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COVID-19

Mask, vaccine mandates for travel defended as government eases border restrictions

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OTTAWA ā€” The government signalled it is aspiring to a “more sustainable” approach to COVID-19 restrictions at the border with several small changes Friday, but public health officials say vaccine and mask mandates remain important.

Unvaccinated children aged five to 11 travelling with a fully vaccinated adult will no longer need a COVID-19 test to enter Canada as of Monday.

Pre-entry tests will still be needed for partially vaccinated or unvaccinated travellers over the age of 12 who are eligible to travel to Canada.

Children under five don’t currently require a COVID-19 test.

Airports will still conduct random mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers as they arrive, but they will be refocused to four major Canadian airports: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

In a news release Friday, government officials announced several other small changes to ease restrictions for international travellers that will take effect after the weekend, “as of part of the Government of Canada’s plans to move toward a more sustainable approach to COVID-19 travel requirements.”

Fully vaccinated travellers, and any kids under 12 with them, will no longer need to provide their quarantine plans when they enter the country.

And when vaccinated people arrive in Canada, they won’t need to wear a mask for 14 days, keep a list of contacts or report COVID-19 symptoms.

The government will also do away with the need for fully vaccinated travellers to quarantine if someone in their group develops COVID-19 symptoms or tests positive.

It’s a good time to ease restrictions at the border, deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo said at a briefing in French Friday.

“If people are fully vaccinated, measures can be relaxed,” Njoo said in French.

The minor changes come as particularly good news for people travelling as a family this season, said National Airlines Council of Canada president Suzanne Acton-Gervais.

While Njoo and his chief, Dr. Theresa Tam, said restrictions should be constantly reviewed they also expressed support for the vaccine and mask mandates that are in place.

“I’m not saying anything about it from a policy perspective, but yes, the higher our vaccination rate is, the higher the uptake is of vaccines, the better overall,” Njoo said.

Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos did not appear at the press briefing, but said in a statement that the government would continue to consider further easing of border measures based on science as vaccination levels and health-care system capacity improve.

Airlines in the United States dropped their mask mandates after a Florida judge ruled that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in enacting the mandate on public transportation in the first place.

Combined with the fact that many provinces have announced plans to scrap their own mandates, that has prompted some to question whether Canadians should have to mask up on planes and trains.

Tam said if a mandate will encourage people to wear a mask and reduce transmission, why not have one?

“I mean, it has a certain amount of inconvenience perhaps, but it does not essentially restrict travel as such. So I think it’s one of the least intrusive measures, but adds definitely another layer of protection,” Tam said.

Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra says federal and provincial COVID-19 mandates are not out of step with each other at all.

“I actually think the federal rules and provincial rules are almost in sync,” he said at a separate press conference Friday.

“We’ve dropped testing requirements, we’ve dropped quarantine requirements, pre-departure tests. So we’ve really adjusted many of our measures.”

Ontario announced Friday it will extend its mask requirement in high-risk settings until June 11 while it weathers this latest wave of infections.

Tam said COVID-19 is still widespread throughout Canada, and the current wave appeared to be reaching a peak in some parts of the country before the Easter long weekend. It’s too soon to tell if gatherings over that long weekend will result in another bump in cases, she said.

Generally, the number of hospitalizations appears to be manageable during this wave, though some hospitals are suffering as health workers take time off because of COVID-19 infections, she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 22, 2022.

Laura Osman, The Canadian Press

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COVID-19

Maxime Bernier slams Freedom Convoy leadersā€™ guilty verdict, calls Canadaā€™s justice system ā€˜corruptā€™

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The leader of the Peopleā€™s Party of Canada says Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were victims of a ‘political witch hunt.’

The leader of the Peopleā€™s Party of Canada (PPC) ripped Thursdayā€™s federal court ruling that found Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber guilty of mischief, saying the court siding with the government amounted to a ā€œpolitical witch hunt.ā€

ā€œIt is disheartening to learn that two of the heroes of the Freedom Convoy, @LichTamara and @ChrisBarber1975, have been found guilty of mischief in the longest and one of the costliest trials in Canadian history,ā€ Maxime BernierĀ wrote Thursday on X.

ā€œThis clearly was a political witch hunt.ā€

Bernier added that in his view the reality is that Canadaā€™s justice system is ā€œcorrupt.ā€

ā€œTrudeau and his ministers who illegally invoked the Emergencies Act and violated basic rights will go unpunished,ā€ he noted.

ā€œOur justice system is corrupt to the bones.ā€

On Thursday, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, the federal judge overseeing the mischief trial, deliveredĀ her verdict, finding both Lich and Barber guilty of mischief.

Perkins-McVey seemed to agree with the Crownā€™s case that Lich and Barberā€™s influence on the Freedom Convoy constituted public mischief but did dismiss the Crownā€™s Carter Application accusing Lich and Barber of conspiracy outright.

Lich and Barber both faced six charges each, those being charges of mischief, obstruction, intimidation, and counseling others to commit mischief and intimidation. After the court reconvened Thursday afternoon, Lich was acquitted of four of her six charges, with the fifth charge, counseling to commit mischief, being stayed by the judge.

As for sentencing, the court will reconvene on April 16 at 1:30 p.m. EST, at which time it will say when a date and time for sentencing will be held.

Lich and Barber both face aā€Æpossibleā€Æ10-year prison sentence. LifeSiteNews has reportedā€Æextensivelyā€Æon their trial.

The Lich and Barber trial concluded in September 2024, more than a year after it began. It was only originally scheduled to last 16 days.

Lich and Barber wereā€ÆarrestedĀ onā€ÆFebruary 17, 2022, in Ottawa for their roles in leading the popular Freedom Convoy protest against COVID mandates. During COVID, Canadians were subjected to vaccine mandates, mask mandates, extensive lockdowns and even the closure of churches.

Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to clear out protesters, an action a federal judge has since said was ā€œnot justified.ā€ During the clear-out, an elderly lady wasā€Ætrampled by a police horseĀ and many who donated to the cause had their bank accounts frozen.

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2025 Federal Election

Mark Carney refuses to clarify 2022 remarks accusing the Freedom Convoy of ā€˜seditionā€™

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Mark Carney described the Freedom Convoy as an act of ‘sedition’ and advocated for the government to use its power to crush the non-violent protest movement.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney refused to elaborate on comments he made in 2022 referring to the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy protest as an act of ā€œseditionā€ and advocating for the government to put an end to the movement.

ā€œWell, look, I havenā€™t been a politician,ā€ Carney said when a reporter in Windsor, Ontario, where a Freedom Convoy-linkedĀ border blockade took place in 2022, asked, ā€œWhat do you say to Canadians who lost trust in the Liberal government back then and do not have trust in you now?ā€

ā€œI became a politician a little more than two months ago, two and a half months ago,ā€ he said. ā€œI came in because I thought this country needed big change. We needed big change in the economy.ā€

Carneyā€™s lack of an answer seems to be in stark contrast to the strong opinion he voiced in a February 7, 2022,Ā columnĀ published in theĀ Globe & MailĀ at the time of the convoy titled, ā€œItā€™s Time To End The Sedition In Ottawa.ā€

In that piece, Carney wrote that the Freedom Convoy was a movement of ā€œsedition,ā€ adding, ā€œThatā€™s a word I never thought Iā€™d use in Canada. It means incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.ā€

Carney went on to claim in the piece that if ā€œleft uncheckedā€ by government authorities, the Freedom Convoy would ā€œachieveā€ its ā€œgoal of undermining our democracy.ā€

Carney even targeted ā€œ[a]nyone sending money to the Convoy,ā€ accusing them of ā€œfunding sedition.ā€

Internal emails from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) eventuallyĀ showedĀ that his definition of sedition were not in conformity with the definition under Canadaā€™s Criminal Code, which explicitly lists the ā€œuse of forceā€ as a necessary aspect of sedition.

ā€œThe key bit is ā€˜use of force,’ā€ one RCMP officer noted in the emails. ā€œIā€™m all about a resolution to this and a forceful one with us victorious but, from the facts on the ground, I donā€™t know weā€™re there except in a small number of cases.ā€

The reality is that the Freedom Convoy was a peaceful event of public protest against COVID mandates, and not one protestor was charged with sedition. However, the Liberal government, then under Justin Trudeau, did take an approach similar to the one advocated for by Carney, invoking the Emergencies Act to clear-out protesters. Since then, a federal judge has ruled that such action was ā€œnot justified.ā€

Despite this, the two most prominent leaders of the Freedom Convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, still face aā€Æpossibleā€Æ10-year prison sentence for their role in the non-violent assembly. LifeSiteNews has reportedā€Æextensivelyā€Æon their trial.

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