Law, Isolate Thyself

I’m halfway through my 2 week self-isolation. If the US-Canada border remains shut for the rest of the year, I’ll be doing this at least 2 more times. But the kernel of this post goes back to March, when the borders were closing. About 12 hours before they did, I drove down to retrieve one of our kids from the US. And I experienced the very large gap between legal information and legal practice.

As you might expect, I have access to a lot of legal information. Both primary and secondary law. Prior to my visits to the US, I had looked at everything I could to understand the context of my travel.

Back to the U.S., Part 1

The first trip, there was a U.S. Executive Order that impacted me. I’d been in the UK in early March and, as of March 14, people who’d been in the UK within 14 days of their visit to the US were banned.

Except. There are always exceptions. As the parent of a dependent under the age of 21, I was allowed to enter the US.

a) Section 1 of this proclamation shall not 
apply to:
    (iii) any alien who is the parent or 
legal guardian of a U.S. citizen or lawful 
permanent resident, provided that the U.S. 
citizen or lawful permanent resident is 
unmarried and under the age of 21;

Research accomplished. Boxes checked. The US-Canada border had not yet closed – that would be the next day – so I was hoping that I was ready.

No surprise, then, that I was held at the border for 2 hours to determine whether I could actually enter the country. A couple of other cars were stopped. One was turned back, one went on. The problem with a law, even a presidential order, is that it is never as clear as one might think. I was given a mask and told to park and wait.

In the end, despite my noting it in case they’d missed it, the Executive Order was considered irrelevant. Customs and Border Protection were doing their own analysis, and the Centers for Disease Control were doing their own analysis. Fortunately, logic ended up winning out.

The CDC wanted me blocked, according to the guard. But the CBP rationalized that all this would do is result in my wife returning – an American citizen who’d also been in the UK – and they’d have to let her in anyway. So they let me go my merry way. I was grateful, as I always am as I leave a country’s port of entry, for the privilege of being let in.

The return trip was uninteresting. The northern U.S. states that we traveled through were emptied of traffic. Large flashing road signs told people to stay home to save lives. It was a very strange experience.

At the Canadian border crossing and the now-closed border, the guards had masks and handed us a piece of paper with instructions. This was still before masks, social distancing, and the like. The instructions were to wash your hands and watch for symptoms. The point of the badly photocopied handout was this: don’t be stupid.

Back to the U.S., Part II

Fast forward to the end of the summer. The border closure has been extended a couple of times and far more stringent measures have been taken in Canada. We’re mostly wearing masks when we’re in shared public buildings and sometimes in open spaces. As I planned my return to the US to deliver the kids to their schools, I was more interested in what the return would be like, rather than the going.

Over the 6 intervening months, we’d all started working from home. We’re privileged to have multiple floors and a back garden to utilize. We’d be socially distant merely by being in our work-from-home cocoons. Kids doing online courses, although one was industrious enough to get an outside job.

But Canada implemented a 14-day self-isolation, sometimes called a self-quarantine, upon entry into Canada. My wife and I talked over how that might work. If I could take both kids, then only I would need to quarantine. If we did two separate trips, we’d have to figure out how to manage groceries and other activities (scheduled medical appointments, for example) as well as the start of school over a longer period of time.

Fortunately, I was able to do a single trip. But I was still perplexed about what the 14-day post-return period looked like. I have never found a really good explanation of what I was legally obligated to do.

If you’ve ever done legal research, then you’ll probably have experienced this. Canada has a Quarantine Act that governs. The statute lays out broad strokes, including the government’s ability to detain citizens and search homes. But, as is often the case, the rubber meets the road in administrative regulations.

The executive branch has an agency – Health Canada – that then implements the Act. It attempts to clarify the isolation v. quarantine concept. There are also “Orders in Council” that use similarly general language. As you can see, it’s not helpful. Quarantine is defined as self-isolation, but isolation is defined differently. Other government sites purport to have rolled-up all of the relevant legislation but they’re not comprehensive. That has been par for the course.

Quarantine. Or Isolate. Ummmm…

Upon my arrival at the border, I had traveled through a half dozen American states. New York required me to complete a traveler’s form prior to traversing the state. Yes, I asked if I needed to complete the form even if I wasn’t stopping. Fortunately, it was an easy form, completed the day before travel, and a screenshot on my phone showing proof would be enough to avoid a fine if I was stopped in New York. I wasn’t.

The Canadian Border Services Agency officer attempted to clarify what I would expect. 14 days of self-isolation. Got it. Wash your hands, wear a mask (we were both wearing masks this time) and distance yourself from others. No problem.

Upon arrival, every traveller will need to confirm
that they have a suitable place to isolate or 
quarantine where they will have access to basic 
necessities, such as food and medication. Travellers
will be expected to make plans for where they will 
isolate or quarantine in advance of arriving to 
Canada. Travellers who do not have an appropriate 
place in which to isolate or quarantine themselves
must go to a place designated by the Chief Public 
Health Officer of Canada. These criteria are newly
applied to asymptomatic travellers.
- https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/health-safety/travel-health-notices/221

But now the concept of self-isolation started to break down. Could I self-isolate in my home with my wife and kid? Yes, but they aren’t in self-isolation. I had to stay away from them – sleeping on a different floor and using a different washroom if possible. I could use a shared kitchen but had to mask up and sterilize anything I touched. But I could go into shared space when they weren’t there without a mask, because we were socially distanced.

Isolation upside: got to give our kid the chore of empyting the dishwasher, one of my usual morning habits. I mean, I couldn’t justify touching ALL the dishes just after they were clean, right?

This confusion has continued since the border. Our kid had two medical appointments this week to get out of the way before school starts. He wasn’t allowed to have one appointment when he arrived and answered truthfully, “are you in a home with someone who is self-isolating?” The second appointment was fine, since they asked the more reasonable “have you been within 6′ of anyone who is self-isolating”.

I was disappointed for him. We have kept 6′ of distance for a week so far. We go in and out of shared spaces at different times and through different entrances if possible. We don’t pass on the stairs. I’ve masked up when I’m not eating and he’s in the vicinity.

Health Canada has called me three times so far to confirm that I am still self-isolating. I had one autobot call as well on Day 5, congratulating me on completing 7 days of my isolation. Typical government or typical automation, one.

Like everything else around the self-isolation regime, it’s an honor system. There is the lingering threat that police could be sent to confirm my compliance but so far it seems to mostly be just to make me confirm that I’m doing what they’ve asked me to do. I’m happy to do that. Self-isolation is harder than just wearing a mask but it’s such a little inconvenience in the bigger picture.

In a sense, the world hasn’t changed much in 6 months. Wear a mask, wash your hands, distance yourself. It’s harder when your social bubble shrinks to just yourself. You want to try to do what’s right but I expect I’m not the only one who is largely making it up as we go along. I’m fortunate to have the space to try to adopt as many of the varied directives I’ve received. I have benefited from being able to work remotely, and knowing that my library staff can function fine without me on site. Even where it’s hygeine theater, I’ve tried to comply. It would be less burdensome if the regulations were clearer about what the expectations were so that those who have fewer resources and flexibility could be more confident about their compliance.

Like most people, I don’t interact this closely with laws in my regular life. When I do, like speed limits, they’re pretty straightforward. I’m always a bit surprised at how hard it is to be confident that, having read legal information, that you can know what to expect.

You can imagine for people without legal information access, that the added layer of ambiguity makes things that much harder when the laws aren’t clear or aren’t followed in the way one might expect. The benefit of the law – to create expectations and consequences around behavior – is lost.