{"id":79023,"date":"2021-05-03T15:09:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T19:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=79023"},"modified":"2021-05-03T15:09:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T19:09:57","slug":"hajdu-says-canada-will-come-up-with-certification-to-allow-covid-clear-canadians-to-travel-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/hajdu-says-canada-will-come-up-with-certification-to-allow-covid-clear-canadians-to-travel-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Hajdu says Canada will come up with ‘certification’ to allow COVID-clear Canadians to travel again"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Hajdu
Passengers from New Delhi wait in long lines for transportation to their quarantine hotels at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Friday April 23, 2021. Canada’s ArriveCan app, which allows travellers to register their arrival at the hotels, could be augmented to contain personal vaccine information, said Health Minister Patty Hajdu. (Canadian Press\/Frank Gunn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Health Minister Patty Hajdu says her government embraces\u00a0the concept of\u00a0“vaccine passports” and will come up with a form of certification\u00a0to allow vaccinated\u00a0Canadians\u00a0to travel internationally again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

New hotel quarantine rules for air travellers are now in effect. Here\u2019s what you need to know<\/a><\/p>\n

“Canadians are going to want to travel and just like there have been changes in other kinds of travel requirements over the years as a result of a number of events, Canadians need to be prepared to be able to travel internationally. And we’ll make sure that they are,” Hajdu told CBC Radio’s\u00a0The House<\/em>\u00a0in an interview airing today.<\/p>\n

<\/section>\n

As countries make progress on\u00a0their COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, a\u00a0debate\u00a0is heating up over how to revive the international travel sector\u00a0that was flattened by the global pandemic.<\/p>\n

That discussion has focused\u00a0on\u00a0the idea of a digital passport\u00a0or vaccine certificate\u00a0that would allow citizens of one country to prove to border officials in\u00a0another country that they are fully vaccinated\u00a0or have tested negative for the virus.<\/p>\n

The European Union is in talks with the United States about Europe’s Digital Green Certificate scheme, which means Americans might be able to visit the continent as soon as this summer.<\/p>\n

EU officials laid out some\u00a0details of those discussions on Monday but said that, for the moment,\u00a0the EU was not speaking to any other countries about reopening international borders to non-essential travel.<\/p>\n

In March, Hajdu told reporters that the topic had come up in a meeting between G7 health ministers. Since then, discussions with allies have continued.<\/p>\n

“I am meeting on a regular basis with my G7 counterparts and this is an ongoing conversation about how that might look and how we might be able to have some sort of standardized approach to this,” she told host and CBC National Editor Chris Hall.<\/p>\n

The EU’s planned\u00a0Digital Green Certificate is a document\u00a0that can be carried on a smartphone. It would tell officials in other countries\u00a0that\u00a0the bearer has been vaccinated, what\u00a0vaccine was used, whether they have tested negative and\u00a0whether they have recovered\u00a0from COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Each EU country would be responsible for issuing the certificate, which could happen through hospitals, test centres or national health authorities. EU member states would have to accept travellers with valid certificates provided they were vaccinated with a shot approved for use in the EU.<\/p>\n

“I would say that our goal is to open the borders as soon as possible \u2026 when it is safe to do so, safe for Europeans and safe for visitors from other countries, including from Canada,” EU Ambassador to Canada\u00a0Melita Gabri\u010d\u00a0told\u00a0The House.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"European
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen puts on her protective face mask after revealing the EU’s plan to roll out Digital Green Certificates at a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on March 17. (Associated Press\/John Thys)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gabri\u010d\u00a0said\u00a0a number of different factors will be considered when deciding whether to extend the scheme to other countries, including infection rates, variants of concern and vaccination rates.<\/p>\n

The ambassador also said that while the EU as a whole is developing the digital certificate program, “European countries can decide to waive certain public health restrictions currently in place, such as testing or quarantine based on proof of vaccination.”<\/p>\n

The United Kingdom said that it is working on a plan to adapt its National Health Service phone app \u2014 which is used to access medical records, book appointments and order prescriptions \u2014 to work as a digital vaccination and testing verification tool.<\/p>\n

\"Israeli
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a “Green Pass” that allows citizens vaccinated against COVID-19 to access gyms, restaurants, bars and other locations in Israel. (Associated Press\/Avigail Uzi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The World Health Organization is working on its own version called a Smart Vaccination Certificate.\u00a0Israel is looking at adapting its Green Pass \u2014\u00a0which lets vaccinated Israelis visit restaurants, gyms, concerts and sporting events \u2014\u00a0to\u00a0international travel.<\/p>\n

The International Air Traffic Association (IATA), based in Montr\u00e9al, is currently testing its Travel Pass Initiative. It\u00a0would require passengers to create a digital version of their passports using a phone app, which would\u00a0then be able to upload medical records that could be verified by border officials around the world.<\/p>\n

What is Canada working on?<\/h2>\n

Speaking to\u00a0The House<\/em>\u00a0this week, Hajdu said that Canada is talking to its G7 allies and working toward\u00a0an international consensus on how a system, or multiple systems, would work across\u00a0governments. She also hinted that Canada is looking at adapting an existing app.<\/p>\n

“From our perspective we have a bit of a head start in terms of entry into Canada in that we have ArriveCan,\u00a0the app that allows for digital proof of testing … and a variety of other documents that people have to submit to enter Canada,” Hajdu told Hall.<\/p>\n

“We’ll be working with our international partners to make sure that whatever the world lands on, Canadians will have documents in the appropriate format.”<\/p>\n

\"Minister
Minister of Health Patty Hajdu said Canada’s ArriveCan app could be adapted to contain vaccine information. (The Canadian Press\/Justin Tang)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ArriveCan app is required for almost all Canadians entering Canada by land or air.\u00a0The app\u00a0allows air travellers to register when they book into their mandatory three-day stay at a government authorized hotel.<\/p>\n

The app also allows travellers to register the results of COVID-19 tests before and after they arrive in Canada, provide details to border agents about their quarantine plans if they cross at a land border, and provide contact information for themselves and the\u00a0people travelling with them.<\/p>\n

Are there any privacy concerns?<\/h2>\n

Civil liberties associations and governments have raised\u00a0a great many concerns about\u00a0individual privacy as the digital passport discussion has evolved.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has\u00a0said that it will not be pushing for\u00a0mandatory vaccination credentials or a federal vaccine database because of sensitive legal and political issues.<\/p>\n

Brenda McPhail\u200b, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s privacy, technology & surveillance project, told CBC News that the data protection issues involved in vaccine certification documents are significant.<\/p>\n

\"President
President Joe Biden has said his administration will not push for a national database of vaccinated Americans. (Associated Press\/Evan Vucci)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Health information is some of the most sensitive information about us, which means we have to ask critical, very granular questions about exactly what data is collected, including what kind of identifiers are used and how they’re verified, where data comes from and how it travels through a system, from app to airline to border control,” she said.<\/p>\n

McPhail said that people who are exempt from vaccination because of\u00a0health conditions may be expected to share additional information to prove to a foreign government that their condition is genuine,\u00a0putting their personal data at risk.<\/p>\n

The IATA app, McPhail said, raises additional questions about the use of facial recognition technology in tandem with personal health data.<\/p>\n

“Allowing the app to use your passport photo and map your face raises all the issues inherent to [facial recognition technology], including risks of discriminatory impacts,” she said.<\/p>\n

Another source of risk is the fact that\u00a0medical records in Canada are stored at the provincial level.\u00a0“It’s a truism that the more touch points there are for a piece of data, the more at-risk it is,” she said.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario said that existing laws restricting the sharing of Ontario residents’\u00a0personal health information\u00a0could present further challenges to developing\u00a0a\u00a0digital vaccine certification.<\/p>\n

“The provincial government would only be able to share non-identifying information, such as de-identified information or aggregate data, with its federal counterparts,” the statement said.<\/p>\n

CBC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Health Minister Patty Hajdu says her government embraces\u00a0the concept of\u00a0“vaccine passports” and will come up with a form of certification\u00a0to allow vaccinated\u00a0Canadians\u00a0to travel internationally again<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":79024,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3539],"tags":[3570,16516,137],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Hajdu-says-Canada-will-come-up-with-certification-to-allow-COVID-clear-Canadians-to-travel-again-Milenio-Stadium-Canada.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}