Canada finally appears to have been infected with that certain thing sweeping the globe in recent weeks: common sense. After much posturing and virtue-signaling, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to join the xenophobes and close his nation’s borders to prevent further infections of COVID-19.
Trudeau, speaking from self-isolation in his Ottawa home after his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, recently tested positive for the virus, announced that, among other measures, Canada will:
- Deny entry to all those who are neither citizens nor permanent residents.
- Deny entry to those who have possible symptoms of COVID-19.
- Allow trade to continue, but no persons allowed to visit.
- Restrict entry (presumably of Canadians) to just four airports.
However, the land border between Canada and the United States will remain open.
Russia also has declared that it is strengthening border control by stopping entry for foreigners other than those with permanent residence or members of flight crews. These new restrictions are set to last until May, but they are not the first measures Putin’s government has imposed. Just days after news broke of a major illness coming out of Wuhan, restrictions were placed on flights from China, arguably limiting the spread of the virus.
Too Late?
Speaking to the press, Trudeau said, “We can still slow the spread of this virus… It is time to take every precaution to keep people safe.” Quite what triggered the reaction from the PM is unknown, although it is likely due to more than 320 confirmed cases this weekend.
He continued:
“We will be denying entry to Canada to people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
This measure will carve out some designated exceptions, including for air crews, diplomats, immediate family members of Canadian citizens and, at this time, U.S. citizens.”
Questions are already being asked if this move comes in direct response to President Trump’s recent decision to ban entry from the European Union for an initial 30-day period. Closing the land border between the United States and Canada is an almost insurmountable task, meaning that if America were not controlling her borders, there would be little point in Canada making the effort.
Backtracking
Just one week ago, Health Minister Patty Hajdu pooh-poohed the idea of closing borders in what seemed like an attempt to protect the Canadian government’s reputation as a beacon of progressivism. She said:
“Canadians think we can stop this at the border. But what we see is a global pandemic, which means that border measures are highly ineffective and, in some cases, can create harm. We see that in countries that had the worst expressions, the tightest borders.”
Clearly, this latest decision is something of a U-turn. It appears the problem with Hajdu’s earlier statement is that it was factually wrong on at least two levels. First, if border measures were indeed “highly ineffective,” the present closure of Canada’s border would not have been implemented. Second, the countries that imposed the strictest rules early on have not been hit as hard as those that waited, namely India and Singapore, which seem to be sailing through this crisis with virtually no problems.
It would appear that Canada’s initial reluctance to put up border measures was little more than a globalist virtue-signal to let the world know just how progressive Trudeau’s government really is, regardless of the possible cost to human life.
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Read more from Mark Angelides.
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