Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The federal government has announced that it will be suspending mandatory random COVID-19 testing at all airports for vaccinated travellers starting June 11.
Between June 11 and June 30, randomized testing at Canadian airports will be “temporarily suspended,” although unvaccinated travellers will continue to be tested on-site. As of July 1, all testing, including for unvaccinated travellers, will be performed off-site.
"The Government of Canada recognizes the impact that significant wait times at some Canadian airports are having on travellers. We continue to work with airports, airlines, baggage handlers, and other partners to implement solutions to reduce delays as we approach the summer peak season," Transport Canada said in a statement on Friday.
This comes after mounting pressure from the travel and aviation industry calling on the federal government to ease COVID-19 restrictions amid long lines and delays at airports, particularly Toronto Pearson International Airport.
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which operates Pearson Airport, had been urging the feds to temporarily pause on-site testing at airports as it expects international passenger numbers to jump by 50 per cent as the summer travel season ramps up.
"This is about much more than Toronto Pearson; it's about global perceptions of our country and the risk that Canada will lose billions of dollars from tourism and business activities if travellers decide that coming to Canada this summer simply isn't worth the hassle," GTAA CEO Deborah Flint said in a statement Thursday on delays at the airport.
The federal government had already exempted international travellers with a connecting flight from being pulled aside for random testing. Transport Canada says it has also hired 865 CATSA screening officers since April.
Other measures, such as COVID-19 vaccine mandates and mandatory use of the ArriveCAN app, remain in place. The federal government says the Public Health Agency of Canada is deploying additional staff to airports to verify ArriveCAN submissions and assist travellers in using the app.
During a virtual media briefing on Friday morning, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam called the random testing of travellers an "early warning system" designed to detect incoming variants.
"We do a randomized sample to select people coming from different areas of the world and are able to detect variants of concern," Tam said.
The travel and aviation industries are welcoming the move to pause random testing at airports, calling it a step in the right direction.
On Twitter, the Canadian Airports Council called the move "a great step forward for travellers and Canada's tourism industry" while the National Airlines Council of Canada said it was "a positive step, rooted in science and evidence, that will improve conditions at Canada's airports and reduce complexity for travellers."
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada also tweeted that they were "thrilled to hear the news today."
"We hope that this becomes permanent and barriers continue to be removed for travel in Canada," the associated tweeted on Friday.
However, the Conservatives say pausing random testing doesn't go far enough and have been calling on the Liberals to lift all remaining COVID-19 travel measures, including vaccine mandates. Conservative transportation critic Melissa Lantsman called the move to pause random testing only to bring it back in July off-site a "poorly thought-out reaction" to the mounting pressure to lift restrictions.
"You cannot travel in this country if you are unvaccinated. You are still resuming testing on July 1. These are not measures. They are half measures. They are a reaction of the U.S., and the government is under pressure, and rightfully so, from Canadians because those lineups at Pearson are an abdication of responsibility by this federal government," Lantsman told CTV's Power Play on Friday.
Even within the Liberal caucus, there have been disagreements over the continuation of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for air and train travellers as well as foreign tourists entering Canada. Northern Ontario Liberal MP Marc Serré told reporters on Parliament Hill on Friday that he believes it's "probably time to move on."
"These mandates were important. There's a high vaccination rate. We have Canadians safe. There's a lot less people that have died here per capita than many other countries. So the mandates worked. The mandates are important, but now it's probably time to move on," he said.
Meanwhile, NDP transportation critic Taylor Bachrach believes the federal government needs to more transparent when it comes to making decisions on public health measures and says the Liberals should have been better prepared for the surge in demand for air travel.
"We need the government to provide the evidence. They need to explain the public health advice that they're getting from Dr. Tam, and they haven't been doing that and people are getting more and more frustrated because they see other jurisdictions that don't have the same public health measures," he said on Friday.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.