COVID Checkpoints

New Brunswick said its own health officials had the power to override federal border control agents.

I use Google Maps regularly. It’s a useful tool for calculating the distance between two locations, whether I’m conducting research or planning an excursion.

How interesting that Google Maps is still telling US residents they face a COVID checkpoint when crossing from Maine, USA into New Brunswick, Canada by automobile.

Those checkpoints were established in November 2020. Being screened by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) apparently wasn’t good enough. New Brunswick health officials insisted they had the right to conduct a second round of screening. They said they had the power to turn people, including truckers, back at the border even though border agents had given them the thumbs up.

An expert quoted by CBC news disputed this. According to Kelly Sundberg, "Once the CBSA has cleared [someone], they are entitled to remain in Canada for the duration of the time allotted. The province has no say in returning that person to the United States or removing them."

In other words, this was another example of public health tyranny, of officials over-stepping their actual authority. Significant numbers of people are apparently easily transformed into judgmental busybodies, eager to boss around the rest of us. Whether they have a legal leg to stand on appears irrelevant.

I expect Google Maps is wrong. I expect New Brunswick’s COVID checkpoints were disbanded some time ago. Since videos are expunged from Google-owned YouTube every day for allegedly spreading misinformation there’s a bit of humour here :-)