Police officers have made nearly 2,200 home visits to make sure Canadians are complying with the self-isolation rule when they cross back into the country — a small percentage of the more than one million travellers who have returned home since the start of the pandemic.
The new statistics are coming out as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hints at new measures to track travellers who cross into Canada once border restrictions start to ease.
Canadians who cross back into the country now are required by law to self-isolate for 14 days, whether they have symptoms of COVID-19 or not. That order came into effect in late March as global cases of COVID-19 were climbing rapidly.
Anyone arriving in Canada by air or land must complete a contact tracing form (either on paper, online or via mobile app) to help the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) enforce the 14-day quarantine requirement.
The Canada Border Services Agency says it alerts PHAC if it suspects a returning traveller won’t comply.
The health agency then flags the RCMP’s national operations centre if it needs help enforcing the act. The RCMP has been playing a coordinating role with local police during the pandemic.
As of May 13, the Public Health Agency of Canada had passed on to the RCMP 2,198 referrals for “physical verification” of quarantine compliance — 705 in Ontario alone — said PHAC spokesperson Natalie Mohamed in an email to CBC News. Not all of the verification visits were conducted by RCMP; some were handed off to other police services.
PHAC says there have been no arrests under the Quarantine Act since the pandemic restrictions began — although one person in Richmond, B.C. was fined $1,000.
Failing to comply with the Quarantine Act can lead to a fine of up to $750,000 and/or imprisonment for six months. If someone is found to have jeopardized another person’s life while wilfully or recklessly contravening the act, the penalties can be even greater: $1 million or three years in prison, or both.
A spokesperson for the RCMP said PHAC is only asking for police help in certain cases, after the health agency has run initial checks by phone, text or e-mail.
The federal government first introduced the 14-day quarantine rule through the Quarantine Act order on March 25 — and later expanded the order by saying that anyone returning home from abroad without a credible self-isolation plan would be forced to stay at a designated quarantine facility, such as a hotel.
Border deal with U.S. extended until June 21
For now, travel into Canada from abroad remains limited.
On Tuesday, Trudeau announced that Canada and the U.S. had arrived at a deal to extend the restrictions on non-essential travel across the Canada-U.S. border for another 30 days.
Both countries reached an agreement in March to temporarily close the border to non-essential travel — meaning no recreational visits — while keeping it open to commercial traffic and essential workers who cross for work.
Trudeau also hinted Tuesday that Canada could bring in tougher measures to slow the spread of the virus once the border finally reopens to non-essential travel.
“These are ongoing questions. We’ve given ourselves another month before we have to have the right answers to those questions on non-essential travel,” he told reporters.
“But even now, we know that we need to do more to ensure that travellers who are coming back from overseas or from the United States … are properly followed up on, are properly isolated and don’t become further vectors for the spread of COVID-19.”
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam called the mandatory 14-day quarantine for arrivals a “cornerstone” of federal pandemic policy going forward. Trudeau said the federal government is working with the premiers on the issue.
“But certainly, once we get to a point where non-essential travel picks up again in the coming months, I guess, we need to have strong measures in place and we’re looking at those closely,” he said.
WATCH | Mandatory 14-day quarantine a ‘cornerstone’ of pandemic response: Dr. Tam
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says a mandatory 14-day quarantine for any international arrivals remains a “cornerstone” of federal pandemic policy going forward, in response to a question about the public health argument for keeping the Canada-U.S. border closed to non-essential travel. 3:45
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus, the party’s critic for public safety and border security, said the government needs to offer a plan for easing border restrictions and explain the benchmarks it’s using to guide its actions.
“It was the Trudeau government’s failure to close our borders that allowed the virus to spread in the first place. It is incumbent on the Trudeau government to explain how they plan to ensure that travellers who are coming back to Canada are not spreading COVID-19,” he said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, right now the Trudeau government is telling Canadians to ‘wait and see’ without explaining what metrics they are relying on to make decisions.”
The NDP’s public safety critic, Jack Harris, said public health officials need to be involved in deciding which measures are necessary at the border.
“We have concerns about the lack of consistency in the application of quarantine rules at the border,” he said.
“As the pressure increases to open up the border with the Americans, people are going to be less and less comfortable unless there are better measures in place to ensure our communities are safe.”
As of Tuesday evening, there were more than 4.8 million reported cases of the novel coronavirus worldwide. More than 1.5 million of those cases are in the U.S., according to a Johns Hopkins University tracking tool.
Outside of its deal with the U.S. administration, Canada closed off most international travel back in March with some caveats, including an exception for temporary foreign workers.
More than a million Canadian citizens and permanent residents returned home at the onset of the pandemic, when government officials began urging Canadians to avoid all international travel and come home as soon as possible.
Since then, travel into Canada has dropped dramatically but tens of thousands of people still cross by land and air every week.
During the week of May 11 to May 17, more than 127,000 people crossed at land borders — most of them truckers — according to the CBSA. That’s an 88 per cent drop compared to the same time period a year ago.
And 14,536 individuals landed at Canada’s international airports last week, said the CBSA — a drop of 98 per cent.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
