00:00:00.000Good evening. I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard. Joining me tonight are some families
00:00:15.480that are either Canadian citizens based in Canada, they're Canadian citizens based in the U.S.
00:00:22.360But we're basically going to be talking with families who have been experiencing a lot of, you know, frustration and grief with the lingering vaccine mandates when it comes to travel between the U.S. and Canada and Canada in the U.S.
00:00:38.900These families have family members that are either, you know, across the border and they haven't been able to see them for months, if not years.
00:00:48.900We even have some families who have lost family members and were unable to come and see their parents or attend the funeral.
00:00:58.120So we're going to we're going to chat with these families tonight just just to get an idea of of how this has been impacting a lot of families between Canada and the United States.
00:01:08.880First of all, we're going to speak with Marcella Pacone.
00:01:11.840She's out of Buffalo, New York, and Marcella was the one that originally contacted me and
00:01:27.360citizen and he lives in Stony Creek, Ontario. Now, Marcella was originally part of a Facebook
00:01:34.160group called Families Are Essential, but then started her own Facebook page called For the
00:01:40.560the love of family. Marcella, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me to allow us
00:01:45.420to share our stories today. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Why don't you tell me a little bit
00:01:49.640about your situation with your fiance and how this all sort of got started with the Facebook
00:01:56.100groups and just looking to support other families? Yeah, so my fiance is Canadian. He's a permanent
00:02:04.100resident Canadian. We've been together for six or seven years. We have two kids together, a three-year-old
00:02:09.480and a two-year-old. And obviously prior to COVID, we were allowed the luxury of being able to cross
00:02:15.940back and forth. We actually are about 45 minutes away from each other. So it was always a quick
00:02:21.580drive. So then obviously when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, both of us wanted to stay in
00:02:28.760our own countries. We obviously wanted each other's healthcare system. We're not married. So
00:02:33.360obviously my passport allowed six months to be in Canada. And obviously he has the six months to be
00:02:39.460able to come in and out of Canada as well. So we just are a family that went back and forth from
00:02:44.120two households that happened to be in two countries. So when the pandemic hit and there
00:02:49.040was the chatter of shutting down the bridge the week of March 14th, you know, nobody ever thought
00:02:55.640that it was going to be two years in. I think we were all led to believe 14 days to flatten the
00:03:01.080curve. So again, we didn't think anything of it. And again, every 30 days, there was just a
00:03:06.820continued extension. And now we're on, you know, two years. So I would say a year into the border
00:03:13.600closure, there was a Facebook group that was started for them. Families are essential. The
00:03:18.800original goal on that was to try to get families deemed essential because both sides of the border
00:03:25.740had categories of who couldn't, who could or couldn't cross the border. The potato chip cup,
00:03:32.340the potato chip truck driver was able to cross the pepsi guy was able to cross
00:03:37.620healthcare workers were able to cross so we wanted to start advocating to expand the categories of
00:03:45.300who can cross the border so families are essential was created with two admins michelle and sandy
00:03:52.180and their objective was to protest the various bridges throughout the country sandy is in fort
00:03:59.140erie she has family in the u.s and canada so she started every sunday at one o'clock
00:04:05.460she had american families on one side of the bridge and canadian families on the other side
00:04:10.020of the bridge so through the power of social media there was a couple other facebook groups
00:04:15.060that also popped up that were advocating to get the border open to exemption so we met
00:04:20.900and for nine months straight every sunday at one o'clock we were at the bottom of the peace bridge
00:04:26.500the Americans were at Pat Soule Park and the Canadians were at Martha Park. And, you know,
00:04:32.680we got the attention of the media. We got the attention of our congressman. Actually,
00:04:37.680Congressman Chris Jacobs introduced legislation last year with the advocacy work that we were
00:04:42.820doing. And obviously there was a lot of trending going on in the summer of 2021 that the border
00:04:49.880was going to open, you know, vaccine, not vaccine, testing or not. And people started advocating only
00:04:57.380the vaccinated, only the vaccinated opened the border. So I recognized in the beginning that
00:05:02.580if the border was really going to open up to only fully vaccinated, there was going to be
00:05:08.380thousands of families that still needed to advocate for a pathway. So sometime in the middle of that,
00:05:15.220I started another Facebook group called For the Love of Family Reunification for All0.85
00:05:19.320because I just knew that when the border was opening up to fully vaccinated, either Americans
00:05:24.360or Canadians, that the advocacy work was going to sort of stop. One of the things is Canada always0.52
00:05:31.240allowed exemptions for family reunification. It actually started in June of 2020. So if you had
00:05:37.580an immediate or extended family in Canada, as long as you were able to meet the cumbersome
00:05:44.360requirements of quarantining, you were able to enter Canada. And my family will forever be
00:05:51.040grateful for the family reunification exemptions that the Canadian government did allow for foreign
00:05:57.500nationals, because I did have the luxury and the privilege of being able to quarantine for 14 days.
00:06:04.580I had a remote position, I was working from home. So for me to cross the land border to isolate with
00:06:10.380two little ones, you know, in the privacy of my own home so that I could reunite with my fiance
00:06:15.880during that pandemic was a miracle for me. So I always advocated and my voice was always for
00:06:22.720other people that, you know, didn't work from home. They can't take two weeks off.
00:06:27.100Like you need to understand bi-national families and bordering towns, we're 10 minutes away from
00:06:32.860each other. We're closer to Canada than we might be to a bordering state of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
00:06:38.460So that's what led me to continuing to keep advocating for everybody to get back to this pre-pandemic way of life, get back to what we knew and the luxury and the freedom that we all had as American citizens and Canadian citizens to cross each other's border.0.71
00:06:57.800You know, you have people that come into the U.S. to just pick up gas, go to the grocery store, go to our malls.
00:07:04.660And again, it's quicker to pop into the U.S. than it is to maybe go to the supermarket down the street in Canada.
00:07:12.000So when the pandemic hit and when the borders were shut down, families were forced to be separated with no pathway.
00:07:20.200I mentioned that Canada did these exemptions in June of 2020 and October of 2020 for immediate
00:07:26.920and extended families. But unfortunately, the U.S. had no exemptions by land. The land border has
00:07:34.240been closed to the unvaccinated over 18 months now. Again, we're going on two and a half years.
00:07:40.380The U.S. always deemed a Canadian family trying to reunite as non-essential. So again, they have
00:07:47.920not been able to cross by land in their own individual car um something that was also odd0.50
00:07:54.480was an unvaccinated canadian for 18 months was able to fly into the u.s so if you were afforded
00:08:02.640the luxury of being able to afford um a plane ride you were able to you were able to do that
00:08:11.120sorry about that um you were able to pay you know you're able to pay your flight
00:08:15.840and you instead of driving 10 minutes over the border you had to drive an hour to toronto take
00:08:21.280two flights spend an hour and a half from toronto to detroit detroit to buffalo so
00:08:27.600the science never made sense the u.s was always saying an unvaccinated canadian was safe to fly
00:08:34.320into the u.s but they were never able to drive and you know fast forward we're now two and a
00:08:39.840a half years in, there's over 44 countries that have dropped all COVID mandates. Norway, Iceland,
00:08:47.500Ireland, United Kingdom, Aruba, Costa Rica, Sweden, Poland, Denmark, Argentina, and the US and Canada
00:08:55.280are not on that list. There's still restrictions with either being fully vaccinated, having a
00:09:01.780pre-arrival test, or downloading an app to get into Canada. This is not where we are. The science
00:09:08.880never said that families should be separated. So I continue this advocacy and I have met
00:09:15.040thousands of families that have struggled with not seeing each other for two plus years.
00:09:21.060And until the border on both sides gets back to where we were, I will continue to keep fighting
00:09:26.820Congress, members of parliament, the president, anybody that's willing to listen.
00:09:31.880Well, and I think a lot of people had high hopes that April 1st, when the U.S. border
00:09:39.960or the U.S. restrictions at the land borders, so specifically for driving at land borders,
00:09:47.640were set to expire, but of course very quickly it was extended and there is no date mentioned
00:09:56.680as to sort of an end date for that extension.
00:10:00.220And not to mention that, there's also been talk
00:10:03.660within the federal budget that they have sort of put aside
00:10:09.440enough money to sort of further these travel restriction mandates
00:10:15.340within the Canadian border for the next three years.
00:14:19.000We all have some heartache of stories.
00:14:21.220So hopefully your viewers understand what we're going through and why we continue to
00:14:25.220keep making that decision on why families choose to not be vaccinated right okay and so we are going
00:14:34.040to speak with a few other families now just to to hear some stories about how these travel
00:14:41.040restrictions these border restrictions between Canada and the U.S. have been affecting them and
00:14:46.740impacting their ability to see loved ones uh we'll talk with Tanya first we've got Tanya Mead she is
00:14:53.000out of North Vancouver, BC. And Tanya has a couple of kids that attend school in the U.S.
00:15:00.980Thanks for joining us, Tanya. Thank you for having me. Okay, so why don't you fill us in
00:15:06.260on the situation with your kids that are attending school in the U.S.? So I have two kids who are in
00:15:13.020opposite cities, so they're apart, they're not together. They are in the same state. One is a
00:15:21.100Canadian citizen. She's on an F-1 visa and one is a dual citizen. I've not seen, our Canadian
00:15:29.680daughter has not been back to Canada since December of 2020, so she has not seen her dad.
00:15:35.400She has not seen her two younger siblings since Christmas of 2020. Last summer, I was able to fly
00:15:43.520into the United States with my son to check him into his dorm for freshman year, and I have not
00:15:50.280seen either of them since uh they've spent christmas alone uh in campus housing uh you know
00:15:57.960they had to go buy their own little christmas tree they had no christmas dinner they have no family
00:16:02.280there we we don't know anyone there at all no family no friends it's just the two of them
00:16:09.320thankfully they were able to get together for christmas um you know we've had other instances
00:16:14.520where my son has needed a visit to the er and i've had to facilitate his treatment with the
00:16:21.560doctors through a zoom call from the house because i can't get on a plane and fly to him
00:16:27.400um sorry um as a mother it's heartbreaking to see your child who's um who needs you
00:16:36.680and you just can't get to them i can't imagine that's going to be very hard tanya yes how old
00:16:44.120are your kids um so my son is 19 and my daughter is 22. okay and it's your daughter that you said
00:16:52.440has not been able to come up uh since i think you said it was december of 2020. correct um
00:17:00.760and now with these new rules she she was you know she's scared to come back because of all the0.72
00:17:06.200continuous changes and if she comes back to canada now she would be inadmissible0.81
00:17:13.320back into the United States to finish her studies because she is unvaccinated. She's chosen that0.99
00:17:17.240for herself. She's made that informed consent to not be vaccinated. She's gotten that herself.
00:17:27.560And she wants to finish her degree. And in order to finish her degree, she has to stay in the0.73
00:17:32.040United States. She can't come home. And she's called several times crying and she misses her0.82
00:17:39.320family and she wants to see her siblings and she can't because of these travel mandates
00:17:46.440and she's how old are her siblings so she's um they're both 17 they're twins uh a woman girl um
00:17:56.360and you know and she's covered recovered she's had covid she recovered she's fine um
00:18:03.800to me there has to be that has to count for something you know to have that natural immunity
00:18:09.320So do you guys FaceTime a lot? Is there, you know, is that sort of the, what you rely on to
00:18:17.180feel connected, help her stay feeling connected? Yes, we text multiple times a day. We're a very
00:18:25.180close family. And before all this happened, you know, we've never spent a Christmas apart,
00:18:30.000a birthday apart, a Thanksgiving apart. We were together all the time and extremely close. So
00:18:36.760yeah, we FaceTime very often, if not every day, then every other day. But we definitely text
00:18:43.640all day from, you know, I get texts sometimes the time difference. So, you know, she may text me at
00:18:49.2605am, but my phone is always by my bed. So they know I'm there if they need me. And I'm going
00:18:56.100to answer that phone. I don't care what time it is. Yeah, I can't imagine having a child,
00:19:01.360you know, no matter what age, I mean, we're always a parent no matter how old our kids become
00:19:07.740and not being able to see them or be there for them, especially in a situation where they're
00:19:15.480needing medical treatment or care, that must have been very hard. Tanya, your two kids, where they
00:19:23.060are residing or the state that they're in, have they also been like struggling with their schools
00:19:30.660when it comes to the mandates or was the vaccine mandates never applied at either of their schools?
00:19:37.780So one of the schools in 2020, 2021, they had, my daughter's an athlete, so they had
00:19:51.220regular testing and they had masks in the classroom. But this past school year, since
00:19:59.580August of 2021, they've had nothing. There's no vaccine mandates. There are no masks. Life
00:20:04.880is completely back to normal. They're going to concerts. They're going to sporting events.
00:20:10.040You don't need anything. It's pre-pandemic. There's no testing in the schools anymore.
00:20:17.980I'm happy that they have that because I can't imagine, you know, being separated from your
00:20:25.340family and then not being able to do anything to be in lockdown. You know, the way we've had it in
00:20:30.900Canada, we're here in BC, we just recently had the vaccine mandates lifted. Yeah, I was just
00:20:37.500going to mention that. I mean, that's a really stark contrast to BC. I think BC was the last
00:20:44.080canadian province to lift the mandates uh so that's very new for you very very new and and
00:20:52.320you know it's been so long since we've been able to get it and do that stuff so i you know if my
00:20:58.160kids were in the u.s living like that i think it would have been much even even more difficult than
00:21:03.520it already has been you know there's so many kids struggling in these states where they are in
00:21:09.920lockdown and they are still having to wear masks or vaccines are mandated um you know it's really
00:21:18.320tough on these young kids you you get out of high school and you go straight into college and it's
00:21:24.160it's supposed to be the four you know best years of your life they say and and you're locked down
00:21:28.800and you you can't go do the things that you want to do it's mentally and then to be separated from
00:21:35.120your family it just adds that extra layer absolutely and and your husband i'm i'm assuming
00:21:42.960this has been just as taxing on him not being able to see oh yeah of course of course and
00:21:49.840you know your girls are your daddy's girls and and my daughter has called and she's crying she
00:21:54.160was like you know i just really would love a hug from my dad and what is he supposed to do
00:22:01.040yeah so he can't hug her he can facetime her and and call her and talk to her and you know our kids
00:22:10.240are they're just fabulous kids and they call us for everything they're you know if they're feeling
00:22:15.760sad they'll call and say i'm feeling sad you know i i just want to talk to you or whatever
00:22:21.600so it's difficult tanya when when are your kids programs wrapped up when when is the potential
00:22:28.880return for them if these mandates don't go away my daughter will graduate from her program may of 2023
00:22:37.440okay my son's a freshman so he's still got a long long road uh but but she's about a year away from
00:22:45.680from potentially returning and then yeah uh tanya have you and your husband your family
00:22:53.200how have you been uh advocating how have you been uh trying to uh stand against these mandates
00:23:00.400i have written to every single mp in canada every one of them and have you heard back
00:23:06.240i heard back from one uh jonathan wilkinson who's our mp here who basically told me if i
00:23:13.760chose not to get vaccinated then i would have to deal with the restrictions there was nothing you
00:23:18.480could do because the majority of Canadians agree with these mandates and these restrictions?
00:23:25.360I think that there has been definitely some statistics that would say otherwise. I think
00:23:32.560a majority of Canadians have chosen to be vaccinated, but I don't believe that we're
00:23:40.640looking at a majority of Canadians at this point who agree with these mandates staying in place.
00:23:46.240No, I'm sorry. I have lots of friends who are fully vaccinated and boosted who now are changing
00:23:56.000their tune and saying, you know, it's time for these mandates to stop. You know, if we're vaccinated
00:24:00.480and we're safe and the majority of Canadians are vaccinated, then it should be fine to lift all
00:24:06.160these mandates and just let everyone travel. So people are waking up. People are seeing
00:24:11.040that this is more based on a political theme than it is on a health theme right now.
00:24:19.480Well, and agreed. And I think the problem is with the awareness piece is if somebody has
00:24:24.800chosen to be vaccinated and is not restricted anymore, then they're not perhaps even paying
00:24:30.360attention as much to the fact that I believe it's somewhere around 6 million Canadians are
00:24:38.080landlocked in the country cannot cross the border cannot leave cannot fly uh so you know that's
00:24:45.200that's a startling amount of people um that are still sort of under this this mandate tanya i'm
00:24:53.520gonna ask all all of you uh the same question and and again this is just to to help people understand
00:25:01.040if if the solution is to get vaccinated why why are you and your family and your children choosing
00:25:08.960um to you know to the choosing this choice and remaining sort of uh restricted from travel
00:25:20.240i don't agree with anybody telling me what i need to put to my body
00:25:25.760And I have done a lot of research on these vaccines from the companies, from Pfizer,
00:25:33.360from Moderna, from the J&J, AstraZeneca. I've downloaded thousands of pages and read it,
00:25:42.560and I just don't feel it's something safe to put into my body. I have friends and family members
00:25:51.200who have gotten this vaccine who have had really bad side effects. I have one friend in the U.S.
00:25:59.600who now has lupus and the doctor confirmed it was from the vaccine and high blood pressure
00:26:06.240and this person is going to be on medication for the rest of their lives.
00:26:10.560And that's just from the first dose. I know people who've had stroke symptoms.
00:26:16.080is just there's not enough evidence to prove to me that the benefits outweigh the risks
00:26:26.640of these vaccines. Well, thanks for that, Tanya, and thanks for sharing your story with us. And
00:26:32.940part of the reason why I am asking this question is I think that there are a lot of people,
00:26:39.240I've even had conversations with some who who believe that that certain people or people who are choosing to remain unvaccinated are doing so because they're not educated, because they haven't looked at the science, because they are, you know, vaccine hesitant and haven't educated themselves.
00:26:58.600So I think this is a good question to ask at this point.
00:37:48.040um and then the day my father passed i i got a call and said hey can you get here now i tried
00:37:56.120everything i could i was willing to spend my life savings to charter a plane to get there to be with
00:38:02.680him and they said it doesn't matter we don't care you're fully vaccinated we don't care about any of
00:38:08.100that um you can't fly to edmonton you'd have to fly to calgary and then there was at the time there
00:38:14.240was hotel quarantine restrictions. And I would have had to breach those and risk a million dollar
00:38:20.260fine to, you know, decide whether to go see my dad before he died. And I'm so blessed that we
00:38:28.820got the time down in Florida where there weren't any restrictions. And we were able to go to the
00:38:33.300zoo, we were able to go to restaurants, we were able to, like, have some memories that if I were
00:38:38.580in canada we wouldn't have had any of those opportunities right it feels like uh it feels
00:38:45.100like through this so much has been taken from people and families yeah and and it's it's um
00:38:54.340like i was i would say i was always so proud to be canadian i i was a blue jay fan an oiler fan
00:39:02.540you know a raptor fan i i was always you know everywhere i went i'm canadian i'm canadian i
00:39:10.140love it and i hope to go back there someday and then after all this and and all that was taken
00:39:16.380away i i i almost feel ashamed for the country that i grew up in like it's it's so disheartening
00:39:23.100because i i even got vaccinated against what i really thought was a good idea because at the
00:39:29.900time it was not full fda approved i was taking a risk i didn't know how it would affect my health
00:39:35.260and i got it just so i could go back and they said well we don't even care because of the
00:39:39.980bureaucracy we're not going to let you in even though you're a canadian citizen and and that
00:39:45.660really was the last straw and i tried calling the the prime minister's office i was i called 200
00:39:52.620times and they just kept trying to send me to voicemail and then they threatened that
00:39:56.540oh you're harassing us i'm like well i want to talk to somebody that doesn't need to be the
00:40:01.100prime minister's office it can be somebody from the government and finally somebody transferred
00:40:06.700me to the covid line which is when i got that run around so just so disappointing that that
00:40:13.180um canada supposedly you know we supposed to care about our people we supposed to um you know we
00:40:20.060have a public health system that is supposed to you know keep people from financial ruin and things
00:40:26.140if if um heaven forbid they get sick and yet we're willing to throw all that away and and destroy
00:40:32.620families because we're worried about worried about uh covet at the time and it it really
00:40:38.860was disheartening well chris i can i can understand i can completely understand i i too
00:40:45.260lost my fat father during the pandemic and i i you know just thinking about how desperate
00:40:53.740you must have felt to want to be there want to be there with the rest of your family want to see him
00:41:01.160um you know it just it breaks my heart uh knowing how much that would have uh how hard that would
00:41:09.140have been for for me so i'm i i truly am sorry that that was something that uh that you had to
00:41:15.880go through with your family and um yeah it's heartbreaking yeah just one last i just the one
00:41:22.960thing that you know people always said well you can facetime you can do all this stuff but
00:41:27.360facetiming a loved one while they're dying and facetiming a funeral is not acceptable in my
00:41:34.960from from what happened to me it it it really broke me for a long time and uh sure yeah so
00:41:43.920but you know people out there just think that's okay but to me it wasn't okay it wasn't enough
00:41:48.720Yeah, I think, Chris, you know, the line for me is, at what point is the responsibility, you know, greater than compassionate love, care, being able to be together with family, especially in times of need, illness, death, things like that.
00:42:43.620uh alicia marahue she's a canadian also living in the united states i know alicia you also
00:42:50.100have to run so hopefully you have a few minutes here just to let us know you're in grand rapids
00:42:55.780michigan right now why don't you uh tell us a little bit about how uh how this has affected
00:43:00.980your family what your circumstances were um yeah thanks for having me i my story kind of echoes
00:43:10.420everyone else's i live two and a half hours from detroit three hours from my family and we got
00:43:19.780together all the time we i would probably see my family at least once a month we did ever since
00:43:28.580i've moved here um since 1993 i i've never missed a christmas until 2019 um we were we did camping
00:43:39.300trips together canadian thanksgiving birthdays um and then with the border shut down nothing
00:43:47.300so we went from seeing each other all the time to absolutely nothing and it was devastating
00:43:55.540i have older kids who were completely affected by this as well we had a great relationship this
00:44:04.180was their cousins um during this time my brother had a baby so he's almost two now my kids have
00:44:12.900never met him and i was able to meet him under unfortunate circumstances um not by my choosing i
00:44:25.060my um in january the unimaginable happened my dad ended up passing away and i was able to go
00:44:32.260back for the funeral but none of my kids or my husband were able to be there and um and now i'm
00:44:40.420here alone grieving i cannot be with my family um i cannot my mom can't come here to to spend time
00:44:50.500with me now that she's alone so it's it's affected every part of my life and i i my parents and my
00:45:03.620breast my siblings they miss my twins graduation um from high school all their senior their all
00:45:11.300their sporting events my one son played basketball and he they did a special basketball night where
00:45:20.180they had to dedicate their game to someone who's made a huge impact in their life and he chose my
00:45:26.820dad and he played for papa and this was before he passed so he would have been there my dad would
00:45:34.820have been there to be at that game and he couldn't um and my boy actually recorded himself and
00:45:43.700played a video that they were able to show at the funeral i mean this is we were a close family and
00:45:49.860we still are but um and i have one daughter and all her girl cousins they were so tight they had
00:46:00.980such a great bond and it's fractured i mean how can you continue that when you can't be with each
00:46:07.700other and i have living so close to the border no one really knows what's happening i talked to
00:46:15.940they've said it before too they don't know that we can't just travel freely no one really knows
00:46:21.380that there's still restrictions like they think oh the u.s that's not the case because
00:46:31.860we're there are restrictions and most people are unaware of that so i'm just here today
00:46:37.380to share my story and to let people know that there this does affect families and um i live
00:46:47.140in kind of this family saturated community where everyone goes to the cottage everyone hangs out
00:46:52.980every holiday is with family and i i don't have that and i i i long for that to be
00:47:00.980to happen again and i just don't see that happening in the near future unfortunately
00:47:07.380Yeah, I think based on, you know, some of the talk in the U.S. versus Canada, I think that I believe it was Tanya that was saying she's hopeful or maybe it was Marcella.
00:47:23.860but you know it it seems like this might be something that the u.s will sort of be the first
00:47:32.020to amend or to lift uh but it it just seems like the federal government in canada seems to have
00:47:40.100doubled down on these mandates uh on these travel mandates at the border and for for air travel uh
00:47:47.700and have you know doubled down it's it's been included in the budget that was revealed last
00:47:52.980month with regard to you know funds being directed to continue to to facilitate these travel
00:48:03.220restrictions for Canadians and it's heartbreaking it's heartbreaking to listen to these stories
00:48:09.780and to know you know I know there are children who haven't been able to see parents there are
00:48:16.100loved ones who have, as we've even just talked about here, who missed being able to see their
00:48:23.040parents before they passed. And it seems very heartless. And again, my heart just breaks
00:48:34.120listening to your story. Well, it's cruel. It's unimaginable. Never in my lifetime did I ever
00:48:44.180think the border would ever be closed especially for this long i consider canada in the u.s
00:48:51.860so similar that they're almost one country um but that obviously
00:48:59.700is not the case anymore i don't even recognize canada um
00:49:05.940yeah i think it's the sentiment of a lot of canadians i i i think it's it's been uh you
00:49:11.940know um friendly canada right it's been right the easy going canadians friendly free you know
00:49:19.140and i i think that the sentiment has has definitely uh changed for many canadians
00:49:25.940well and it's interesting because i'm canadian and i was going into my own country
00:49:34.900I was treated like a criminal. So it just, I don't understand what's going on. I just
00:49:43.880wish that they would lift all the restrictions and allow us to travel freely. That's really
00:49:49.760why I'm here today. I want to advocate for that, for families to be reunited and for kids to see
00:49:56.880their cousins and their grandparents for so much time has been lost. And that time is not
00:50:04.860going to be able to be we can never get that back so and moving forward I just now with my dad gone
00:50:14.380I I need to be with my family I need to be together with them so yeah the idea that um being with
00:50:24.860family is not essential um I I can't imagine who who could honestly say that in their heart that
00:50:32.580that wouldn't be essential alicia same question to you you know again if if it's going to be a
00:50:39.540a vaccine that's going to allow you to reunite with your family why why the choice um yeah i just
00:50:49.100i i just don't think kova discriminates between the vaccinated unvaccinated so it's just a
00:50:58.020personal choice for me. And I don't want this to be about that because it's not about that in my
00:51:07.700circles. And to me, it's more about just the freedom to travel. So I hate the division it's
00:51:17.240caused. I hate the divide. I don't even want to talk about the vaccine because to me, it's a
00:51:23.780non-issue. It's what are we doing here? Obviously, the vaccine doesn't stop COVID, so just open the
00:51:32.800borders and stop this crazy punishment for us that we just want to be with our families. I mean.
00:51:44.500Yeah, and that's a good word for it. I think a lot of people feel that way. They feel like this
00:51:49.660is a punishment. They're being punished for some reason. And agreed. Again, heartbreaking. And
00:51:59.840Alicia, I look forward to the time where either side, something needs to change so that families
00:52:09.420can see each other again, for sure. Right. And hopefully this will just bring awareness to
00:52:14.880the restrictions that are still in place because living in the United States, you'd never know
00:52:20.860there was restrictions. And is that what you're seeing where you are right now, Alicia? Just
00:52:25.660back to normal? Yeah. So, yeah. But yeah, I, yeah, the, the logic behind it, uh, is, is lost.
00:52:35.520And, uh, you know, this, the, I think the problem too, is the science has changed. Uh, and that
00:52:42.120seems very obvious to many, but the policies are not. Exactly. Thanks for sharing with us.
00:52:51.820Thank you for having me. Yeah. And Justin, I'm going to jump back to you just for a moment
00:52:57.780because we didn't get a chance to finish our conversation. Last question to you then. Same
00:53:04.620question. If it is this vaccine, if it's this idea that that is what's preventing you from
00:53:11.340being able to see family um what are your thoughts on on that uh as we share this these stories uh
00:53:20.820to people who have who are not vaccinated but who have chosen to be yeah it's yeah and it is a
00:53:28.460choice for me but i won't say that it's you know just a personal choice it's you know i'm i do a
00:53:34.900bunch of research on this not as some people call facebook research or whatever you want to call it
00:53:39.760right you know i know people will do that and then i have my mom on the side who she was in the
00:53:46.060medical field for 40 years she retired right she was in alberta health um she has a lot of friends
00:53:52.680and knows how to do a ton of research on this with friends of hers that are doctors nurses you name
00:53:57.540it and there is just too much evidence on this to to just ignore the fact that people are getting
00:54:05.200blood clots that they're having you know their blood blood rate or sorry their heart rates are
00:54:10.000going through the roof that strokes she had a friend who's now basically almost an invalid on0.64
00:54:15.300a couch after the first shot right and her her company made her do it it was mandated that she1.00
00:54:20.820had to go get at her lose her job um between that and the fact like i said earlier that that it0.67
00:54:27.440doesn't seem to matter right whether you have it or not i don't even know how they call it a vaccine
00:54:31.540really when it doesn't stop anything right if you're if everybody's still getting affected
00:54:36.820and it's just going to mitigate some of the the symptoms of it and just maybe you're not quite as
00:54:42.020sick well to me that's no different than taking an advil when you have a headache it's you know it
00:54:47.140just mitigates it but it doesn't stop it so i can go sit in a stadium with you know 30 000 people
00:54:53.540side by side don't have to worry about that at all you know to watch a hockey game or something
00:54:58.420but you put me on a flight with you know a couple hundred people oh no yeah you got to be vaccinated
00:55:02.900right we can't let you do that right can't let you sit by somebody it's there is no logic to it
00:55:08.580right and you said it right the logic is lost and a lot of people i think there's a lot of people
00:55:15.460that just have the gut listen what the government says the government says take it okay i'll do it
00:55:20.020right and they're saying oh yeah we'll give you this if you if you take it well it wasn't yours
00:55:25.460to take away from me in the first place so i shouldn't have to fight to get it back right
00:55:31.380yeah that's interesting that's an interesting point it's it's a good one yeah great yeah so no
00:55:37.540i won't take it i even talked to my mom like i said my stepdad did pass from covet um he had
00:55:43.620underlying health conditions as i said and she's still she's like don't even think about doing it
00:55:50.020just to come and see me right and i won't well justin again i am well thankful that you have
00:55:58.420shared your story and and sad uh that this has been your experience as well um and you know i
00:56:05.460just want to say thank you to all of you for getting on sharing your story uh i know it's
00:56:12.100it's nobody's business whether somebody has chosen to be vaccinated or not uh but these are the times
00:56:18.420we're living in. We're living in a time right now where we've got mandates and restrictions that are
00:56:25.220preventing again likely close to six million if not more Canadians from crossing the border and
00:56:32.180then again affecting millions of U.S. citizens from coming to Canada to see their loved ones
00:56:39.540and their family members as well. And so the point of having these conversations and discussing this
00:56:45.700with these families is again to raise awareness. I know if you are not affected, if you have chosen
00:56:54.900to be vaccinated, you have been able to travel, this has not been an issue for you. There are
00:57:01.380a lot of people who are still struggling and it's heartbreaking stories to hear. And again,
00:57:07.220some people may have a stance that, well, if this is the goal is to travel, then you should choose
00:57:14.740to get vaccinated to do so. And I think the scary thought is that that would have to be a choice
00:57:22.900that would need to be made in order to do something that fundamentally was and should be
00:57:30.500a freedom in this country. So thanks to everybody for joining us and hearing from these families
00:57:36.660and here's hoping that we see change on either side of the border soon. Thanks for joining us.