For Now…

The Canadian government proclaimed on Monday, 26 September 2022 that it would abrogate all COVID-19 travel restrictions—including vaccination and masking requirements for aircraft and train passengers—starting 1 October.

Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions saw the vast nation’s government, in March of 2020, call for all Canadians then abroad to return home as soon as possible. Thereafter officials in Ottawa closed the country’s borders to non-Canadians, thereby thrusting the Great White North into a period of isolationism evocative of FDR-era America. By October 2020, private gatherings in Canadian homes had been disallowed.

Canadian airlines have long sought relief from Ottawa’s reactive overreach, pressing for an end to mask mandates on flights amidst thousands of incidents of passenger non-compliance. WestJet, Canada’s second-largest air-carrier, extolled the revocation of the hated edicts, putting forth in a public statement: "As Canadians and international visitors look to make travel plans, the long-awaited removal of all remaining measures effective Oct. 1, 2022 will further expedite recovery for our industry and the Canadian economy,"

The Canadian government alleges its decision to end restrictions was predicated upon Canada's vaccination rate, the availability of newer vaccines and treatments, and data showing the country had passed the peak of the latest specious and sensationalized wave of coronavirus infections. 

Canadian Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos declared: "Thanks largely to Canadians who have rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated, we have reached the point where we can safely lift the sanitary measures at the border.” Duclos—in the autocratic tradition—hastened to add that the Canadian government remained prepared to reinstate COVID restrictions if needed. "Obviously we have no hope to reintroduce some of these measures,” he equivocated, “but if we need to protect the safety of Canadians, we will have to.”

FMI: www.canada.ca