The federal government has announced a suspension of vaccine mandates for federal employees and for passengers wishing to board a plane or train in Canada.
Not a removal or repeal.
Federal employees and transportation workers in federally regulated sectors will no longer have to be fully vaccinated as a condition of their work. Those on unpaid administrative leave because of their vaccination status will be invited to return to work.
Not asked without penalty or explanation.
Starting June 20, vaccines will no longer be required for travellers in Canada. Canadian citizens entering the country from abroad will still be required to meet entry requirements and masks will remain mandatory for those boarding planes or trains in Canada. Visitors to Canada will have to be fully vaccinated to enter the country, or meet the requirements of an exemption.
Which are?
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc told reporters that while some mandates are being suspended, the federal government will bring them back if the COVID-19 situation changes for the worse.
(Sidebar: as was predicted.)
Fearing the masses irate because they cannot travel without hassle, Justin let the pets out for the summer without a leash.
And Canadians are meant to be grateful:
No, Trudeau is doing away with the requirement that Canadians be vaccinated to board a plane or train because of the never-ending delays at airports, specifically Pearson in Toronto. The decision to lift the requirement for federal workers to be fully vaccinated isn’t because they realized it was wrong to fire Mary in accounting who has been working from home for two years, it’s because they need to hire more airport screeners.
(Sidebar: Justin didn't have to endured waits or be inconvenienced in anyway.)
Just last Friday, Trudeau gave a full-throated defence of continuing with these mandates even though his cabinet had already made the decision to lift them in principle and had begun alerting the industry that the change was coming.
“I understand how tired everyone is of the pandemic, of the different rules and restrictions that we have to go through, but most people understand that this pandemic is not over,” Trudeau said when asked about these measures.
He went on to say, yet again, that his government would continue to be guided by the best science. As I’ve been saying for some time now, his government has been following the political science, not any medical science.
Every province in the country, of every political stripe, has long ago lifted proof of vaccination requirements for public settings. You could have vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians sitting maskless side-by-side in a restaurant, riding the bus, subway or commuter train together.
You just haven’t been able to have that happen on a plane or Via Rail train because Trudeau said it was about protecting the public. It never was about that — it was always about using this issue to tell the public that Liberals cared about public health measures and Conservatives did not.
It’s the same reason that, until he caught COVID again, Trudeau would wear a mask in the House of Commons when Conservatives were not but he’d have closed-door meetings and dinners with top Democrats in California with no masks. It’s all political.
This is not over.
Justin will exert his power over the country again, just as his father wished to.
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