COVID-19 test delays threaten Ottawa woman's Ugandan wedding day

Bride-to-be now waiting on results after Ontario rule changes left her scrambling

Just days before her wedding, Ottawa immigration lawyer Deidre Powell is at the mercy of a COVID-19 lab that she hopes will get her to the church on time — a church 12,000 kilometres away in Uganda.

“What drama!” Powell said with a laugh after finally getting swabbed after a wild weekend caught up in international red tape, airline rules and Ontario's chaotic COVID testing system.

“My whole family was telling me, `You have to calm down. You're going crazy.' ”

Powell, a Canadian citizen from Jamaica, and her husband-to-be, a Ugandan citizen, had planned to marry in Jamaica. But her fiancé wasn't able to get a visa so they moved the wedding to Uganda.

Powell left Ottawa last Saturday on a flight to Toronto to connect to an Ethiopian Airlines Flight to Uganda via Addis Ababa. She had with her the negative COVID-19 test result she received on Sept. 30 from a swab taken in Ottawa on Sept. 27.

But when she got to Toronto, the airline refused to let her board its flight to Africa. Uganda requires people to have a negative C OVID -19 test within 72 hours of when the swab was taken. Powell's had expired.

Frantic, Powell tried to find a test site in Toronto, but in the confusion over Ontario's testing protocols last weekend, no one was answering her phone calls or emails.

“You don't want to see what I looked like on Saturday,” Powell said, finally able to laugh about her ordeal a few days later. “There was an Air Canada gentleman named Michael. He was so kind. He helped to cheer me up. He brought me tea while I was sitting on the floor crying. I thought, `Look at me. I'm sitting here crying. I'm a lawyer and I'm a mess.' ”

Out of options, Powell bought a plane ticket home and arrived back in Ottawa. She went to one test centre and was turned away because she wasn't sick and Ontario had stopped testing asymptomatic people. The few pharmacies that were answering their phones said they had no openings until Thursday.

Meanwhile, Powell's fiancé had found a private clinic in Montreal that was guaranteeing results within 48 hours. He booked her an appointment Monday morning. Powell then managed to book an appointment online for Ottawa's Coventry Road drive-in clinic for Monday afternoon as an added precaution.

She left for Montreal Monday at 5 a.m. and was first in line for a swab at the clinic. It cost her $175. Then she headed back to Ottawa and got swabbed again at Coventry Road Monday afternoon. By this time, Ottawa clinics had stopped swabbing asymptomatic people, but Powell had booked her test before the new rules came into affect.

But staff at the Ottawa clinic told her she might not receive her result for five or seven days — after her wedding day — so she's banking on the Montreal clinic being true to its word.

“The light at the end of the tunnel is that private company in Montreal. They gave me the reassurance that I'll have it within 48 hours. It's expensive, but at least it gives me hope that I'll be able to get to Uganda,” she said.

The ordeal and the confusing messaging about who can and can't be tested in Ontario's test centres added stress for Powell, who in her law practice helps new Canadians navigate this country's arcane immigration rules.

“All my crying and panicking was not getting me anywhere,” Powell said. “Do you know how frustrating that is? I think I'm going through this so I can really empathize with my clients, so I can really empathize with what it's like to be an immigrant.”

“It's nobody's fault, but I think not being able to guarantee when you're going to get your results is a real problem. Are we asking too much of our public system to be able to give that?”

It's nobody's fault, but I think not being able to guarantee when you're going to get your (test) results is a real problem.