Some Canadian travellers required to spend days in isolation waiting for COVID-19 test results after returning from abroad want to know why Ottawa allows tested travellers arriving from the U.S. to skip quarantine.
“There’s something fishy,” said Kevin McNally of Gatineau, Que. who flew from Panama to Montreal on Jan. 7. He was tested on arrival and waited six days at home in quarantine before he received his negative test result.
McNally said it was hard to endure the long wait, knowing tested travellers who arrive in Canada after being in the U.S. are exempt from the quarantine requirement.
“I felt like a prisoner in my own country and yet an American can come over here and not quarantine,” said McNally who works as a travel consultant. “It makes no sense.”
As part of its beefed-up arrival-testing program, Ottawa is doling out PCR tests daily to thousands of randomly selected, fully vaccinated international travellers upon arrival.
After returning from a trip to Panama, Kevin McNally of Gatineau, Que. waited six days in quarantine before he got his negative test results. (Kevin McNally)
According to rules posted on the government’s website, randomly tested travellers who have been in a country outside the U.S. within the past 14 days must quarantine while waiting for their test results. Those who test negative can leave isolation.
But tested travellers, including Canadians, who haven’t been anywhere outside Canada except the U.S. within the past 14 days can skip quarantine while awaiting their results — even though cases of the highly contagious Omicron variant are surging in the U.S.
All unvaccinated travellers entering from any country are tested upon arrival and must quarantine for 14 days.
Government responds
CBC News asked the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) why vaccinated travellers from the U.S. who are tested get to skip quarantine.
In an email sent Monday, spokesperson Tammy Jarbeau didn’t respond to the question and instead repeated the quarantine rules from the government’s website.
Earlier this month, PHAC told CBC News that its travel rules are rooted in science.
“Border measures are based on available data, scientific evidence and monitoring of the epidemiological situation both in Canada and internationally,” said spokesperson André Gagnon in an email on Jan. 7.
Sherif Barakat of Ottawa said that statement doesn’t add up. He flew home from Cancun on Jan. 9, was tested upon arrival and waited five days at home in quarantine before he received his negative test result.
Barakat said the government has yet to offer up the science explaining why he had to quarantine but someone entering from the U.S. is exempt.
“If you’re treating people differently, then the question is why?” he said. “The disease doesn’t have any boundaries.”
Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital, said it’s time to rethink Canada’s mass arrival testing program. (Unity Health Toronto)
Global epidemiologist, Dr. Prabhat Jha said there’s no scientific explanation for less stringent rules for travellers from the U.S., as Omicron has spread globally.
“What’s the difference between someone coming from the U.K. or someone coming from New York? There’s not in terms of the Omicron prevalence and the spread,” said Jha, who works at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Get rid of arrival testing?
Ottawa’s arrival testing program is also under scrutiny, because the government is potentially spending millions of dollars daily on the program at a time when Omicron has already spread across Canada.
PHAC said the government recently boosted its testing capacity to test 26,000 travellers daily upon arrival and that the cost for each test can range from $143 to $188.
Medical experts are questioning the usefulness of screening air travellers for COVID-19 using a PCR test, arguing that testing resources could be better targeted elsewhere. 1:59
Jha said Canada laying out disparate rules for tested travellers from the U.S. is just one more reason why its arrival testing program is flawed and needs to be scrapped.
“Insist on a pre-departure, high-quality test before [travellers] leave and beyond that, anything else you do gives you so little gains, it’s just not worth it,” said Jha. “It’s a waste of resources.”
The government is ramping up arrival testing with the goal of testing all fully vaccinated travellers entering Canada from outside the U.S. upon arrival. PHAC has yet to explain why it will continue only randomly testing vaccinated travellers entering from the U.S.
On Friday, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam admitted that Canada’s mass-arrival testing program is questionable at this point.
“It is a capacity drain on the systems as a whole,” she said at a news conference. “The whole world has Omicron.”
Tam suggested that doing some random arrival testing to keep tabs on the coronavirus would suffice. However, she said that Canada’s current goal to test most travellers upon arrival would stay in place for now.
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
