Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
The federal government welcomed fully vaccinated foreign nationals back to Canadian soil Tuesday as frustrated families on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border urged Congress to find out why the White House isn't following their lead.
As of midnight Monday night, quarantine requirements were eased for non-essential international travellers who have had a full course of a Health Canada-approved COVID-19 vaccine.
To be eligible, travellers must have allowed at least 14 days to pass since their last vaccine shot and show proof of a negative molecular test for COVID-19 that's no more than 72 hours old.
They are also required to use the ArriveCAN app or online web portal to upload their vaccination details.
The change marked the latest stage in Canada's gradual easing of travel restrictions that were first imposed on travellers of all nationalities at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic back in March 2020.
But nearly 18 months later, the U.S. has resisted the mounting pressure to reciprocate, frustrating businesses that depend on incidental cross-border traffic and angering residents desperate to see expatriate friends and family.
"The U.S. government has failed to follow the science and allow vaccinated and tested Canadians to cross the U.S.-Canada land border," the grassroots group Let Us Reunite said in a statement.
On Tuesday, the group urged its thousands of Facebook followers to barrage U.S. legislators with demands for a congressional hearing into the imbalance, singling out Homeland Security committee leaders Sen. Gary Peters and Rep. Bennie Thompson.
They want the Senate and House committees "to provide oversight and accountability by adding the U.S.-Canada border closure to their committee agendas and conduct hearings on the impact" of the travel ban.
"Eighteen months is too long to separate families when reunification can be done safely."
So far, Canada's experience appears to bear that out.
Nearly three weeks after fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents were allowed back over the border, random COVID-19 surveillance tests found a positivity rate of just 0.19 per cent, despite a growing caseload in both countries.
"While cases are currently increasing in Canada, the illness severity and hospitalization rates remain manageable as Canada's vaccination rates continue to rise," the Canada Border Services Agency said in a release.
"This data, along with continued adherence to public health measures by Canadians and incoming travellers, means that Canada is better able to prevent outbreaks of infection and can now allow more incoming fully vaccinated travellers without increasing the risk to the health and safety of Canadians."
Eligible foreign nationals planning to take advantage of the latest Canadian exemption were mainly expected to be arriving by air, making matters easier for border agents.
"The great thing in air is that you've got the airline working with you," said Denis Vinette, vice-president of the agency's travellers branch.
Airlines, he said, "will not allow individuals to get on if they're not meeting all of the requirements."
Canada has approved four COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, also known as Covishield, and the single-dose Johnson & Johnson option.
Vinette said the agency will continue to conduct random tests among travellers, part of a surveillance program that has been in place since the phased-in process of easing travel restrictions began earlier this summer.
Direct flights from India and Morocco will remain suspended until at least later this month. Travellers from either country who take an indirect route to Canada will be required to produce a recent negative molecular test taken in a third country.
In addition to the land borders with Canada and Mexico, the U.S. has restricted travel from several foreign countries, including China, India, Ireland, Iran, South Africa, Brazil and the 26 European countries without border controls, known as the Schengen group.
The borders with Canada and Mexico are widely seen in a different category, in part because of the close trade ties between the three countries as well as the fact that visitors can arrive by land without the help of a private-sector company like an airline or cruise ship operator.
While non-essential Canadian travellers are forbidden from entering the country by land, rail, ferry and pleasure boat, air and sea travellers have been exempt from the outset -- a discrepancy that infuriates families with members who live a short drive over the border from each other.
The ongoing restrictions have at least made life easier for Canada's border agents. The inability to cross into the U.S. for short incidental trips has meant fewer people trying to return to Canada than might otherwise be the case.
"In a normal year, throughout the summer, about 65 per cent of our border crossings are what we term day trippers," Vinette said.
"Currently, we only have unidirectional entry, and so you don't have day trippers from Canada going to the U.S. and then coming back, which is a significant portion of our usual traffic volumes."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2021.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A delegation of the Palestinian militant group Hamas was in Cairo on Saturday as Egyptian state media reported "noticeable progress" in ongoing cease-fire talks with Israel while an Israeli official downplayed the prospects for a full end to the war.
Saing Chhoeun was locked out of his Charlotte, N.C., home on Monday as law enforcement with high-powered rifles descended into his yard and garage, using a car as a shield as they were met with a shower of gunfire from the direction of his neighbor's house.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.