As the coronavirus changes patterns around the world, California will inevitably attract fewer Canadian visitors in the coming months. Companies that depend on tourism will work here to fill the void by attracting local or regional tourists. But uncompromising restrictions still weigh heavily on cross-border non-public relations.
Since the closure of the Canada-U.S. border. Not essential on March 21, thousands of others in both countries have been counting the days since they last saw someone they like, a close friend or someone they personally depend on.
They shared moving stories at a personal Facebook organization called Advocacy for Family Reunification at the Canadian Borders. More publicly, they are on Twitter and Instagram with the nickname @FacesofAdvocacy. They argued for media coverage, making headlines like “The dying woman will see her fiancé in spite of everything” and “Separate couples fighting for exemptions say that “love is essential.”
I know what it’s like for a separate couple. Since March, I haven’t been able to locate my 12-year-old partner, a Canadian citizen in Vancouver. I retired halfway from New York to Palm Springs, so I can keep earning U.S. dollars while enjoying the desert sun and making common trips on convenient nonstop flights to Vancouver. These flights are suspended because lately few foreigners can travel to Canada.
The United States has 15 times more new coVID-19 cases consistent with captain than Canada. Our coVID-19 mortality rate was 3 times higher than Canada’s in the spring, and that difference narrowed a little, Canadian public opinion was established: Americans pose a serious fitness threat.
Americans boarding a flight to Canada or crossing the border by car or on foot must take a “non-discretionary” trip, be free of any symptoms or symptoms of COVID-19, and, with some exceptions, have a 14-day period. quarantine plan. An “immediate circle of family members of a Canadian citizen or permanent resident” would possibly be exempt from the “non-discretionary” restriction. This exemption was drafted in an unrealistic way in the middle of the century, so many relationships are left out.
Complaints about the closure of the border, which has been extended one month at a time, abound, without the government considering tactics to alleviate difficulties (with the exception of the NHL) and help others plan for their future. Some engaged or paired couples rushed to marry only to see others. Stories of unpredictable good fortune and failure at border crossings mean that Canadian Border Services Agency officials have too much discretion and too little direction.
The United States allows Canadians to fly here without special restrictions in the event of a pandemic. But as the Desert Sun reported in June, the approximately 300,000 Canadian snowbirds that generally make a stopover in the Coachella Valley may be discouraged this winter because the supplemental fitness insurance they want when crossing the border restricts the policy for COVID-19. Some, but not all, insurers restrict the policy if the Canadian government has pleaded at the time it begins its journey to avoid non-essential trips to its destination, which now applies in the United States.
More than 660,000 passengers passed through Palm Springs International Airport in the last quarter of 2019. My spouse is one of them, but I have no idea when we’ll meet in person.
Howard Goldberg, [email protected], is a freelancer in Palm Springs who has worked for national and foreign news agencies since 1986.