Confusion over late changes to Canada’s border measures may cause some kids to miss the start of school

MONTREAL -

Some Canadian parents are learning the hard way that either they have to cancel a long-awaited family trip this summer, or have their young children miss the beginning of school this fall, despite their best efforts to plan.

“I'm sure it will create issues,” for other families, Montreal resident Samuel Ramsey said, “because [at the beginning of the summer] I didn’t see anything anywhere, about the children needing to be in the country two weeks before school.”

The last-minute confusion seems to be the result of a sequence of statements issued this summer by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) on its plan to ease border measures and quarantine requirements.

A background document was posted online in mid-July but was updated with additional information on Aug. 9.

The critical section affecting these families has to do with the new rules for non-vaccinated children under the age of 12, who are travelling with fully vaccinated parents or guardians.

“I don't know how widely publicized that was,” said Ramsey, the father of an 11-year-old daughter, who got caught in a tangle of mixed messaging while travelling in the United States with his family this month.

The most recent iteration of the federal agency’s plan to minimize the risk of travellers bringing COVID-19 back into the country even came as a surprise to a group of pediatricians at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, who only heard about the rule on Tuesday.

“It was kind of news to me and my colleagues,” said Dr. Earl Rubin, an infectious diseases specialist.

“I don't think people realize that. It was a shock that they can’t attend school, as some schools start Aug. 24, others Aug. 30 or Sept. 7. I think it's just got to be a more publicized message,” said Rubin.

Jacqueline Powell, a resident of the South Shore town of Ste-Julie, was also recently in the U.S. with her elementary-school-aged children. She agrees that many families seem to be in the dark about the new expectations.

“I didn’t know about the school part until Tuesday,” even though she crossed the border on Aug. 9, Powell said in an interview.

Powell is an American citizen and permanent resident here, allowing her to cross the border into the U.S. despite restrictions on non-essential travel that on Friday were pushed back to Sept. 21.

Permitted to drive back into Canada, she said the border guard gave her minimal instructions, no documentation, and did not suggest she read up on the new directives.

“We actually have to go back to the U.S. in October for my sister's wedding. And that will be in the middle of school, so it will be tough for me to keep the kids home for two weeks when we get back,” Powell said.

Some Montreal schools like Lower Canada College and others took it upon themselves to give parents as much warning as possible.

“In a communication sent to parents last week, we advised them of the new government protocols around international travel and the return-to-school of children under 12,” the Director of Enrolment & Communications, Dawn Levy, told CTV News.

Other families are more likely to find out they may have to miss work and be on child-care duty for a while upon their return, only when they land at a domestic airport. English Montreal School Board spokesperson Michael Cohen said “to my knowledge we did not send out such a note.”

EVER-CHANGING COVID-19 MEASURES STRIKE AGAIN

Like Powell, Ramsey is also an American and a permanent resident in Canada. His husband and their daughter are dual citizens. They spend most summers in the U.S. with Ramsey’s family.

He said he began monitoring border developments from his vacation spot in the U.S. in late July, knowing the federal government was planning to ease restrictions on entering Canada on Aug. 9.

“The website continued to say that unvaccinated children had to be quarantined for two weeks upon their return to Canada,” said Ramsey.

The first week of August, he decided to call a border services information line and said he was told the PHAC website had not yet been updated but that “they would be removing the language requiring unvaccinated children under the age of 12 to quarantine.”

“That was a great relief. We had plans to spend the last two weeks of August at the beach” in the U.S., Ramsey said.

But out of an abundance of caution, he checked the website on Aug. 9 for himself and realized the beach was not to be.

“And that's when I discovered there was a second stipulation that, while those children would not be required to quarantine...they cannot attend school until they have been in Canada for two weeks,” he said.

It seems that the PHAC’s updated summary added school to the list of group settings, like camp and daycare, only in August, meaning these children also need to avoid school during the first 14 days back home.

While Ramsey said it was no crisis, the fact the family had to cancel their two-week beach vacation in the U.S. at the last minute was “obviously disappointing.”

Armed with their negative COVID-19 test results, they drove back across the border so that Sarah wouldn’t miss her first day back at school in Montreal on Sept. 1.

He said, unfortunately, Sarah’s best friend won’t be there with her that day, because she is also out of the country with her parents, who he said didn't know about the new measures when they booked their trip.

WILL THE MEASURE HELP REDUCE TRANSMISSION?

When it comes to elementary schools, Rubin says keeping unvaccinated children who have just returned from across the border out of the classroom for 14 days is “on the side of wise,” because every measure has an impact.

That’s especially true, he adds, given the low vaccination rates and risk of exposure in some American states. However, it’s not enough, he said.

“I’m really hoping that there will be new directives, that there will be masks and bubbles at least in primary school,” said Rubin, pointing to the backlash that followed the announcement of the education ministry’s current back-to-school-plan that does away with those particular public health measures. “And I think that's forthcoming.”