Airports are being stricter about masks than the government requires
My book The Freedom Convoy: The Inside Story of Three Weeks that Shook the World, continues to sit at #1 on the Toronto Star’s and Globe and Mail’s bestseller lists, so I suspect many of you may have already picked up a copy. If not, you can do so here. If you read it and enjoyed it, perhaps you can buy one for a friend or member of parliament who desperately needs to read it. My publisher, Sutherland House, has a limited supply of signed copies available.
Earlier this summer, the federal government quietly relaxed its mask mandate for Canadian airports, but you wouldn’t know it from transiting though most of them.
According to the latest directive from Transport Canada, the federal department responsible for the absurd air travel restrictions and regulations, travellers need to wear masks:
at the security screening checkpoints
at the boarding gate
during the flight when you can’t physically distance from others
when asked by an airline employee, a public health official, staff from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, or a Canada Border Services Agency officer
In true bureaucratic fashion, the government doesn’t come right out and say the major takeaway, which is that you don’t need to wear a mask when you’re walking around the terminal or camped out on a bench for a seven hour layover because you missed your connection.
It’s still annoying compared to pretty much everywhere else in the world, but a smidge better than the previous rule requiring a mask at all points except when taking bites of an overpriced and almost certainly microwaved airport enchilada just to get a few unmasked minutes.
(Before you get too hopeful, the mask mandate for airplanes remains in place. This column is specifically about the airport mask mandate).
I only learned of the changes to the Transport Canada airport mask rules when I got off a plane in Montreal a couple of weeks back and was pleasantly surprised to see very few masks among passengers and staff alike. At first I thought I was witnessing a rare streak of Quebec rebelliousness, but as the Montreal airport’s website says:
As of June 18, 2022, wearing a mask remains required by the Government of Canada for all regulatory processes, i.e., at checkpoints, at boarding, during the flight, and at the customs processing area.
My hopes of encountering a similar state of facial freedom at Toronto’s Pearson Airport were quickly dashed a couple of hours later. Pearson still mandates masks at virtually all points in the airport, except for restaurants and VIP lounges, of course.
It turns out that Pearson is in the majority as far as major airports are concerned. Canada’s airports are forcing masks on travellers more than even the restriction-happy Trudeau government is.
Edmonton International Airport and Winnipeg Richardson International Airport follow Transport Canada’s updated rules and, like Montreal, require masks only for the regulatory formalities of air travel. The major airports in Calgary, Vancouver, Halifax, and Ottawa still insist on requiring masks above and beyond where the federal government does.
An emailed statement from a Vancouver Airport Authority spokesperson acknowledged the Transport Canada policy change but said “the safety of our community is our top priority” and cited guidance from the BC Centre for Disease Control favouring continued mask use.
A representative of the Halifax International Airport Authority defended the excessive mask rules by saying Halifax Stanfield International Airport “often exceed(s) minimum safety standards,” pointing to how it required masks before any federal or provincial mandate came in (I wouldn’t be bragging about that, but to each their own).
A spokesperson for the Calgary Airport Authority told me only that its policy is “under review” with an update “expected shortly.” She didn’t reply when I asked her to confirm the current policy listed on the airport’s website: “Masks are still mandatory at YYC and must be worn while travelling through or working in the airport.”
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority, which controls Pearson airport, had the most perplexing explanation for the continued mask rules.
“Although select airports have dropped the requirements…most have maintained it, as it eliminates confusion for when and where masks must be worn in the terminals for staff, meeters and greeters and travellers, and maintains consistency across the network,” a Pearson spokesperson said.
As someone who’s recently travelled to and from Europe, I’d argue the greater source of confusion comes from trying to understand why virtually everyone else in the world can safely transit through airports and pack onto airplanes like sardines without the public health risk that apparently comes from breathing in Canadian air without a flimsy paper mask.
The ”trust the science” crowd has never explained why Canadian science differs so vastly from that of every other western country.
Despite easing its own airport mask mandate, Transport Canada is defending the airports that cling to the old rules.
“Airports may also institute their own additional rules regarding masks outside of these regulated areas,” a Transport Canada spokesperson told me.
Airports, which are as federally regulated as it gets, didn’t have the right to opt out when Transport Canada added on restrictions, so it’s curious why they’re allowed to opt out when the agency is actually loosening them.
It’s already a rare event when the federal government drops a restriction – almost as rare as an on-time flight at Pearson.
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