Trudeau Warms to Idea of Vaccine Passports for International Travel

March 13, 2021 Jim Byers

There’s been a steady buzz from the Liberal government about vaccine passports, and now the guy in charge appears to be open to the idea.

Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu sparked headlines a week ago when she said discussions about a vaccine passport were “very live” among G7 nation politicians. But it’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who obviously calls the shot in Ottawa, and now the PM is talking about the idea, and even defending the concept for international travel.

Speaking in French at his Friday COVID-19 news briefing, Trudeau said that proof of vaccination for international travel is “something that has existed for a long time,” a point we noted in a previous story about vaccination passports.

“When you travel to certain countries, you need to demonstrate that you’ve been vaccinated for certain diseases,” he said. “This is a well-established practice.”

A number of countries around the world are currently debating the merits of a vaccine passport and “we’re among those countries,” the PM said.

On the other hand, Trudeau is definitely cool to the idea of a “green pass” like Israel has introduced. In a story at CNN Travel, it was stated that the green pass is authorized by Israel’s Ministry of Health.

“It can be a physical document or downloaded to a person’s phone, and will be required for activities like going to the gym, dining inside a restaurant at 75% capacity with a 100 person limit, attending a theatre performance with up to 500 people indoors, or even a gathering in an event hall with up to 300 people.”

Trudeau said that kind of program might marginalize people who either can’t or don’t want to get a vaccine.

“The idea of certificates of vaccination for domestic use does bring in questions of equity,” he said in French. “There are questions of fairness and justice. There could be discrimination.”

Trudeau has clearly drawn a line between domestic and international passports, and seems more than willing to entertain the idea of a vaccination certificate of some kind for folks who want to travel to Canada. Those should be sweet words to anyone in the travel and tourism industry in Canada, as international visitors spend something like three or four times as much per day as domestic tourists.

If a vaccine passport comes into effect for Canada and makes it easier for folks from the U.S. or France or Japan to visit, it will be a happy day indeed for Canadian tourism. And if other countries do the same, that can only help Canadian airlines and boost outbound tour operators.

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