This morning I spoke with a very friendly gentleman from Canada’s Public Health Agency about the new changes to Canada’s international traveller quarantine rules, and was left laughing at the stupidity of these regulations. In the coming days, travellers from all international destinations except the United States will need to undertake quarantine upon arrival in Canada.
This seems both silly and pointless in my opinion. The United States had 108,000 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, according to the latest figures I could find. Australia, where I will be coming from, had just over 1000 new COVID-19 cases on the same day. America had over 100 times more new cases than we did in Australia. Why is it that we Australians must quarantine but the Americans – who are far more likely to bring COVID-19 into Canada – do not need to quarantine?
I understand the need to protect Canada’s public health system, but making people from countries with scarcely any COVID-19 cases quarantine for a fortnight whilst Americans – coming from a country riddled with the disease – can enter and circulate within Canada freely does not make any sense. It is only cruel and keeps families apart. Canada should either close its border and implement quarantine for everyone on an equal basis, or implement quarantine requirements based on the conditions in the country that travellers are coming from.
It is not a stretch to say that I am more at risk of catching COVID-19 in Canada than I am in Australia, and making Australians quarantine whilst admitting Americans freely is not only pointless, it is cruel. Quarantine requirements should be designed to keep Canadians safe and the current policy does not do this. This arbitrary policy will likely be the cause of yet another unhappy, separated Christmas for my family.
This piece was originally published in the Cape Breton Post on 5 December 2021.
 | ReplyForward |
