Canada to keep watch of port areas
Vancouver handles more than one million ship passengers a year
VANCOUVER— As more than 250 Canadians sit idle on a cruise ship in the ocean near Yokohama, Japan — under a 14-day quarantine due to an outbreak of novel coronavirus — Canada is not immune to a similar quarantine if one of hundreds of cruise ships has a similar outbreak in Canadian waters.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said that if a situation calls for it, quarantining a cruise ship is possible. Such measures could be taken in the event of a widespread outbreak and following investigation by public health agency officials.
“To prevent the introduction and spread of communicable diseases in Canada, in accordance with the Quarantine Act, comprehensive measures, including quarantine, may be taken where it is suspected that any person on board a conveyance could cause the spread of a communicable disease that poses a significant risk to public health,” Anna Maddison of PHAC media relations said in an email.
Vancouver handles more than one million cruise ship passengers a year aboard 290 ships, according to the Port of Vancouver. Cruise Halifax says about 180 vessels and 324,000 passengers went through that port in 2019.
Maddison said the PHAC keeps track of cruise ships entering and leaving Canada and none are scheduled to arrive until April.
The Canada Border Services Agency said it can’t “speculate on hypothetical situations” about cruise ships and no plans are in place now, other than screening people for coronavirus at points of entry.
But according to one legal expert, it may not be so simple to institute a quarantine on a cruise ship in one of Canada’s harbours.
Steven Hoffman is the Director of the Global Strategy Lab and a professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University. Hoffman has previously said a quarantine of an entire city would likely be unconstitutional in Canada, but with cruise ships, it would depend on the ship’s circumstances.
“It would depend on whether there are other ways that public health authorities could effectively contain the outbreak,” Hoffman said. “The government would have to demonstrably justify that action as being reasonable in a democratic and free society.”
It would have to be a pressing concern and “minimally impairing” to the rights of those on the ship, Hoffman said. It could also depend on where the vessel is docked. If it’s near a military base, for example, there could be better options than keeping people aboard a ship.