Coughing, a fever and shortness of breath — these are the symptoms of COVID-19 that Antoine Pouliot-Hamel has been experiencing for the last eight days.
But Pouliot-Hamel isn’t recovering from his symptoms at home in Quebec City. The 33-year-old is stuck in a hostel in Cusco, Peru.
He and many other Canadian tourists at the Parawina Hostel are currently not allowed to leave their rooms due to a mandatory quarantine that was imposed after two people at the hostel tested positive for COVID-19.
Global News reached out to Parawina Hostel for further information but did not hear back by time of publication.
Known as the historic capital city of the Inca Empire, Cusco is a popular tourist destination filled with sweeping mountain views and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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But Cusco also sits more than 3,400 metres above sea level, making it difficult for some to breathe. Pouliot-Hamel says this alone has aggravated his condition.
“We’re stuck in a corona-trap at 3,500 metres elevation. I have heart problems and I probably have the virus,” he said.
However, Pouliot-Hamel says he did not get tested for COVID-19 by Peruvian officials, as he was fearful of giving out too much of his personal information.
The Canadian Embassy in Peru is aware Pouliot-Hamel has COVID-19 symptoms, and now, he and many other Canadians trapped in Cusco are working with the embassy to find a way home.
Borders and airports in Peru were shut down on March 16, leaving thousands of Canadians stuck in the country due to a 14-day lockdown.
Canadian officials chartered flights back to Toronto from Lima last week, which transported more than 800 people out of the country. Three other flights out of Lima have been scheduled for this week.
Pouliot-Hamel and others in Cusco were unable to board the 90-minute flight to reach Lima. Due to the lockdown at his hostel, military officials in the region prevented them from leaving, he says.
1:51 COVID-19: Canadians desperate to leave Peru
COVID-19: Canadians desperate to leave Peru
A week ago, Pouliot-Hamel says he sent emails to the Canadian Embassy about his symptoms, but the embassy did not respond.
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“I know everyone is working very hard but I think it’s a little bit too late,” he said.
The trip to Peru from Quebec began for Pouliot-Hamel, a lawyer, in early March, as he had planned his first vacation in 14 months. On March 15, he says he was told by the hostel manager that there were no more flights to Lima. However, he says he later found out flights were, in fact, leaving the city that evening.
Global Affairs Canada told Global News in a statement that Canada is continuing to “co-ordinate the complex movement” of Canadians outside of Lima before new flights leave this week. Currently, 5,510 Canadians in Peru have registered voluntarily with the Registration of Canadians Abroad service and more than 390,000 have registered worldwide, according to the federal government.
Between March 15 and 22, the hostel continued with activities like Spanish lessons, yoga and salsa dancing, Pouliot-Hamel says. But as soon as someone tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the entire hostel went into quarantine mode, he says. According to Pouliot-Hamel, they’ve been allowed a 20-minute break outside per day but have otherwise been locked inside for at least 23 hours a day.
“You don’t keep 150 people together and organize activities while everyone is coughing in each other’s faces and touching each other. I don’t know what they were thinking,” he said.
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Life in lockdown
In the first eight days of the lockdown, the hostel felt like a summer camp, says Pouliot-Hamel. After the two positive cases, things became more dire.
“We started to lack food, and some employees started to [get] sick. The situation got worse,” he said.
On March 29, the hostel allowed some guests to move into a nearby hotel, Pouliot-Hamel says. But again, they were quarantined.
Pouliot-Hamel was not one of them, and he suspects it’s because of his symptoms — even though he says hostel staff were not clear on why some could leave but others had to stay.
He says generally, he is feeling better and his mental health is clear, and he is now waiting for a COVID-19 test on April 7, according to Canadian officials. If the test is negative, he will be allowed to leave the hostel and fly back to Canada.
“Will I test negative on the 7th? I don’t know. I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.
He and other Canadians will be paying $1,400 for the rescue flight to Toronto, along with transport back to Quebec City, he says. Pouliot-Hamel says he’s lucky his insurance will cover those costs.
‘We were really hungry’
Another Canadian in a similar situation is William Fafard, a 23-year-old backpacker from Granby, Que.
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He and a friend were confined to the Parawina Hostel up until yesterday when they were allowed to leave. Fafard says he was told he could go to Hotel Jose Antonio because he appeared to be healthy.
“For myself and my friend and other people in our room, we all looked good, we didn’t have any symptoms compared to other rooms in the hostel,” he said.
The hostel included only one cook and had to provide meals for more than 100 people, he says.
“The cook was exhausted,” he said. “So we were eating crap, mostly oatmeal, quinoa and bread… we were really hungry.”
One meal provided to William Fafard during quarantine at the Parawina Hostel.
Photo provided by William Fafard
“We tried to have a good mindset, but there were a lot of people who were not feeling good at all,” he said. “I didn’t feel that I was free and I wasn’t feeling safe because everyone was sick.”
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When they had to leave the hostel for a hotel, they weren’t allowed to bring food provided for them by the Canadian Embassy, Fafard says.
“We got out of the hostel, and there were like 10 people in white hazmat suits, like astronauts, and police officers with guns,” he said.
They were also all sprayed down with an unknown chemical that smelt like chlorine before they were allowed to go to the new hotel, he says.
Fafard and other Canadians in the hotel are not permitted to leave their rooms, and he says he’s unsure if he will be charged for his stay.
“For myself, and my friend, we have a strong mindset and my family supports me, my friends support me, but the thing is just when we don’t know about food and we don’t have any control or power over the situation,” he said.
The hotel staff are trying their best and are very kind, as they are following orders from the Peruvian government, says Fafard. Nor does he blame the Canadian government for the situation, as he says he believes they are trying their best.
While they are unsure when they will be able to set foot again on Canadian soil, Fafard says he is remaining hopeful that he will be on a flight soon.
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“I know that if I start to be stressed about the situation, that won’t help me,” said Fafard. “So I force myself to stay focused to try my best to just get out and find solutions.”
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.
