OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – A Member of Parliament has taken Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to task for keeping Canada’s “outdated” COVID travel restrictions.
On Wednesday, Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Melissa Lantsman asked Trudeau who has been telling him to not drop his COVID travel mandates, an omission she called “vindictive” and unnecessary.
“International arrivals at Canadian airports are so backed up that people are being kept on planes for hours after they land because there isn’t enough space for the long lineups. His minister blames travelers, and the world has embraced restriction-free travel,” said Lantsman during a heated exchange in Canada’s House of Commons.
“The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Airports Council, and now health experts are telling this government that their outdated COVID restrictions have to go. Who’s actually telling the government to keep those restrictions?”
CPC MP @MelissaLantsman cites a number of organizations and experts who are calling on the feds to drop the travel restrictions. She asks PM Trudeau who is advising the government to keep the restrictions.
Trudeau says the pandemic is not over. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/AcvYUSd8xF
— True North (@TrueNorthCentre) May 18, 2022
Trudeau replied by saying that “the pandemic is still with us, so we need to continue to do what is necessary based on science, to keep people safe.”
He then said that more security workers are being hired to address staffing issues and that it’s a “good thing that Canadians are starting to travel again.”
“We will be there to support them, but we’re also going to continue to keep Canadians safe,” Trudeau added.
To this, Lantsman replied that the answer to her question is that there is nobody telling Trudeau to keep the travel mandates “except for the spin doctors in the Liberal Cabinet.”
“Instead of telling Canadians they are out of practice, he could bring back the workers that they fired,” she continued.
“He could stop the 4,000 tests for incoming travelers each day. He could do what most other countries have done and end the restrictions. Why is he doing nothing?”
Trudeau then said that his government will “evaluate and re-evaluate the measures we have to keep Canadians safe.”
Last week, Lantsman, a long-time critic of COVID vaccine travel mandates, blamed travel COVID mandates imposed by the government of Trudeau for clogging up the nation’s airports.
She said the “unscientific” rules need to be dropped.
Earlier this week, Lantsman and her fellow CPC MP Michelle Ferreri demanded on behalf of their party that Trudeau end his “vindictive” COVID jab travel mandate, saying recent testimony proves it is causing nothing but chaos at airports.
On Thursday, she put forth a motion in the House of Commons asking the Trudeau government to “immediately revert to pre-pandemic rules and service levels for travel.”
The motion has been deferred until Monday, May 30, 2022.
Last fall, Trudeau put in place a mandate that in effect bans those who have chosen not to get the COVID vaccines to travel ban by air, rail, or sea. The travel vaccine mandate bans Canadians from flying within Canada as well as out of the country.
However, enforcement of the rule is the responsibility of airlines, some of which offer paths for medical and religious exemptions.
Canadian airports are now facing massive delays, and some travelers are being forced to stay on planes for hours after landing.
In a May 4, 2022 statement, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), which manages Canada’s largest airport, sounded an alarm over airport bottlenecks and called for the Trudeau Liberals to ease COVID rules.
In December 2021, the Canadian government announced it would impose a vaccine mandate for all workers in federally regulated industries under its Policy on Covid-19 Vaccination. This policy went into effect on November 15, 2021.
Those without the jabs were not allowed to work and were placed on leave, including many who worked for Canadian airports, airlines, as well as federal agencies connected to aviation and travel.
It was recently revealed that over 2,500 federal employees who chose not to disclose whether they’ve had the experimental COVID jabs were suspended from their jobs without pay by their federal managers.