While Canadians are told to stay at home, Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations will be travelling to New York to curry favour with international diplomats so Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can get his coveted seat at the UN Security Council.  

Since the pandemic began, Trudeau has insisted that his cabinet and diplomats continue to lobby on his behalf for the position. 

Canada is currently competing with two other nations, Ireland and Norway for one of two revolving seats on the council. 

Up until now, UN Ambassador Marc-Andre Blanchard has been campaigning for the position virtually from his Toronto home but since the deadline is looming, he will be crossing the border and driving to New York City to physically meet with his counterparts.

When interviewed by the Canadian Press, Blanchard assured Canadians that his meetings would follow proper social distancing measures. 

“For the first time, we were raising the prospect that maybe we’ll go for walks in Central Park together and observe social distancing,” said Blanchard. 

“But at least try to start again, to work, to see others and have those conversations that are so important in diplomacy.”

Recent reports show that Trudeau has been personally busy ringing up the phones of world leaders in his final desperate push to win votes. 

According to the National Post, Trudeau has found the time to speak to 28 world leaders since March.

Among the nations, Trudeau has courted for support are Ghana, Sudan and Qatar, all of which have repressive legal systems which outlaw homosexuality.

“We absolutely want a seat on the UN security council. It is also important that we spend time on the rebuild and the world that we want post-COVID. We need to keep an eye on the future that we want and how we want to shape it,” said Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne about the effort. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not promise that Canadians who had their flights cancelled due to the coronavirus will get refunds.

On Thursday Trudeau was asked multiple times about the possibility of forcing airlines to give refunds for cancelled flights. Trudeau only said that the government will be having discussions with the parties involved.

“I think we need to have some very careful discussions with airlines, with the air travel sector, and indeed with Canadians who are concerned to try and figure out a way forward where we can ensure that Canadians are treated fairly, and our airline industry remains there for when our economy picks up again,” Trudeau said.

As the coronavirus pandemic gripped the world, most flights since mid-March have been cancelled. 

According to the Toronto Sun, Air Canada sold around $2.6 billion in fares prior to cancelling most of their scheduled flights.

Rather than offer refunds, airlines have been given customers vouchers with expiry dates.

Despite being pressed by journalists, Trudeau refused to give a decisive answer on whether refunds will be ordered.

“We’re looking to make sure that Canadians are supported financially through this time, but that also we’re going to come back with airlines that function here in Canada for the long term, getting that balance right,” he said.

Both the United States and European Union countries have ordered airlines to refund customers.

A petition to the House of Commons by consumer-rights group Option Consommateurs calling for the government to force airlines to offer refunds has garnered nearly 22,000 signatures as of Friday.

The airlines themselves say they are struggling financially and claim they do not have the cash to offer refunds to customers.

Air Canada is operating at just 10% of its usual volume in May, and Porter Airlines has practically shut down all operations.

Elise Thériault of Option Consommateurs told Global News that any airline bailout should be “conditional to offering the refund to the consumers who want it.” 

“[The United States and Europe] did not forbid airlines to provide credits to the consumers, but they forced them to offer a refund for people who want it,” she said.

During a virtual question period earlier this week, Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu repeatedly defended the federal government’s and the World Health Organization’s contradictory advice and measures throughout the coronavirus. 

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel grilled Hajdu on several statements made by the government over the past few months. 

 “How many lost Canadian lives and jobs can be attributed to the government believing the following statement made by the WHO in January: ‘there’s no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus?’” asked Rempel.

“As the member knows, this is a global pandemic and the World Health Organization has played an important role in helping convene scientists and researchers from around the world to understand the science as it evolves around this novel coronavirus,” said Hajdu.

Rempel then went on to highlight claims made by Hajdu in the past regarding border measures. In February, Hajdu told Canadians that shutting Canada’s borders was “not effective at all.”

“The long-term implication of shutting down borders is, one, they’re not very effective in controlling disease. In fact, they’re not effective at all,” said Hajdu at the time.

“How many lost Canadian lives and jobs can be attributed to the minister’s opinion that quote ‘border measures are highly ineffective,’ or that quote ‘border measures don’t work at all?’” said Rempel. 

“To allege that there have been no border measures is actually untrue and misleading to Canadians. In fact, we’ve been screening arrivals at international borders for quite some time as the member knows,” replied Rempel. 

Contrary to Hajdu’s claims, Dr. Tam admitted to the House of Commons health committee on Tuesday that Canada had in fact been slow to close its borders. 

“I think that in hindsight, yes, I think people could act faster and maybe in the future, we will take different decisions,” said Tam with regard to restricting travel into Canada. 

“In retrospect and maybe looking forward, the world might be a very different place in terms of whether this kind of measure is enacted.” 

Despite the government’s about-face on curbing international travel and shutting down land borders, Hajdu defended her border claims as recently as the end of April, when she told CTV Power Play that she stood by her misleading remarks. 

“I will point to the fact that I stand by the remarks that I made around borders. We now have stronger measures on our borders. It became very clear that other countries did not have a good handle on what their outbreaks were looking like including countries like Iran and Italy who were struggling,” said Hajdu. 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says Edmonton is the “obvious” location for the NHL’s hub city.

On Thursday Kenney told TSN that Edmonton’s extraordinarily low rates of coronavirus make the city the best choice to host this year’s NHL season.

“First of all, their main focus has been and should be the safety of players and people who are involved. And there is no safer place in North America to do this than Edmonton,” Kenney said. 

“Edmonton has the lowest level of COVID-19 infections of any major city in North America, certainly lower than any other NHL city. We’ve had over the past week a couple, maybe two, new confirmed cases; 50 active cases in the city of more than 1 million people.”

“I think the decision is obvious.”

On March 12 the NHL paused its regular season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The NHL has since developed plans to continue the season using just one “hub city” to hold all remaining games.

Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver have all shown interest in becoming the hub, along with several American cities.

Kenney says that his government and Alberta’s public health officials have been considering the logistics of being the NHL’s hub city for the last month.

Kenney added he is confident the government can keep those who come into the province isolated from the public.

“The one question people are asking about is the Canadian requirement, that we also have in Alberta’s rules, that people travelling here from outside the country have to isolate for 14 days. In our view, we can create an isolation zone for all of those travellers coming in to participate in the NHL playoffs.”

Alberta has seen lower rates of coronavirus and fatalities compared to Canada’s other large provinces. The province also boasts one of the highest rates of testing in the world.

Kenney ended his interview with TSN by saying that while some bigger cities may be vying for the role of hub city, Edmonton has contributed much to the sport of hockey, and hockey is part of its identity.

“I know there’s a big market in the US, but [Canada] is the heart and soul of hockey and I would say that’s especially true of the Canadian prairies, and Edmonton just has that vibe of hockey town,” Kenney said. 

“I think it would be a wonderful recognition of this tough, hardworking, northern city that has done so much for the league, and so much for the sport of hockey. It has that history and identity.”