end of last season.
