Canada has entered a third-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with variants rampant across the country. During this time, provinces such as Ontario have entered more intense stay-at-home orders as of April 17, 2021. This order is meant to stop the spread of COVID variants, but these measures are no longer working. International arrivals from global hot spots continue to arrive in Canada every single day. 

International travelers from high risk COVID locations with flights from Delhi, Paris, and Heathrow, are permitted to enter Canada despite local lockdown orders within Canada. As of April 2021, countries like India are recorded as experiencing over 200,000 cases daily while flights continue daily in the double digits, landing in British Columbia, Ontario, and more across Canada. These flights are transporting COVID-19 infected passengers into Canada, yet international borders remain open.

Despite ongoing requests to "keep eachother safe by staying indoors," the Canadian Federal Government refuses to shut down international boarders or, at minimum, close borders to countries containing extreme COVID cases threatening our nation and the world through ongoing international travel. Provincial and Federal governments indicate they will "tighten border restrictions," but this has proven unsuccessful and not perfectly defined. With cases continuing to rise, "mandatory testing" is the main measure implemented and many do not adhere to requirements associated. 

As of April 18, 2021 Canada has seen 8500 new cases daily. It is so severe that provinces including Ontario are requesting health aid from neighbouring provinces due to the flooding of resources. 

On February 5, 2021, when Canada saw over 3600 new cases (as the spike began to increase), incoming international arrivals through airports like Pearson in Ontario brought in over 32 COVID infected passengers. This continues daily. Canada's "restrictions" are not working. The borders must be closed to high infected countries. 

On April 16, University of Toronto's Infection Control Epidemiologist, Colin Furness told CTV News, "It [COVID-19 virus and variants] travels between the air and people, and it travels from place to place in airplanes. Air travel has been a serious contributor to the global spread. In fact, you could argue without air travel we wouldn’t have a pandemic."

This petition will be shared with the Federal government in rally against keeping borders open and available to high COVID infected counties. 

Close our borders so that we can see our families and friends again. Close our borders so we can live our lives as we used to.

**Please visit the government of Canada's official website for updated statistics on international arrivals containing COVID infected passengers.**