Politic?: The Best-Laid Plans Stumble Against Clumsy COVID Precautions

"We wake up to 15 emails, telling 14 of the kids they need to go get tested."
"The kids can't do it themselves, as they speak Arabic and Hebrew, but even crazier, there's no way to make an appointment."
Trip organizer

"These kids have seen some of the worst horrors in life."
"Instead of enjoying their time here they are forced to the unnecessary tests so this government can continue their COVID theatre."
"There was no science shared to test fully vaccinated travellers, no science shared to pause the testing, and no science shared about re-establishing the random testing."
"For cases like this it's truly a travesty."
Canadian Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman

"What they've done is turn a minor inconvenience at the airport and turn it into a huge inconvenience that swallows your whole next day."
"It [the email instructing the randomly-chosen traveller they must arrange for COVID testing after arrival in Canada] doesn't really give you any information about how to pick up the kit, it just gives you an address."
Charles Moscoe business traveller


Pearson Airport, Toronto

Canada's largest, busiest airport in its most populous city -- Pearson International, in Toronto -- has had more cancelled flights than any other airport anywhere in the world. It has been named as the worst post-COVID airport globally for its intractable COVID measures, a result of federal government mandates, with the lengthiest delays, along wth the most cancelled flights. People end up waiting full days for connectng flights, they sleep on the airport floors, luggage is lost, frustration and helplessness is universal.

This, on top of an utterly personally intrusive and quite useless charade called ArriveCAN which must be registered online, giving information on passport, inoculations, state of health, destination, return, and other details. When returning to Canada from points abroad, Canada Border Agents either accept a printout of the completed online form or use it to check the online registration before a traveller is waved through.

A charitble group in Canada -- whose name has been withheld for fear of backlash or unwanted hostile attention in the current atmosphere prevailing in Canada of rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments fuelled by an active slander campaign by 'Palestinian rights' groups and their supporters -- arranged for 33 Israeli children, both Jewish and Arab who had been victims of trauma through exposure to terrorist attacks, to come to Canada as a group for a vacation.

This group of summer campers, all of them victims of terrorist violence, spent the first day of their sponsored trip to Canada trying to meet a deadline imposed for a COVID test. Their visit to Wonderland, and Niagara Falls, scheduled and paid for, had to be cancelled when close to half of the 33 were selected as candidates for random testing. The federal government's recently adjusted rules call for off-site random testing for international arrivals.

Anyone unfortunate enough to have been selected for random screening has until midnight of the day following receipt of the email notification to complete the tests. The children had been billeted all over the Greater Toronto Area with volunteer families. Organizers had no option but to drive to various areas around the sprawling city in an effort to assist the children in meeting the deadline.

The organizers helped the childen fill out paperwork and drove them to a LifeLabs location that agreed to test them all. All 33 of the child visitors had tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding their Air Canada flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto. Vaccinated international travellers arriving in Canada are susceptible to random testing requirements. In its original form, such randomly selected travellers were tested on-site at the airport.

In its newer iteration, the program informs randomly selected travellers by email shortly following arrival that arrangements to be tested off-site through official testing locations must be arranged. Failing to comply risks hefty fines. The situation has led to further headaches for returning travellers who now face a deadline for compliance, if selected.

The experience of Charlie Moscoe appears typical. On his way home from the airport he was notified by email of the requirement to arrange for a test. A choice was offered of either attending an Ontario LifeLabs location or to arrange for a test kit to be delivered to his home. He opted to order a testkit delivered to his home. A week later he is still awaiting its arrival, long past the mandatory testng time.

Giving him little choice but to take time off work to attempt to have the testing done at LifeLabs.