Keep the border closed for all our sakes

Frankly, Canada has enough COVID-19 problems. We have a clutch of flatearth no-vaccine wackos blocking the ambulance bay in a Vancouver hospital, and sprinklings of similar protesters at Queen’s Park, lonely and lost. Quebec is reopening schools amid unsettled science, and Ontario’s premier had two daughters visit for Mother’s Day, then fumbled the public health recommendation for everyone else. Oh, and Bryan Adams stepped in it. And by it, we mean xenophobia.

But then there is America. It’s our dominant trading partner, our favourite vacation destination, our favourite TV show, the country we conquered at basketball last year, and neighbourly military muscle. For Canadians, the United States is like living next to a theme park: sometimes fun, sometimes dangerous, sometimes haunted and sometimes overrun by zombies. Pick your ride.

America is also, in the age of COVID-19, the single biggest outside threat to Canada. There’s a reason we wanted the border closed, and it wasn’t to keep Adams in London.

“The virus is in essentially all countries and jurisdictions of the world,” said Canadian chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam. “So part of (border opening) will be looking at that aspect of what is going on in the other country. And of course the U.S. (is) one country that still has cases and is still trying to manage outbreaks, and they present a risk to Canada from that perspective. So we have to take that into account.”

That was a polite way of saying, we are living next to a fire.

Tam also pointed out Canada must gauge the effects of domestic public health measures before trying anything else, and those measures will be a long haul. The fact that the Canadian National Exhibition in August was cancelled Tuesday should surprise nobody, because there is clearly no safe way to have mass gatherings in this country in the foreseeable future. The reopening of economies and society should be slow, and exceedingly careful. It will be trial and error, where error means we have somewhere to put the people who get sick.

“I think as with all aspects of this, the next phase is extreme caution and really being very, very careful,” said Tam. “Because this virus can take off rapidly if we are not extremely cautious and careful with our approach.”

And while Canada is experiencing the pandemic very differently, keeping the border closed has to be a universal piece.

Negotiations are ongoing to extend the prohibition of all non-essential U.S.-Canada travel, which expires May 21.

Canada already dissuaded Donald Trump from stationing soldiers at the border, and managed to keep N95 masks coming after the United States held up a shipment at the border. With more and more Chinese personal protective equipment being found to be inadequate, those American masks are more critical than ever.

But we just can’t open the border for a very long time because America’s national immolation could be contagious. The United States has three times the positive tests per capita, while doing about the same level of testing. Few states are steadily declining in their new cases, and only 11 states are still under anything resembling real stay-at-home orders, and more are reopening. Public health measures are being framed by conservative media as hostile culture war issues. The virus is starting to creep into rural areas.

And the president has tried nothing and is all out of ideas, so the federal government stance is essentially to pretend everything is fine. The White House sent back a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guide on safely reopening businesses and society, calling it “overly prescriptive.” Which is what someone might say if they were drunk and decided, what the hell, I can put together this barbecue without the instructions, and a few hours later someone has to call the fire department.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans want to give employers legal indemnification if their workers contract COVID-19 on the job, while several Republican governors push a policy of stripping unemployment benefits from employees who refuse unsafe work. A CNN poll showed 71 per cent of Republicans think the worst of the pandemic was behind them, versus 23 per cent of Democrats.

Infection control was so lax in the White House that at least four members of the coronavirus task force have been exposed to the coronavirus, including the vice-president, who said he would decline quarantine. Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning against reopening quickly. How many in power will listen?

So of course British Columbia, which has been one of the best examples of good governance in the country, is vocal in wanting to keep the border closed. The National Post’s Ryan Tumilty got Public Health Canada data that between Jan. 15 and April 17, 774 of the 2,233 combined confirmed travel-related coronavirus cases in Ontario and Quebec – which currently account for 84 per cent of Canada’s total cases, and 94 per cent of deaths – had come from the United States. Second place was France, with 193.

The U.S. is our neighbour, and our neighbour’s sicker than us. This government must continue to stay on good terms with its unstable partner, while making clear the border is non-negotiable. Because unlike the long-term illness that plagues America, the coronavirus only respects borders when they’re closed.

Bruce Arthur is a national affairs columnist.