Members of parliament voted 202-117 to keep the current travel ban against unvaccinated Canadians in place.

The Conservatives proposed the motion to have the current travel ban against the unvaccinated lifted. 

Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh, and Travel Minister Omar Alghabra voted against the motion, as did virtually every Liberal, NDP, and Bloq Quebecois member. 

Conservatives all voted to lift the ban.

“Today, the NDP-Liberal government voted against our common-sense motion that would have returned to pre-pandemic rules and service levels for travel and helped end the delays we’re seeing at airports across the country,” the Conservative website reads.

“As Canadian travellers are being subject to extreme delays, line-ups, bottlenecks, and missed connections because of unnecessary protocols, our allies across the world, including the European Union and the United States, have loosened rules for passengers on flights and in airports.”

“. . . Airports have directly cited the Liberals’ policies as the reason for these delays . . .”

“After two long years of the pandemic, Canadians are finally looking to return to normalcy and begin travelling again. Unfortunately, the NDP-Liberal government continues to cling to outdated and unnecessary protocols that are exacerbating delays.”

Conservative members of parliament proposed the motion on May 17. However, Charter rights – such as freedom of movement – were not leveraged to justify their call to drop restrictions.

Instead, “unacceptable wait times” at the airport (for those who are allowed to travel), labour shortages, and economic losses caused by the restrictions were cited.

However, the motion also mentioned that the restrictions were ineffective and that international allies have all dropped their restrictions.

Indeed, Canada remains one of the only countries to have a ban on unvaccinated citizens from leaving their own country, and the efficacy of the restrictions appears questionable at best.

The Trudeau Liberal government was expected to renew the federal vaccine policy eight weeks ago but has still not announced anything.