Border closure keeping friends, families apart

Biden administration extends non-essential travel ban to Oct. 21

Mike Malott hasn't seen his grandchildren since 2019.

His hopes for a reunion were crushed once again this week with the U.S. government's decision to extend its border closure for at least another month.

Malott lives in Harrow. His girlfriend, Kim Thompson, lives in Ferndale, Mich., where the couple spent most of their time before COVID-19.

“We have grandchildren over here and he has not been able to see them since Christmas of 2019,” Thompson said Tuesday. “And we just had another one born in August that he's not even been able to see. Then of course, he can't see any of his friends that are American. Our whole life revolved around being over here. It's been very upsetting to us and I don't understand my government at all.”

The U.S. land border has been closed to non-essential travellers since March 2020. The Biden administration on Monday extended the closure to at least Oct. 21, despite Canada's move to reopen its border last month.

Ottawa started allowing fully vaccinated Americans into the country for non-essential travel on Aug. 9.

Gordon Orr, CEO Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, said there has been one small advantage to the U.S. border closure.

Canadians who can't go to the U.S. are spending their money here. “We're not allowed to go over through a land border, so as a result people aren't going across and spending their money at those casinos, at those restaurants, at those sporting events,” said Orr.

But with many people still separated from friends and loved ones, he added that this is about “more than economics.”

“It's about the friendship that we've enjoyed,” said Orr. “It's one of the benefits of being a border city and the fact that you're able to do all of that. So the day that we get to where conditions are removed and we're able to engage in a free flow of visitation across both sides of the border will be a much better day.”

Malott and Thompson, who started dating in April 2018, were apart for eight months after the borders first closed. Thompson eventually acquired an extended family exemption and they were reunited in Harrow last November.

But Malott said much of their life together was centred in Michigan.

“We haven't been able to get together with her family at all,” he said. “Her parents are aging, so you worry. You never know. Being apart is a challenge. And not being able to cross that border makes absolutely no sense to me. They tell me I can fly there. So I have to drive to Toronto, get on a plane full of a bunch of people and fly to Detroit. Or I could drive to the border, interact with one person and arrive at Kim's 40 minutes later.”

Thompson was less diplomatic about her frustration.

“You guys have 75 per cent vaccinated and your cases are lower than ours,” she said. “I'm tired of the U.S. penalizing us for Americans who are idiots who don't want to be vaccinated. It's ridiculous.”