(Ottawa) Unlike US President Joe Biden who declared this week that the COVID-19 pandemic “is over”, the Canadian federal government does not intend to sing victory too quickly.
Posted at 10:41 a.m.
During his visit to New York, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recalled at a press conference that hospitals across the country were still treating a large number of patients with COVID-19.
He encouraged people to get a booster dose of the vaccine. “We are going to make sure the pandemic is a thing of the past as soon as possible,” he said.
Two high-level government sources in Ottawa, speaking on the condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, told The Canadian Press that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had agreed in principle to allow the order in council that imposes vaccination requirements against COVID-19 at the Canadian border to expire next Friday.
The change will also have the effect of ending mandatory testing for unvaccinated international travelers as well as random testing for those who are vaccinated.
The decision is expected to be officially announced on Monday.
Mr. Trudeau has not yet spoken publicly about this change. However, the leaders in the fight against COVID-19 could take the opportunity to indicate how the federal government intends to navigate the next transitional stage of the pandemic.
When the Liberal government relaxed certain restrictions in June, including mandatory vaccination for domestic travelers, the tone was one of caution.
Rather than proclaiming that mandatory vaccination was no longer necessary, federal authorities had instead declared that the measures were only suspended. They had warned that they could be put back in place if the coronavirus came back in force this fall.
“If the federal, provincial and territorial governments remain cautious, it is because we remember that the previous times, the lifting of restrictions had not been so effective,” said the president of the Canadian Medical Association, Alika Fountain.
Mr. Trudeau again defended his government’s policy during the health crisis.
“In Canada, our goal has been, every step of the way, to listen to the science, to respond to the facts on the ground,” he said Thursday. He repeated the same message the following day when questioned by reporters about it.
But the Conservatives criticize the government for using science for political purposes.
“Canadians are wondering. They wonder why the government seemed to base these decisions not on medicine, but on political calculations,” said party health spokesman Michael Barrett.
According to Julianne Piper of Simon Fraser University, there is no doubt that politics played a role in the decision-making process.
“There are different political, geographical and health factors that influenced these decisions,” she says.
The blending of politics and public health can set the tone for the country.
“This signals the general sentiment surrounding pandemics. This signals what the various actors who will be affected should expect,” adds Ms.me Piper.
The Dr Lafontaine says it will be important for politicians to have this in mind during the next stage of the pandemic.
“It’s very important for politicians to realize that what they say will have a profound impact,” he said. More than ever, we must be clear about the problems we are facing, to declare that there is a crisis when there is a crisis, to speak about plans for the future only when the time has come to speak about them. »