Continued border closure through July 21 prompts angry reaction

John Adams, who has paid for ads in both the Canada and the United States in hopes that such pressure would clear him to visit his Canadian home this summer, heard the news and promised that in response, "I will be the biggest nightmare that Canada has ever encountered."

And Buffalo's usually mild-mannered member of Congress, Rep. Brian Higgins, derided the decision with a barnyard expletive.

Such was the reaction Friday after Canada announced that its land borders with the United States will remain largely closed for a 16th straight month.

"Our number one priority as we fight #COVID19 is keeping Canadians safe," Bill Blair, Canada's minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, tweeted. "In coordination with the U.S., we are extending restrictions on non-essential international travel and with the United States until July 21st, 2021."

After the Canadian announcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection tweeted what appeared to be a tacit confirmation that the border shutdown will continue on the American side as well.

"TRAVEL ALERT: The temporary restriction on non-essential travel at US land border ports of entry remains in effect," the agency tweeted.

The two nations have operated in tandem on the border closure since March 21, 2020, when they announced that the crossing would be shuttered to nonessential travel to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Now, though, infection rates are plummeting and vaccination rates increasing on both sides of the border – but not enough to satisfy Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Asked about the continued closure at a virtual press briefing, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: "We have to hit our targets of 75% vaccinated with the first dose and at least 20% vaccinated with the second dose before we can start loosening things up because even a fully vaccinated individual can pass on Covid-19 to someone who is not vaccinated."

Nearly 66% of Canadians had received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Thursday, according to the Our World in Data Covid-19 Data Explorer. Some 15.91% of Canadians were fully vaccinated.

The continued border closure comes as no surprise, given that Canada announced its first weakening of its border restrictions last week – and it was hardly a weakening at all. Instead, Canada merely eased quarantine requirements for returning Canadians and others who already had permission to enter Canada.

"As we have said, the government is planning measures for fully vaccinated Canadians, Permanent Residents, and others who are currently permitted to enter Canada and will provide further details on Monday, June 21," Blair said on Twitter.

Pressure had been building from politicians and business groups on both sides of the border to begin opening the land crossings, particularly for those with loved ones or property on the other side.

But that pressure clearly didn't influence Trudeau. That fact enraged politicians on both sides of the border, who accused the Canadian leader of overplaying the minimal risk that vaccinated travelers could spread Covid-19.

"We say: 'Follow the science,' and the science says you're safe if you're vaccinated," said Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican. "I have a hard time understanding why the Canadian government is taking this approach. It's going to hurt local economies, families are going to continue to suffer, property owners will continue to have to endure not being able to assure that their significant investments are protected. So I'm very disappointed."

Nick Dubanow, a Fort Erie town councillor, expressed similar sentiments.

"There is no question that vaccines work and that it is safe for a fully vaccinated individuals to travel. Science says so, and Canada does not exist in a vacuum with different science than anywhere else," Dubanow said. "I truly do not know what's going on with the political leadership in this country."

Others expressed disappointment that the latest 30-day extension of the border closure was announced with no indication that the two governments are working together to reopen the border.

“Instead of endless delays and confusion, we need a concrete plan, based on science and facts, to reopen the northern border for vaccinated individuals," said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat

For many people, though, the latest extension of the border closure came as a personal blow.

Pearce, a Buffalo-area native living in Fort Erie with her husband of 42 years, formed the group called "Families are Essential" to press for an easing of the border restrictions. She hoped doing so would make it easier for her to visit her aging parents, but that now doesn't look likely to happen anytime soon.

"My dad is 93 years old and depressed because he's lived by himself for a year now – and he lives 10 minutes from me" when the border is open, Pearce said.

Adams, who's sponsoring those TV ads to press for a border reopening, will have to go at least another month before he sees his family summer home in British Columbia. So now he's talking about organizing an economic boycott of Canada, and even trying to get cruise companies and airlines to avoid the country.

He's not much happier with President Biden, whom, he said, is "clueless" about the ramifications of keeping the border closed.

And for Higgins, the shutdown is both personal and political. He frequently muses about all the time he spent playing hockey in Canada as a kid, and about the close ties between Buffalo and the Niagara Peninsula. And now he said he's aghast that the two nations are in the process of damaging that cross-border relationship by keeping the crossing closed as the Covid-19 pandemic fades.

"There's just no excuse for it," Higgins said in an interview.

On Twitter, though, Higgins was more explicit. There, he described the continued closure with a crude term that more politely translates to bovine excrement.

He wrote: "There’s no other way to say it: another month’s delay is bullshit."