OTTAWA —
A new Canadian health order requiring a three-day hotel quarantine for air travellers got off to a rocky start on Monday, as some passengers complained of long waits to access the hotel-booking system.
Across Canada and abroad, travellers spoke of disconnected calls and hours or even days waiting on the line to make a reservation, forcing some to cancel their flights altogether.
Markham, Ont., resident Anuja Sharma, who flew to India roughly two weeks ago with her mother and her sister to resolve a legal issue with a family property, said Monday her family had yet to secure a spot, despite having spent hours on hold with the booking line.
“Collectively, between my husband and me, we’ve spent 14 hours on the phone,” Sharma said from India, adding that neither she nor her husband got through.
At the Montreal airport on Monday, Loveline Akonbeng, who landed on a flight from Brussels, said it took her sister three days waiting on the phone for multiple hours to finally get through. “Three hours of waiting and sometimes the line would cut off by itself,” said Akonbeng, who described feeling “panicked” as her travel date approached.
Tarek Mahmud Sonon and his wife Rushda Raman, who are moving to Regina from Bangladesh, were forced to cancel their flight and delay the beginning of their new life in Canada after being unable to book a hotel.
The couple and their relatives in North America unsuccessfully tried calling the reservation line, Sonon said in an email, estimating they spent five to six hours on hold for each attempt. The pair, who are moving to Canada on work and student visas, were supposed to arrive on Monday. They underwent a pre-departure COVID-19 test before being faced with the hotel hurdle, he said.
“We are now in great depression thinking about our future and next course of action,” Sonon said.
Toronto resident Deb Robinson said she turned to social media over the weekend to voice her concerns about the system after being unable to book a hotel despite multiple tries, only to be met with a barrage of angry messages from users upset that she travelled in the first place.
Robinson is visiting her sick 88-year-old mother at an assisted living facility in Florida, knowing that this may be her last chance to see the elderly woman.
“They told us what we were going to have to do if we came back after this date,” Robinson, who is scheduled to return Thursday, said in an interview. “But now they’re not keeping up their end of the bargain. I feel very frustrated.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the tighter border controls are meant to keep everyone safe, not punish travellers. At a press conference on Friday, Trudeau acknowledged there had been issues with the phone lines but said the problems would be cleared up shortly.
A group that advocates for Canadian family reunification filed a challenge to the hotel quarantine health order on Friday in Quebec Superior Court, arguing the measure violates passengers’ rights and is too expensive for low-income families. The group is also asking the government to make an exception to the quarantine rules for compassionate reasons and family reunifications.
The hotel stays, which must be paid for by the travellers, are just one of a series of measures that came into effect on Monday to limit the spread of COVID-19 and the introduction of variants considered more transmissible than the dominant virus strain circulating in the country.
Most incoming air travellers will need to get tested for the virus upon arrival and again toward the end of their mandatory 14-day quarantine.
Travellers arriving at land borders will be given self-swab kits, and testing will be provided on-site at five high-volume border crossings. The new rules are in addition to previous orders that require a negative test result within 72 hours of arrival. Travellers will need to complete a second test on Day 10 of their self-isolation period.
The number of COVID-19 cases has continued to decline steadily across much of the country, according to Canada’s chief public health officer.
Ontario reported 1,058 new cases of COVID-19 and 11 more deaths linked to the virus on Monday, as the York region returned to the province’s colour-coded system of pandemic restrictions on Monday. A stay-at-home order remained in effect for three other areas, including Toronto.
Quebec’s government-mandated public health institute said 86 more suspected cases of coronavirus variants had been detected in the province, for a total of 415 suspected cases. Quebec has confirmed 23 cases.
At least 10 schools across the province have been fully or partially closed because of suspected cases of variants, prompting the president of a union representing teachers at Quebec’s English-language schools to call for stronger health measures to protect teachers and students, including smaller class sizes and a greater use of rapid tests.
In British Columbia, six schools in Surrey and another in Delta — just outside Vancouver — have had cases involving variants.
Dr. Elizabeth Brodkin, chief medical health officer of the Fraser Health authority, said cases tested so far have been linked to the variant first identified in the United Kingdom, but she declined to say how many cases have been detected at the schools.
Alberta reported 11 new cases of variants across the province, bringing that total to 289.
New Brunswick, meanwhile, reported a seventh COVID-19-related death at an Edmundston long-term care home, leading the Opposition Liberals to call for a review into the Belle Vue facility, which has had more than 90 cases of COVID-19.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2021.
— With files from Paola Loriggio, Julien Arsenault, Kevin Bissett, Jacob Serebrin and Camille Bains.
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.
