Calgary doctor files human rights complaint over changes to mask rules on airplanes
A family doctor in Calgary has filed a human rights complaint over Ottawa's decision to no longer require masks on airplanes to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The federal government has announced the end of mandatory vaccination, quarantine and masks on planes and trains starting Saturday.
Dr. David Keegan, who has a cardiopulmonary condition, said he was quite concerned when he heard Monday's announcement and filed his complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission that afternoon.
"Airplanes are relatively small volume and there are people in them," he said in an interview Wednesday.
"Even with masking, there can be spread of COVID. But suddenly, if now masks are not required, there are going to be some people in an aircraft who either knowingly or unknowingly have COVID and could be easily spreading it to other people."
Keegan said COVID-19 can be a deadly and disabling disease, leading to complex health issues for weeks or months after being infected.
The Public Health Agency of Canada still strongly recommends that people wear masks, particularly in crowded environments such as planes and trains.
"The science is clear: wearing a mask is clearly a means of personal protection that is extremely effective," Dr. Howard Njoo, Canada's deputy chief health officer, said Monday. "I hope Canadians will make an enlightened decision about this."
Keegan, who's also a professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary, said he will continue to wear a mask if he's required to travel — as he had to recently to go to Toronto for surgery — but he's no longer sure he can fly.
"The problem is one-way masking doesn't provide anywhere near the protection as if all parties are masking," he said. "COVID is airborne, so the air gets contaminated when somebody is simply speaking who has COVID."
Keegan said if that person is wearing a mask, it can filter some of the virus.
"What I am seeking is reasonably clean air and requiring masking on airplanes is a great way and easy way to keep the shared air in aircraft reasonably less contaminated," he said.
Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said earlier this week that the negative attitudes of some passengers have made it difficult for airlines and crews to enforce the mask mandate in recent months, and cited that as a factor in the decision.
"The transmission of the variants of COVID are domestic-based, for the most part, and therefore, this is what we should stress: masking is highly recommended … but it is not something that can be, in a sense, forced," Duclos said Monday.
Keegan, however, questioned why mandatory masking would be removed if domestic transmission is driving COVID-19 cases.
"It actually makes no sense. I just don't understand that argument," he said.
"If he's saying COVID in Canada is being spread domestically, then why on Earth would you remove a key thing to limit domestic spread? It makes no scientific or logical sense at all."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.