June 21, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The top public health official for the Canadian province of British Columbia confirmed that her government is working “in concert” with federal authorities for the creation of a “vaccine passport” to be used for international travel.
“The short answer is yes, so we provide aggregate information. But in terms of a vaccine passport, that is something Canada is working on in concert with all of us,” British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told reporters last Thursday.
“So, yes, we are working with the federal government about how they can develop a Canadian passport that is recognized internationally, that links in a confidential way to the information that we have in the same way that you would have your passport.”
Henry said that it is “most important” one’s personal health information is protected, adding the province already has an “immunization registry where everybody’s doses … are in there.”
“We need to be able to access that in a safe way for to allow people … to have a vaccine passport if it’s needed. And what our expectation is, is that we’ll have that in place for international travel,” said Henry.
In Canada, provinces have jurisdiction on all health matters, which would include issuing any type of proof of one’s vaccination status.
Henry’s comments came only a day before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is working on “two tracks” to prove one’s vaccine status.
Trudeau said last Friday that in the fall the federal government will be rolling out a system of “national certification of vaccination status” that travelers can use to prove they’ve had the “full” two doses of the COVID-19 jab.
In the short term, Trudeau said his government will be working with the “ArriveCAN app in ways that people can upload an image of their paper proof of vaccination or online proof of vaccination so that the border agents on their return to Canada can verify indeed that they are fully vaccinated.”
As it stands now, all travellers arriving to Canada must use the ArriveCAN app to submit their “travel and contact information, including a suitable quarantine plan, electronically,” before crossing the border or boarding a flight.
Currently, both Manitoba and Quebec have forms of vaccine proof one can attain in digital form.
Recently, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister officially launched the province’s immunization card program for those who have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
In May, the Quebec government announced that they will now send “electronic proof” in the form of a QR code to those who have had a COVID-19 jab.
Trudeau also confirmed on Friday that his government is working with the provinces on the “national certification of vaccination status” that will be “easily” accepted around the world.
This comes after his office recently claimed that a “broad consensus” has been reached among the nation’s premiers to work to create “a proof of vaccine credential” system for travel.
Earlier last week, Canada’s Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said that the federal government is working with Canadian provinces on a type of “digital” proof of “vaccination” for citizens to use for international travel.
LeBlanc said the federal government intends to “respect provincial jurisdiction around the health care data of citizens,” noting that “in all likelihood” international travel will “require some reliable national proof of vaccination.”
Today, LeBlanc said that starting July 5, Canadians and permanent residents who have had the full two doses of the COVID-19 jab will no longer have to quarantine when entering Canada.
Despite this, the Trudeau government decided to extend Canada’s closure of the border with the United States until July 21. The current closure agreement was originally set to expire today.
Canada’s federal court recently ruled that quarantine hotels imposed by the government of Trudeau since January — and for which travelers must pay — are constitutional.
The court, however, also ruled that a pastor’s rights were violated when she was confined to a quarantine hotel against her will.
Allison Kindle Pejovic, a lawyer for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), recently told LifeSiteNews that a “vaccine passport system creates a two-tiered society whereby those who have chosen to be vaccinated are treated differently and discriminatorily compared to those who have not chosen to get the vaccine.”
Contact information
Premier of British Columbia John Horgan
Office: 250-387-1715
Fax: 250-387-0087
Mailing: PO BOX 9041 STN PROV GOVT, VICTORIA, BC V8W 9E1
Email: [email protected]