Border a concern as restrictions ease By: Editorial Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Apr. 29, 2020

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2020 (1703 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s a question almost all of us have faced at one time or another: what to do about that inconsiderate neighbour?

How do we deal with the next-door nemesis who holds late-night hot-tub parties right outside our bedroom window, or refuses to address the noxious-weed infestation that sends wind-wafted seeds onto our meticulously mown lawn, or has made an ill-considered mid-life decision to honour his cultural roots by taking up the bagpipes?

It’s a grind living next to the inconsiderate neighbour (and if you insist you’ve never experienced one, it might be time to ponder the possibility that you are one).

The same stresses that apply to individual homeowners can also be experienced by entire countries — including, for example, cautiously health-protective ones that reside across a continent-spanning border from a neighbouring nation that insists on ignoring the scientific wisdom that it’s imprudent to open up the economy, relax health-emergency restrictions and send citizens careening into close-quarters contact while a pandemic still rages unabated in many states.

That’s the position in which Canada finds itself, geographically, politically and epidemiologically.

As provinces across the country — including Manitoba — reveal their measured plans for reopening economies and easing citizens slowly toward a new kind of normalcy, regional and national leaders must surely be casting concerned eyes toward the chaotic manner in which COVID-19 responses are rolling out in the United States.

Canadians no doubt watched with a mixture of bemusement and horror as leaders in numerous U.S. states either refused to institute significant pandemic restrictions or declared that restarting the economy must begin immediately even if the cost is a resurgence of COVID-19 and more deaths in affected communities.

Recent reports have revealed that U.S. President Donald Trump was made aware, in daily briefing books, of the looming COVID-19 danger as early as last January, but repeatedly denied its seriousness and refused to take decisive action until March, when the pandemic had firmly taken root.

In addition to refusing to take any responsibility for his government’s inadequate response, Mr. Trump has of late also promoted quack cures that may have endangered the lives of Americans who take his “advice” at face value.

Several U.S. states — including Georgia, Colorado, Michigan, Florida and Minnesota — have hastily announced relaxation of physical-distancing and business-closure restrictions, in defiance of objections from many civic officials and health-care experts that such measures are being implemented much too soon.

This despite a continuing coronavirus wave in the U.S., with this week having the doubly dubious distinction of confirmed cases passing the one-million mark and total U.S. deaths eclipsing 59,000 — more American fatalities than in the entirety of the Vietnam War.

As neighbours go, not the best to have in a pandemic.

As Canada charts its cautious course forward, how will federal and provincial officials deal with the issue of international travel across the aforementioned sea-to-sea border? It’s hard to imagine reopening Canada as a tourist destination for travellers from a nation that has yet to successfully flatten its curve, sufficiently control its rate of COVID-19 infection or institute sufficient testing to ensure its pandemic levels have retreated into a “safe” zone.

Not surprisingly, Premier Brian Pallister’s announcement Wednesday of Phase One of Manitoba’s restoration of services included the notation that travel restrictions — including to and from the United States — will remain in place. In the coronavirus context, it’s best these neighbours remain safely in their own yards for the time being.