Given the damning report by the auditor general that the Public Heath Agency of Canada did a profoundly incompetent job of tracking travellers assigned to quarantine hotels earlier this year, it is perhaps not surprising to learn about another abject failure by the same agency: meting out punishment for fake vaccine certificates presented at border crossings.
Border officials in both Canada and the U.S. are catching people they suspect of trying to cheat vaccine rules to cross the border by the hundreds — but far fewer are seeing fines.
Although hundreds of allegedly fake and misused vaccine cards and COVID-19 tests have been reported by Canada border officials, the Public Health Agency of Canada has only issued 17 fines related to these reports so far.
Given the public health stakes, the border transgressions are egregious and criminal. And they include presenting fake Covid-19 test results:
A number of cases are being investigated by PHAC, which issued seven fines for suspected falsified or fraudulent COVID-19 test results between Jan. 6 to Nov. 12, that agency said. PHAC said it also issued two fines for suspected falsified or fraudulent proof of vaccination credentials between July 6 and Nov. 12.
Because they have right of entry, Canadians who enter with fake COVID-19-related records are still allowed into the country, but border officials then pass on their information to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which has ability to investigate and issue fines. Non-Canadians could be denied entry.
Because documents are easy to fake, enforcement and deterrence are sorely needed.
Shabnam Preet Kaur, a forensic document examiner with Toronto-based Docufraud Canada, said technology can easily allow people to create a falsified document.
"You just have to download these softwares, for example, Photoshop, and you can just do all the editing as per your convenience," she said.
"Whatever you need to change in a document, you can do it in less than five minutes."
Kaur said it is not difficult to manipulate PDF vaccine certificates.
"I would suggest [the] QR code method is really safer as compared to the PDF of certificates," she said.
For Ontarians, there is one bright spot in this imbroglio. According to unnamed sources, on Friday the provincial government will announce that the vaccine certificate currently in use will make way for a QR code as the only acceptable proof.
Perhaps the Public Health Agency of Canada can learn from this example. Their practices, as illustrated above, are essentially toothless. At the very least, it is time they acquired a good set of dentures (or perhaps another body part), in order to protect the public they are mandated to serve.
I'm off this afternoon to my MLA's office to get my provincial and federal vaccine passports. Apparently they're bulletproof. We shall see.
ReplyDeleteCovid-19 has shown that world governments cannot get ahead of this sort of thing. We get our vaccines and boosters and, within weeks, the news is all about the latest variant which may or may not defeat our shots in one way or another.
Where will we be next year? What are governments doing to get ahead of this? They need to be preparing now for what's to come. Part of that entails re-establishing our research labs, a successor to Connaught. The Third World needs that same production capacity.
I suspect we'll be in much the same situation as today in the next year and perhaps after that.
This virus is certainly proving to be a stubborn one, Mound, as well as a humbling one. It remains to be seen whether people can accept the limitations it imposes on us, or ultimately just go their merry way, as the anti-vaxxers are doing right now. The need to share vaccines and technology should be obvious for even the more obtuse among us, especially given the Omicron variant that surely evolved because of low vaccination rates in South Africa.
DeleteI wish we would establish a successor to Connaught, but Mr. Trudeau seems to prefer giving huge sums to private pharmaceuticals instead.
"We get our vaccines and boosters and, within weeks, the news is all about the latest variant which may or may not defeat our shots in one way or another".
DeleteFunny how that works eh? It's almost like this is going to be a perpetual cycle.
-MC
No doubt we will be fighting a rearguard action for the foreseeable future, MC. Still, the science tells us that vaccines continue to be our best hope, partly because too many people refuse to take the necessary precautions in the face of an implacable foe.
DeleteIt’s often worth a read or re-read of established understandings or repeating phenomena..
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
We can backtrack down the hierarchy - Trudeau - PMO - Minister - to Chief of Staff etc - but at some point we’ll get past the relevant Minister & their office subalterns & enter the world of Canadian Customs & or Arrivals security, RCMP.. Uh oh, who (and how many more needed) will actually ‘enforce’ the new Law ?
What then ? Was there any Contact Tracing ? Further testing ? How many involved in the Medical Office data flow to Government ? All this in the context of office overload and man/woman power shortage, burnout
Do you see any room for The Peter Principle to get a toehold .. and what are the implications thereof ?
Only then do we get to your topic.. the toothless punitive department (or the dreaded courts !) Deary me .. but is it even conceivable that the required paperwork with all the stamps, signatures, authorizations are flawlessly executed.. and get to the stern faced bureaucrat who pronounces the appropriate fine, penalty, technicality, rationale, relevant new law & has the wireless debit or credit card terminal ready to extract the MONEY & send the perp on their sorry but unrepentant way .. whew .. I’m exhausted just imaging it all !!
You make a compelling case for institutional inertia, Sal. People like to conduct their work-lives with as little complication or drama as possible.
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