In my blog post titled “Peut-etre En Septembre”, I told our devastating story of Joan being stuck in the Dominican Republic for almost six months due to the Trudeau government’s decision to cancel all direct-to-Canada flights from the Caribbean. I was baffled by the decision when it was announced and as I sit here, in tranquility (shout out to Dr. Milner!), I am still baffled! In order to prevent Canadians from traveling for spring break, the political decision was made to ban the Caribbean flights…but at the same time there were four known variants from four countries in the world: Brazil, India, South Africa and the UK. No flights were cancelled between Canada and any of those countries!! (Later in the spring, India would make the Liberal government’s no fly list). The cancellation didn’t even prevent Canadians from having a Caribbean vacation because they simply had to book a flight via the US and voila, Caribbean paradise!
Unfortunately for us, my husband is not yet a citizen, which means he requires a transit visa to even visit an airport in the USA. Those visas are granted through US embassies abroad. In the Dominican Republic, the US embassy is in Santo Domingo, a three hour trip by car, when Joan had no car. And besides that, the embassy was closed for all but emergencies. And needing to fly back to Canada was not considered an emergency.
So we had to wait. Mr. Trudeau said that flights were cancelled until April 30th. That was a long time to be separated from my husband, but three months wasn’t the end of the world. We could handle three months, we thought. But three months “stuck” in the DR meant 3 months of bills…cause you still need to live life there. The already precarious economy was shattered by covid 19. In the DR there was no safety net. People were starving to death. If I got stuck in Canada, my community would be able to feed and clothe and water and entertain me. But that’s cause we are from a wealthy country that can afford to do those things. And the pandemic hit the DR like every other country in the world, so finding a job was out of the question.
So…three months of financial support of him in the DR while still trying to keep up with our life in Canada. Bills don’t disappear cause my husband isn’t here. I kept telling myself, “It’s only 3 months, it’s only three months”…my new mantra.
April 30th, 2021 was a Friday and I didn’t venture very far from my computer for the duration of the day, fully expecting an announcement to be made about Caribbean flights. There was no announcement. I left the Canadian TV news channel on all evening long. Not one mention of it. All of a sudden the reality of our situation hit me: no one else cares! The flight cancellations didn’t affect Canadians! So there was no reason for Canada’s Prime Minister to bother with an announcement! That revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. It was made worse that evening when Joan asked when we could book a flight? He had kept hope all winter that we could trust Mr. Trudeau’s word and that an announcement would be made April 30th. All of a sudden, after a winter of healing his heart, Joan felt trapped away…even though I had felt that he was trapped away for months.
In May, Air Canada announced that they were going to restart sun destination flights in June. I didn’t get my hopes up too high as flights were always shown online…only to be cancelled time after time. But then Air Canada made a specific-to-the-Dominican Republic announcement, saying they would be starting flights direct-to-Canada on June 26th! There had been no government announcement but this was the boots on the ground reality and I found myself being cautiously optimistic! I read every bit of info I could find online about how this would work…as typical travel procedures were long ago out the window!! It turned out, I needed to book a flight to one of the four airports in Canada that was accepting international flights: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto or Montreal. Joan had traveled through both Montreal and Toronto but found Toronto a little easier to navigate so that was my preference.
Flight costs were through the roof. It was going to cost us double the usual, pre-covid, fare and I had no idea how the quarantine hotel fit in to this whole scenario. Several emails and phone calls later, I discovered that I needed to book a flight, then I had to book one of the government approved quarantine hotels; then I’d have to call the airlines again to tell them about the quarantine so they would delay the second leg of his trip (from Toronto to Halifax) by 3 days. Looking at the availability and pricing of the quarantine hotels was exhausting and overwhelming. I had no idea where I was ever going to come up with the money. We were already so far in the red from our time apart, that there just wasn’t anything left. I was so heartbroken that now that there finally was a way, there was no way I could make it happen. I didn’t want Joan to know how heartbroken I was…or that there was no way I could pull it off.
Then a couple of anonymous angels came forward…one beloved relative wired me some money and another said nothing but sent a cheque to my office. The day it arrived, I was so surprised and overwhelmed that I burst into tears in my office. My office-mates didn’t know what to think!! I now had enough money to pay for his flight and for the hotel quarantine!! My heart was so full of gratitude and I will be forever grateful to those angels!! I booked the flight; then the quarantine hotel; then made the additional changes to his flight. And then, emotionally exhausted, I cried it out, right at my desk.
I didn’t dare get too excited because in the time of covid, there are always changes coming. Plus, Joan was nervous, which made me nervous. You see, there were no flights from anywhere in the Dominican Republic except for Punta Cana. And that’s the one part of the island that he had never even been to. It is a beautiful spot on the island’s south east side that was built for tourism. In order to get there from his town, he had to travel to Santo Domingo and then head east; quite a journey without a car!! No wonder he was nervous about it and we had yet to figure out those details.
And then, before I even dared to exhale, it seemed…I received an email from Air Canada telling me that Joan’s flight had been changed. He was still flying from Punta Cana on June 26th (the first flight to Canada since the closures) but now he was flying to Montreal instead of Toronto. I almost cried. But the words that kept flashing through my head were “Non-refundable hotel quarantine”. Had I really just spent almost 2000 dollars only to have to spend that much money a second time cause it was non-refundable???? It honestly felt like I was underwater and swimming through the steps to figure this out. Everyone had been telling me since January to reach out to Sean Fraser, my Member of Parliament. But, I hadn’t. I followed the rules and fully expected an announcement on April 30th. After that date came and went, I considered reaching out but realized that we are in the midst of a pandemic and it’s not like he can snap his fingers and make an exception for us. So decided to wait it out. On May 27th when Air Canada pulled the switcheroo with the airports, I had finally reached my rock bottom. I didn’t know what to do or where to turn. So I decided it was time I reach out to Sean. Sean who I had supported through his nomination convention and then through two campaigns. He was someone I knew and trusted and expected he would, at the very least, be able to provide some direction. So, that’s what I asked for. I sent him an email explaining our plight. Just now, I re-read that email to double check that I hadn’t asked for the moon and I hadn’t. I explained our situation: how Joan got stuck there after Mr. Trudeau cancelled flights between Canada and the Caribbean; how we had followed all the rules and had waited patiently for the announcement; booked a flight as soon as it was available but now we are stuck with a non-refundable hotel room in a city he is no longer flying to. Can you please give us some sort of direction? Anything??
Someone named Kyle Findlay, Sean Fraser’s Parliamentary Assistant, replied to my email several days later, saying:
Hi Jo Ann,
Thanks for connecting and I hope you are well. I’ve sent a note to me colleague in the Minister’s office about this, and will pass on any guidance I receive.
Take care & talk soon,
Kyle
As I pointed out in a previous blog, I hope you read that in an Irish accent like I did! His typo stands out as glaring proof that he simply didn’t care too much about our plight. But I still expected Sean to come through. I booked the second hotel quarantine, for Montreal, thanks to the generosity of my two relatives. It was bad enough to have to book and pay for it once, especially since Joan was already double vaccinated. But twice? It was disgusting. Days went by and nothing further from Sean Fraser’s office. Then a week. Nothing. I was well and truly on my own.
So, I found the phone number of the hotel in Toronto and was in tears as I explained to the stranger on the other end that I’d booked the quarantine hotel but now Air Canada changed our arrival airport so now I needed a room in Montreal, not Toronto….I know the room was non-refundable but if there is any way that we can cancel it, I would be forever grateful! That man in Toronto was yet another of the angels sent our way cause he empathized with me immediately and told me how everything is pure chaos in the hospitality industry right now and by June 26th, Joan’s flight date, we may not even need the quarantine hotel!! And he cancelled my Toronto hotel booking. Thank God!!
As June 26th approached, we had a lot of logistics to figure out. Joan needed to obtain a negative PCR test within 72 hours of his flight. The only place on the north coast that provided that test, despite others claiming otherwise, was in Puerto Plata; a city about 90 minutes from Joan’s hometown. He needed to arrange transportation to and from the testing site and to pay the $100 US for the test. Then he needed to travel across the island to Santo Domingo to his sister’s where he would spend the night. Thankfully one of “our boys”, Eval, now works at the airport in Punta Cana and volunteered to travel with Joan so he’d know where to go. The following morning, departure day, they would travel to Punta Cana. All of this island travel while in the midst of this pandemic where quarantines were enforced, meaning all people had to be in their homes at certain times of the day; not on the highways! Ay yi yi!! And all of this cost so much more money than we ever could plan for. Typically when he travels, his brother drives him the hour to the airport and that’s it. This time it was much more complicated and costly.
Out of the blue, without even sharing our logistical woes, my brother sent me an etransfer of $500 which enabled us to make all of the logistics happen! It turned out Joan had to travel all the way to Puerto Plata to take the PCR test, then travel all the way back the following day to pick up his test results…then take off for Santo Domingo and then private car it to Punta Cana!
I wasn’t able to relax. I was one big stress ball waiting for whatever was going to come next. I knew that he had to have another negative covid test in Montreal before he would be allowed to fly to Halifax and I prayed that it would be negative! I didn’t know I was going to have to pray for him to have a half decent stay in a hotel we spent so much money on!! It was a government approved quarantine stay, all inclusive. It was marketed as being extra clean as specialized staff were brought in to meet covid 19 cleanliness standards; they would provide water and all food/drinks for the duration of the 3 days. WHAT A SCAM!!
The hotel was dingy and dirty. They did not tell Joan how he would be fed or anything. He asked me if I knew when they would be bringing dinner as he was hungry that first night. By then, he should have actually been provided both lunch and dinner. I was furious!! So I called the hotel directly and they said, “Oh we left it outside his door”. Sure enough, there was his food from both lunch and dinner, sitting on the floor outside his door, like a dog’s. People were freely walking up and down the hall and not only guests; so, so much for an actual quarantine!!
It was my understanding that only hotel guests were allowed in or out of the hotel; which meant that I couldn’t make arrangements for alternative food, even though it was cheap and disgusting and almost inedible. On day three, when dinner time came and went, Joan messaged me again saying they didn’t bring his dinner and asking what he should do? He speaks very good English but it is always difficult to speak a different language over the phone and the front desk staff spoke English as a second language as well…so it was difficult for him to communicate with them. So I called. They had forgotten to get him dinner but suggested I could order food in for him. My blood pressure spiked and I think if I was in reach of her, the word throttle may have come in to play!! I explained how I didn’t realize I was even allowed to have outside food brought in when they’re quarantined. She said oh no, the entire hotel is not quarantined, we have a handful of rooms that are. You can get delivery right to his room from anyone you’d like.
So…strange people were allowed traipsing up and down the hallways; coming to the door of the room to deliver food. Are you kidding me? How is that considered to be remotely quarantined?? And to spend the thousands of dollars for the pleasure??? The Trudeau government’s lame attempt at throwing a political solution at a health problem had once again let us down.
I immediately made arrangements for Ubereats to deliver supper to his hotel room. The following morning, he received his negative covid results and was able to head for the airport…after having to show his personal, medical record to the girl who happened to be staffing the front desk at check out. Ironic that they were abiding by this part of the covid quarantine rules and regulations when they surely didn’t seem to give a hoot about anything else!!
Now I was finally excited! He was leaving Montreal for Halifax!! I wasn’t allowed to go into the airport to wait for him but I waited just outside. I spotted him before he spotted me and I burst into tears. I met him halfway through the crosswalk and melted into his arms, sobbing. He was really home. This stress was over…finally.
But our story of covid travel doesn’t end there. I was not required to isolate but chose to stay home until I got a negative covid test after reuniting with my love. And Joan hunkered down to isolate for 2 weeks. He needed to complete his Nova Scotia Safe Check In online every day…to satisfy the province. And he also needed to check in on the federal app. You see, since health care is a provincially run entity, the federal government hired Switch Health to run their testing of international travelers. Upon arrival in Montreal, Joan was given a covid 19 test to take home with him. On day 9 of his isolation. On day 9, he logged into the app, as directed and then was put in a line up to wait for a Registered Nurse to walk him through the home covid test.
2 hours and 13 minutes later, he finally had a very lovely lady come through the app to show him how to do the test on himself. She showed him how to insert the testing strip and how to put it directly into the vial and to write on it immediately his name and date of test. Then she watched as he placed this vial inside the self addressed envelope and sealed it. She said goodbye, telling him that once she hung up, three options would pop up for him to have the envelope sent to them. She hung up and, sure enough, three options popped up. We could send the envelope containing his covid 19 test in one of three ways: Purolator, Uber, or at a Purolator Drop Box location.
ARGH!!! Of course this wouldn’t be a simple process with no stress!! We live in rural Nova Scotia (even though we can practically see town from here), which meant Purolator did not pick up here. We have no Uber. So option 3 it was! It listed 3 locations for a Purolator drop box. One was in Mira; one was in Glace Bay – both locations hours away from our home and the third was in New Glasgow, about 40 minutes away. I hopped in the car and took off for New Glasgow. Upon arrival at the location, I felt an overwhelming sense of defeat. The address given to us by Switch Health for a drop off was actually an abandoned building with no one in site. I had no choice but to turn around and head for home.
Joan wasn’t surprised that we had found yet another hurdle to overcome. He wasn’t even cross. I wasn’t either. I was just…done. I called Purolator and stayed on hold for about 45 minutes. Finally the voice of an angel came through and asked me what my issue was. I explained the wild goose chase that Switch Health had sent me on and wondered if I could just take our envelope to the Purolator drop off at Staples, less than 2 km from our home. Nope. The contract made with Purolator required them to actually take possession of the envelope from someone. Someone? Does that someone have to be Joan? The heavens opened and bells chimed when she said “nope, it can be anyone”. I very quickly gave her the address to my office where she arranged for a pick up on Monday morning (in 2 days time). She suggested we keep the envelope in the refrigerator until such time as Purolator would pick it up. Um…it has been in a warm car to New Glasgow and back already!! No problem, she said, it won’t be refrigerated as it travels anyway, but put it in the fridge for now. Okay then. Thank you ma’am!
Monday morning I took the envelope with me to my office where my colleagues kept it in their fridge until such time as Purolator would pick it up. And it was finally on its way! Due to the delay we weren’t certain that Joan would be released from quarantine even though it was day 14!! Praise the Lord, on the morning of the day he was set to be free, he at last, received the negative test results!! Good thing, too, since I had invited a bunch of folks to the house who were dying to see him!!
I remember sitting back that evening as we were surrounded by our family and friends, within the gathering limit numbers, and thinking how lucky we are that so many people stepped up to the plate to help bring Joan home; the angels that helped us every step of the way; and knowing that all that stress and anxiety and separation was okay, cause what truly mattered was that we were reunited and surrounded by a room filled with love.
So where does Sean Fraser fit back into this story? He doesn’t. I never ever heard from him. On September 10th, ten days ahead of a federal election; 26 days into the campaign, I received a text message from “Savannah with Team Fraser”, asking me to help out for the advanced polls. Remember, I had worked on his campaigns the last 2 times so contacting me 26 days into the campaign was strange…you’d think I would have been one of the early call backs? For the first time, they didn’t ask me to put up a lawn sign. I replied that I had no interest in helping with the campaign considering I’ve been waiting for a response from him since May. She didn’t ask me what had happened or what I needed an audience with him for. She was unilaterally focused on the election and I guess I shouldn’t fault her for that. But she didn’t send my response on to Sean Fraser either, or, if she did, he still didn’t bother to reach out. He has now been re-elected for more than a month and I even voted for him (I know, I know…but I believe out of the group that we were given, he was still the best candidate for the job)!!
His government’s political solutions to a health problem have financially devastated my family. We will be years digging out of the hole they placed us in. They robbed us of six months together; they robbed him of six months away from my Mom with dementia where time is of the essence. And they robbed me of my innocent, guileless faith in the political party I was so enamored of; the rose coloured glasses have come off and I don’t know if I will ever believe in political magic again. I don’t know if I can ever support a candidate again. I wonder if I will become just another disillusioned Canadian voter? And that might be the biggest casualty of all.
I will process all of that stress, anxiety and negativity some other day. Today I will celebrate my husband’s homecoming last summer and the new direction our lives have taken us since then. I won’t forget the disillusionment…once there are cracks, it’s impossible to be fully whole again…but I will focus on our love and our ability to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles! Lord, we’ve proven time and time again that we can overcome everything…it would be really nice to not have to prove that again any time soon! We will snuggle up around our fire pit and enjoy fall in Nova Scotia and pray that those in positions of power remember that no matter what we do or what important portfolio is presented to us, what matters the most is the people. It’s always the people.
Dandelion Wishes 