Page - 306 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE306 as being at high-risk of COVID-19 are placed in special quarantine facilities.25 Many other countries did the same. However, Canada went one step further. Starting on March 19, 2020, the government requested air carriers to prevent all travellers abroad, including Canadian citizens, from boarding if they showed symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.26 Air carriers had to conduct health checks, relying on questions from a World Health Organization (WHO) document that offers guidance for the management of ill trav- ellers at points of entry.27 However, here, the government was requir- ing air carriers to ask those questions before the plane departed from a foreign country. This order was subsequently updated a number of times. Later versions do not refer to the WHO document.28 Persons prohibited from boarding could not get on an aircraft for at least 14 days unless they had a medical note certifying that their symptoms were not related to COVID-19. Yet, the risk was real that 14 days later they could no longer leave a country either because there were no longer flights available or because that country had closed its borders. Section 6(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms29 provides that “[e]very citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in, and leave Canada,” a right some citizens could no lon- ger exercise since the government’s March 19, 2020, order to air car- riers. The government could, however, justify this violation if, as provided for in s 1 of the Charter, these limits can “be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” To do so, the government has the burden to establish 1) that the measure is taken to address a pressing and substantial objective; 2) that the measure is ratio- nally connected to the objective; 3) that the measure impairs as little as possible the right in question; and 4) that the measure’s overall 25. Government of New Zealand, “COVID-19: Key Updates” (last visited 13 May 2020), online: Immigration  New  Zealand <www.immigration.govt.nz/about-us/ covid-19/coronavirus-update-inz-response>. 26. PC number 2020-0175 (24 March 2020). See Government of Canada, supra note 19. 27. “Management of Ill Travellers at Points of Entry—International Airports, Seaports and Ground Crossings—in the Context of COVID -19 Outbreak” (19 March 2020), online: World  Health  Organization <www.who.int/publications- detail/management-of-ill-travellers-at-points-of-entry-international-airports- seaports-and-ground-crossings-in-the-context-of-covid--19-outbreak>. 28. Government of Canada, supra, note 19. 29. Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, being Schedule B to the  Canada  Act  1982 (UK), 1982, c 11.