LILLEY: Dropping ArriveCan and other measures right but took too long

Better late than never you could say on the Trudeau government’s decision to drop COVID-related border measures.

Though, in true Liberal fashion, they warned all these measures they are now dropping could come back at a later date.

On Monday, the government announced what had been reported more than a week ago, that the ArriveCan app, masking on planes, vaccination requirements for foreign travellers and random testing are all being dropped as of Oct. 1.

The government is also dropping pre-arrival screening and quarantine and isolation requirements. Anyone who wants to use the ArriveCan app for their Customs declaration can still do so and anyone who wants to wear a mask can.

“The transmission of the variants of COVID are domestic-based, for the most part,” Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said when explaining why the travel measures were being repealed.

These steps should have been taken months ago, but as usual, the Trudeau government is behind the times even as they falsely claim to be making all of their decisions based on “the science.”

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In the early days of the pandemic, the Trudeau government refused to impose even basic screening of international travellers when COVID was mainly imported from out of the country. They declared any such suggestion as racist, knee-jerk and reactionary.

When new variants arrived on the scene from places like Britain and India, they initially refused to pause flights from those countries until more information was known and testing could be adjusted. They even refused to impose testing from high-risk areas when this was a step that would have helped.

At each step of the way, they lambasted such ideas, ministers even claimed that travel didn’t spread COVID when the main concern was the new Alpha and Delta variants. Being the Trudeau government, they went from refusing to impose even basic measures – like extra screening – to overreacting and going further than was required.

Then, they hung onto the measures longer than was necessary.

COVID never over for Trudeau Liberals

While these measures are gone, they are only gone for now, with Duclos saying that the government may bring back any or all of these measures in the future. When it comes to COVID, the Trudeau Liberals just can’t let it go, even as they are dropping measures.

Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden declared the pandemic is over — that’s not something the Trudeau Liberals are ready to say.

“If anyone has doubts as to whether COVID-19 still exists, I would invite that person to visit a hospital anywhere in Canada. We have between 4,000 and 5,000 people hospitalized every day with COVID-19,” Duclos said when asked if Biden is correct.

Of course, Duclos goes with the exaggerated number which includes people who were admitted to hospital for another reason – such as a scheduled surgery – and then tested positive on admission. That’s how I found out that I had COVID last year — there were no symptoms, I tested positive on admission, but I counted as a hospitalized case despite spending just a few hours there for another matter.

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At least Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy chief medical officer, was willing to say the worst is over.

“We’re past what we call the acute phase of the pandemic, but certainly the pandemic is not over,” Njoo said.

Duclos warned of the possibility of cases and hospitalizations rising again, which they certainly will in the fall, and of the possibility of reinstating some or all of these measures.

“The Government of Canada will maintain the ability to re-establish certain border measures should they be required in the future,” Duclos said.

Enjoy your renewed freedom to travel with ease while you can –a it may not last under the Trudeau government.

blilley@postmedia.com