No confirmed COVID transmission on flights, trains, says Trudeau government

The admission was provided by Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden to Conservative MP Garnett Genuis in response to the following question in the House:

Mr. Garnett Genuis:

With regard to COVID-19 transmission within Canada:

(a) how many Canadians are known to have contracted COVID-19 while on a domestic flight
(i) between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021,
(ii) between July 1, 2021, and October 29, 2021,
(iii) between October 30, 2021, and November 29, 2021,
(iv) since November 30, 2021;

(b) how many Canadians are known to have contracted COVID-19 while in an airport
(i) between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021,
(ii) between July 1, 2021, and October 29, 2021,
(iii) between October 30, 2021, and November 29, 2021,
(iv) since November 30, 2021;

(c) how many Canadians are known to have contracted COVID-19 while on a VIA Rail train
(i) between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021,
(ii) between July 1, 2021, and October 29, 2021,
(iii) between October 30, 2021, and November 29, 2021,
(iv) since November 30, 2021; and

(d) how many Canadians are known to have contracted COVID-19 while in a VIA Rail train station
(i) between July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021,
(ii) between July 1, 2021, and October 29, 2021,
(iii) between October 30, 2021, and November 29, 2021,
(iv) since November 30, 2021?

Mr. Adam van Koeverden (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and to the Minister of Sport, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, collective efforts by governments at all levels in gathering, sharing and analyzing data have allowed Canada to monitor and report on numbers and trends and make evidence-based public health decisions to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is no circumstance in which a public health authority can confirm with certainty the location in which an individual contracts COVID-19. The Public Health Agency of Canada, PHAC, cannot confirm cases of transmission of COVID-19 while on board a flight, in an airport, on a train or in a train station.

In August 2020, Rebel News reported that Transport Canada had come to much the same conclusion about COVID transmission on flights:

The admission was buried in an announcement made earlier today for Canada’s Flight Plan for Navigating COVID-19... [which] includes the time frame before mandatory masks were implemented on April 20 [2020].

The first case of COVID-19 in Canada was confirmed in a man travelling to Toronto from Wuhan in January [2020].

On October 8, 2020, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) published the following:

The risk of a passenger contracting COVID-19 while onboard appears very low. With only 44 identified potential cases of flight-related transmission among 1.2 billion travelers, that’s one case for every 27 million travelers. We recognize that this may be an underestimate but even if 90% of the cases were un-reported, it would be one case for every 2.7 million travelers.

The press release has since been deleted from its original source page, but the above quote is available on the Government of Canada's website.

Check out Ezra Levant's recent interview with Keith Wilson, K.C., discussing his current Charter of Rights challenge revolving around the encroachment of civil liberties in Canada through the pandemic and beyond.

Rebel News

Staff

Articles written by staff at Rebel News to help tell the other side of the story. 

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