Thought of the Day - December 14 2021 - Fighting Stupid with Stupid

When I saw this headline I could not resist posting on the blog. As you know one recurring theme during COVID times has been the issues encountered when systems are rapidly introduced without the requisite time for planning, testing, training and support ( Thought of the Day - August 18 2021 - Apps Gone Wild ).

It seems at the beginning of December a couple from Ontario headed to the US to check on their New York property. What transpired, when they came back into Canada, was a week-long struggle to reverse an unexpected quarantine order.

As you know travellers are supposed to pre-register on the ArriveCAN application before they enter Canada for non-essential travel. But when these two, returning home, pulled up to the Thousand Islands border crossing to find the ArriveCAN app with their proof of vaccination wouldn't load.

The officer refused to look at their printed documents and ordered them to quarantine for two weeks. It seems you are allowed to show paper only if:

1. You have cognitive or physical impairments so can't use a computer or phone;

2. The country you are coming from has banned the use of the app and blocked access to the ArriveCan website (I assume these are a subset of the countries whose vaccines we refused to consider);

3. There has been a natural disaster (this was probably added for the BC floods);

4. You are an asylum seeker or resettled refugee;

5. The CBSA has been officially informed that the ArriveCAN system is down.

As the couple had neither the time nor patience to quarantine for two weeks, when they got home, they started making calls to elected officials, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). The resolution should have been finding somebody that would verify they we are indeed vaccinated. But there's nobody whose job it is to do that. After a few days of persistent phone calls, they reached a CBSA supervisor who advised even though they were under a quarantine order, they were allowed to drive into the US and back again. If they showed an officer the right documentation, the order would be lifted. In short, while it was not okay for them to go to the store, they were advised to drive back over the border.

Thus their "ridiculous" problem ended with a "ridiculous" solution. The doubly-vaccinated couple did indeed drive back into the United States and then re-entered Canada so they could re-show their proof of vaccination to an officer.

As it turned out, this time the ArriveCan app was officially down (PHAC confirmed that the service disruption was due to a planned three-day upgrade). So the second time around, their papers were accepted (luckily they still had their printed documentation with them) and they were no longer required to quarantine. "We had to fight stupid with stupid here," was their statement.

"Let us talk about the ArriveCAN app that is supposed to protect Canadians but is actually making things worse at the border," Conservative health critic Luc Berthold said last week.

"People are being misinformed. No one is answering the telephone to help them. Seniors without smartphones cannot travel. We are hearing stories of mandatory quarantines for triple-vaccinated people." In response, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said he'd directed CBSA to accept in-person information at the border, as well as on the ArriveCAN app. However, the PHAC website and a CBSA in a statement still insist that the ArriveCAN app remains mandatory for all land travellers.

The moral of the story, make sure you bring several mobile devices and check the app is loading before you pull up to the booth. There are a growing number of websites that say they can help you troubleshoot the app but they either tell you little (I could not find any that had an ArrivCan system status link) or may indeed be a new opportunity for a scam (now we no longer believe the CBSA just found a package full of drugs with our name on it). Anyway, now you know. If this happens to you, you may just have to go around twice.

Cheers

Cliff