Borders worldwide have been dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. I have no doubt that the virus, and specifically the drastic measures governments have imposed to suppress it, will have a lasting legacy on how borders function, how we travel, how we do business and how we live. For today however, I will focus on Immigration, Refugees & Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) and the Minister of Public Safety’s most recent announcements. In Canada there is a wide-ranging travel b

To prevent the further spread of COVID19, Canada and the United States have agreed to close their shared border to “non-essential travel”. The closure of the world's longest undefended border will be in effect by Saturday, March 21, 2020 (11:59 pm EDT on March 20). The closure will be in place for 30 days, and then be reviewed by both countries. Hundreds of thousands of people, as well as more than 2 billion in goods and services, normally cross the 8,891 kilometre-long b

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has imposed an extensive temporary travel ban. At approximately 1:40 p.m. Monday, March 16, Trudeau, who is in self-imposed exile due to his wife’s positive COVID 19 diagnosis, closed Canada’s borders to non- citizens in a bid to slow the coronavirus in Canada: Canadian Permanent Residents are exempt; U.S. citizens are exempt, at least for now. According to Trudeau: the “level of integration is quite particular,” and government needs more time