Foreign diplomats among those exempt from the mandatory hotel quarantine

Foreign diplomats, unaccompanied minors,truckers and patients getting treatment abroadare among the limited number of travellers who areexempt from mandatory hotel quarantine requirements when arriving in Canada by air.

The federal rulethat requires suchtravellersto stay at an approved hotel for up to 72 hours while awaiting the results of their polymerase chain reaction(PCR) tests for COVID-19 went into effect Monday.

Quarantine hotel reservationsmust be made prior to a traveller'sarrival in Canada and can only be made by calling a dedicated government phone line. Reservationsmust be made at the traveller's expense.

Diplomats, consular couriers and their families will not be required to book the hotel stay or take a post-arrivalPCR test, and will be able to complete the entirety of their 14-dayquarantine elsewhere.

Canada added the exception to the rulebecause it is bound by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. The 1964 international law statesthat diplomats "shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention."

Australia is alsoexempting foreign diplomats from similar quarantine requirements.

"Foreign diplomats need to quarantine for 14 days on return to Australia. They can quarantine at their mission or usual place of residence," Australia's Department of Health website says. "Australia has legal obligations under the Vienna Convention to ensure diplomats' freedom of movement and travel, and protection from detention."

Good policy or vulnerability gap?

AnnaBanerji, pediatricinfectious disease specialist at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Dalla LanaSchoolofPublic Health, said the diplomaticexemption isn't a smart approach to a pandemic.

"This is a vulnerability gap," Banerji said.

"When we start making these exceptions just like the politicians going down south during the holiday season thinking that they don't need to have the same rules as everyone else that can lead to infection spreading."

Charles Burton, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and a former Canadian diplomat based in Beijing, said it would be appropriate for the federal government to send out a diplomatic note to allembassies and consulates in Canada askingthat their diplomats voluntarily comply with the hotel quarantine rule and produce a post-arrival test.

"Countries that are responsible in their international behaviour will insist that their diplomats comply with these regulations, the same as any non-diplomat or Canadian would have to comply if they crossed over into Canada from a foreign country," Burton said.

Sarah Goldfeder is aprincipal at Earnscliffe Strategy Groupwho recently served as special assistant to two U.S. ambassadors to Canada. She said making exceptions fordiplomats is good policy, since it's in line with the requirements of other countries.

"It goes back to this kind of back-and-forth reciprocity of what do you, and who do you want to be in charge of your diplomats when your diplomats travel to their postings,"Goldfeder said.

"I don't think that there's any increased risk by any of their behaviours. In general, they're coming from their country of origin to this country. They're not travelling to multiple locations in between."

Canadian diplomats abroad are fully subject to Canadian public health measures when they return, including PCR testing and federally-mandated quarantine rules, said Global Affairs Canada.

The requirementto quarantine in a hotel and take a PCR test upon arrivalalso does not apply tounaccompanied dependent childrenandunaccompanied minors.

A quarantine officer can release a person in "exigent" or extraordinary circumstancesfrom the requirement; the government has not spelled out what sorts of circumstances would qualify. In suchcases, anindividual is still required to follow instructions from the quarantine officer.

New hotel quarantine rules for air travellers now in effect

4 years ago

Duration 6:22

New COVID-19 air travel regulations are off to a bumpy start, with complaints from some travellers that they can't get through on the government phone line to book their hotel.

Thehotel quarantine measure which the government hopeswill enable better detection and tracking of a number of more infectious coronavirus variants hasdrawn criticism. Travellers have reported struggling toget through to a booking official on the government phone line. Others are worried aboutthe cost of a hotel room.

On Friday, the federal government released a list ofapproved hotels in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. The list now contains 18 hotels between the four cities.