‘Massive majority’ of Liberal caucus wants Trudeau to drop federal COVID mandates, say Liberal MPs | Hill Times - Abbas Rana:
June 9, 2022 - "With provincial and international jurisdictions easing COVID restrictions, some Liberal MPs say the vast majority of their caucus want the federal government to drop travel vaccination requirements, allowing unvaccinated Canadians to board domestic flights. Several Liberal MPs interviewed for this article said that most caucus members want all federal pandemic restrictions dropped as soon as possible.
"'The massive majority of Liberal MPs want the mandates to end,' said one Liberal MP who spoke on not-for-attribution basis.... 'People are saying "What the hell, why are [unvaccinated] people not allowed to fly domestic, you know, like, at least let them fly domestic with masks on. You can go into a shopping mall with them, you can go into an elevator with them, you can go into a movie theatre with them.'
"Three-term Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski (Thunder Bay-Rainy River, Ont.), a medical doctor and a member of the Health Committee, said the vaccine mandate for air travel should be removed.... Powlowski said that he still wants air travellers to wear masks when they’re on the plane. He said he would leave the timing of when to ease the federal mandates up to the government.... Citing caucus confidentiality, he declined to say what his colleagues think about this issue and what kinds of answers MPs are getting internally from cabinet ministers on this issue....
"According to federal travel requirements, all passengers taking a domestic flight must be fully vaccinated. Passengers arriving in Canada from out of country are also instructed to use the ArriveCan app and may be subject to random COVID testing. The federal Health Department and Public Health Agency of Canada announced recently that the federal mandates have been extended until the end of June....
"Provincial jurisdictions have already lifted or have been easing most of the COVID restrictions and vaccine mandates.... Most recently, Ontario announced that as of June 11, most provincial masking requirements would be over, including for passengers on public transit.... Late last month, Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman (Thornhill, Ont.) put forward a motion in the House calling for an end to all travel restrictions. It was defeated by a vote of 202 to 117.
"Speaking on not-for-attribution basis, several Liberal MPs said the issue has been raised numerous times in regional and national caucus meetings, but they did not get a satisfactory answer.... Sources told The Hill Times that Liberal MP Brendan Hanley (Yukon), a former chief health officer of the territory, has done more than one presentation at national caucus meetings to make the case for dropping COVID-19 restrictions. He was not available for an interview with The Hill Times....
"MPs also told The Hill Times that COVID mandates are one of the key reasons for the notoriously long line-ups at some airports, like the 'chaos' reported at the Toronto Pearson International Airport making repeat headlines for ongoing disruptions. Some Liberal MPs said that even if the federal government does not want to lift all restrictions at the same time, they can do it gradually but they should start with dropping the vaccine requirement now."
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