A Canadian expat is struggling to find answers after his bid to get a COVID-19 quarantine exemption was denied.
Thirty-year-old Marc Young had applied for the exemption after learning his father would have to undergo brain surgery earlier this month.
“I’m at a loss here. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” he said.
Young, who was fully vaccinated in the U.S. in April, applied for the exemption on June 10 before he left Ohio where he works. He arrived in Calgary on June 15, however, it wasn’t until three days later that he received a letter informing him that his quarantine exemption had been denied.
“The application requires the attending physician, which was my dad’s brain surgeon, to complete this form — which he did,” Young explained. “Apparently I (also) needed to get the Foothills hospital to complete a site visitation form.”
The letter stated that if the application was denied because it was incomplete, Young could reapply and submit the missing documentation.
Sadly, a day later, Young’s 55-year-old father passed away on June 19 over the Father’s Day weekend.
“I feel like my dad would want me to be strong for everybody,” he said.
Young said he was given an hour to say goodbye to his dad at the hospital before he died.
“If somebody got hit by a car and they needed to come from Mexico or the U.S. and they had 24 hours, they might get here, but how are they going to get to the hospital if they’re not getting these applications done in time?”
The current federal health restrictions state that Canadians entering Canada for compassionate reasons must apply for an exemption.
However, on Monday, the federal government announced measures would be lifted for fully vaccinated Canadians on July 5.
“This is the first phase of our precautionary approach to easing Canada’s border measures. At this time, we are not opening up our borders any further,” Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said at a news conference.
“On July 5, I could come back and be walking the streets with everybody else as long as my first test comes back negative,” Young said.
Young’s quarantine is scheduled to end next week and on Wednesday he received word that he could change the location of his quarantine to be with his grieving mother at her home.
He’s now trying to get an exemption for his father’s funeral planned for Friday.
-with files from Global News’ Katie Dangerfield
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