The leaseholder in charge of advertising at federally-owned airports has told The Counter Signal that our proposed “Ban ArriveCan” billboard has been categorically rejected.
Although federal institutions have a constitutional obligation to respect Section 2 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they don’t seem to care in this case.
“There is no way the airport is going to approve that messaging on airport land. I just wanted to give you a call straight up and let you know that this is not going to get approved,” an account executive with Pattison Advertising told The Counter Signal.
“I was categorically told that the airport authority would actually be offended because it does come under the federal government,” the advertising agency said.
The Counter Signal is reviewing its legal options and alternative ways to share the BanArriveCan.ca message.
It shouldn’t need to be said, but it’s long overdue for Canada to get rid of the invasive and burdensome ArriveCan app.
From serious privacy concerns to airport chaos, Canada has more than enough reason to scrap the app.
On the issue of privacy, many people, organizations, and even the Privacy Commissioner, who’s had to launch a formal investigation into the app, say they’re concerned about the data harvested through the app and what the government is doing with it.
And despite its original purpose — to check one’s vaccination status to aid in supposedly stopping the spread of COVID — being long fulfilled, as everyone knows the vaccinated can get and spread COVID, the government has decided to keep it, hilariously, because they say it will speed up border crossings.
“ArriveCan was originally created for the purposes of COVID-19, but it has technological capacity beyond that to really shrink the amount of time that is required when you’re getting screened at the border,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said of the heavily criticized app.
“So that’s the vision. [It] is really to utilize the platform to decrease the amount of time, so CBSA officers can really focus on the problem areas, like if you’re trying to smuggle a gun or trying to smuggle drugs.”
Of course, in practice, this is the opposite of what ArriveCan is doing. Instead, it’s resulted in confrontations that bog down Canada’s airports and huge fines, especially for seniors who don’t have smartphones and, thus, can’t use the app.
Nowhere in Canada’s Charter does it say that you must use an app to return to your own country, but the Trudeau-Liberals don’t care about this clear violation and penalization of people for non-compliance.
