HELPING HANDS
CANADIANS ON TINY ISLE GIVE UP SEATS ON LAST HOMEWARD FLIGHT
THE CONFINEMENT MEASURES TAKEN IN SPAIN ARE THE MOST DRASTIC TAKEN IN EUROPE ... AND ONE OF THE MOST DRASTIC WORLDWIDE. — INTERIOR MINISTER FERNANDO GRANDE-MARLASKA ORDERING A 15-DAY STATE OF EMERGENCY BARRING PEOPLE FROM ALL BUT ESSENTIAL OUTINGS
Canadians stranded on a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea are giving their reserved seats for the last confirmed flight to Canada to others in more urgent need: someone running out of life-saving medication, someone undergoing chemotherapy, the elderly and the young.
While the global coronavirus pandemic sparked brawls over toilet paper, it has not stripped everyone of compassion.
At least four Canadians on the island of Roatán, on a coral reef about 65 kilometres off the coast of Honduras, and four more around the city of Trujillo, on the northern coast of Honduras, are transferring their seats on WestJet’s repatriation flight set to depart Sunday.
Eight passengers with urgent needs are taking their place in an act of generosity arranged by the governor of the region, the Canadian embassy in Honduras and WestJet.
“We’re safe, we’re healthy. We’re comfortable here and don’t feel under pressure to leave, and when we heard about so many others who can’t leave or are having trouble getting a plane ticket, we just thought we could help,” said Normajean Mills, of Ninette, Man.
She and her husband, Guy Merke, and 14-year-old son Braxton, will remain on Roatán, where they own a vacation home, at least until other arrangements can be made.
“We asked our embassy representative if there were people who are in need of getting home soon. She said definitely,” Mills said.
Honduras, like many countries, restricted travel in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19. On Sunday, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández put the country on “red alert” and closed his borders — air, land and sea — leaving visitors trapped.
Since then, special arrangements were made to allow empty flights to land to pick up Canadians. On Monday, four flights, two each by Sunwing and Air Transat, left Roatán. Two more left on Thursday and a WestJet flight is scheduled Sunday.
It’s the last confirmed flight to Canada, although others are trying to be arranged.
Cathy Bernier, of Edmonton, and Canadian neighbours in Trujillo — a couple from Fort McMurray, Alta., and a woman from Regina — all decided to release their seats on Sunday’s flight, as well.
“There are no COVID cases here. We’re safe and there are so many people stuck in Roatán. There are families with young children. It just makes sense to stay where we are,” Bernier said.
The Canadian embassy called her Friday to confirm she is fine to stay.
“They thanked us very much. They said they would find the most needy people to jump on that WestJet flight and get home.
“That’s what being Canadian is about,” Bernier said. “You share, you watch each other’s back. You make the most of what you have.”
Another Canadian, Michael Chekaluk, of Edmonton, is arranging to transfer his seat to a man from British Columbia who is running out of life-saving medication that is unavailable in Honduras.
“I’ve come to the area for a number of years for scuba diving. I don’t mind staying longer because I know the place. As long as there are supplies, it should be fine, I think,” Chekaluk said.
He asked the local governor, Dino Silvestri, about transferring his ticket to someone who needs to urgently return. Silvestri put him in touch with a doctor at a medical clinic who had someone running out of medication, he said.
“You see someone who needs something and if you have it, you just do it,” Chekaluk said.
Nidia Pineda, at the Canadian embassy in Honduras, said the arrangement works because WestJet agreed to cancel the tickets of those giving them up and directly replacing the seats at the same time with vulnerable Canadians.
“We are trying to help them. It is really nice what they are doing,” Pineda said of the travellers giving up seats.
Worried tourists have overloaded Silvestri, governor of
Honduras’ Bay Islands, since the border shut down.
“People started freaking out,” he said.
He is working to bring order to the chaos.
He does daily Facebook live video briefings and takes questions from worried travellers; he started 16 chat groups on WhatsApp, one each for nationals of different countries, to share information; and he takes calls on his cellphone day and night.
He shares good news as well as bad. Sunday’s WestJet flight is arriving with more than just empty seats, he said.
There will also be three hockey bags filled with supplies for Roatán, bought through donations by Blain Morin, of Tiny, Ont., 55 kilometres northwest of Barrie.
Morin and his group, Canadian Activists Passionate to Assist, were scheduled to fly to Roatán to install a water and septic system for a local school. That was cancelled because of the pandemic.
Instead, they bought large jugs of hand soap and medical gloves, Morin said. Its transfer is being arranged through the Rotary Club in Roatán.
Part of the problem of getting people out is Air Transat has not been accepting passengers who did not fly in on the airline, several people complained.
A user of one of Silvestri’s chat group said he had to leave family behind when he flew out Thursday on Air Transat: “There was lots of empty seats and they wouldn’t accommodate my mother who was willing to pay. They are putting their policy above all else.”
Silvestri confirmed offers from other Canadians prepared to transfer their seats to people in need were not accommodated by some airlines: “Those opportunities were wasted,” Silvestri said.
Debbie Cabana, a spokeswoman for Air Transat said “regulatory constraints” prevented the airline from repatriating Canadians who arrived on a different airline since Air Transat operates only charter flights.
“We are nonetheless currently working actively with local authorities and the government of Canada, including the Canadian embassy in Honduras, to allow us to repatriate stranded Canadians. We are doing our utmost to allow them to return home in cooperation with the authorities,” Cabana said.
As of Friday, Honduran health authorities had sent 12 samples for COVID-19 testing for people on the Bay Islands. Eight have come back negative and four results are pending.
Silvestri said the Canadian embassy in Honduras is working closely with the airlines and Honduran authorities to get Canadians home. Seven flights to Canada have been arranged while only one has left for the United States.
U.S. air carriers do not want to fly down empty of passengers, as the Honduran border lockdown requires, he said.
Problems remain in Honduras for Canadians stranded on the mainland, away from where most tourists congregate, as previously reported by National Post. Some are hunkering down to stay and others are looking for alternatives.
A small group of Canadians, who asked their names not be published, said they felt compelled to negotiate with a fisherman to take them on a clandestine, nighttime trip across to Roatán.
They are uncertain whether they will risk going through with it.
It might not even work. Honduran authorities reported three boats trying to make clandestine crossings to the islands had been intercepted and turned back.
Silvestri estimated 750 Canadians will have left by Sunday. About 200 remain, with options being discussed.
Silvestri’s girlfriend of two years, Francheska Krysiak, is a Canadian from London, Ont., who moved to Roatán. She brought him to Canada for his first visit last year, but that isn’t buying Canadians favouritism, he joked.
“My mission is to get everyone out,” he said.
“I’m doing this because I want them all to come back when all of this is over.”
THAT’S WHAT BEING CANADIAN IS ABOUT.