Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have agreed to extend the border closure until June 21.
“Canada and the United States have once again agreed to extend by 30 days the current measures in place along the border,” Trudeau said on Tuesday, May 19.
“This is an important decision that will keep people in both of our countries safe.”
Non-essential travel is banned, however people deemed essential workers and services are allowed to cross the border for work purposes. Sports does not fall under the essential service category, which means CFL players would not yet be permitted to enter Canada.
The U.S. has had over 1.5 million coronavirus cases — approximately 42 percent of the world total — with more than 92,000 passing away from COVID-19 compared to 78,500 positive cases and 5,858 fatalities in Canada to date. There are more than 1.2 million total coronavirus cases in the United States than the next closest country (Russia 299,941).
“As we’ve seen, the decisions that we’re taking are very much made week-to-week in this crisis. This situation is changing rapidly and we’re adjusting constantly to what is the right measures for Canadians to get that balance right, between keeping people safe and restoring a semblance or normality and economic activity that we all rely on,” Trudeau said.
“We’re going to keep making those decisions as time goes on. It was the right thing to further extend by 30 days our closure of the Canada-U.S. border to travellers other than essential services and goods. But we will continue to watch carefully what’s happening elsewhere in the world and around us as we make decisions on next steps.”
The CFL regular season was scheduled to kick-off on Thursday, June 11, but commissioner Randy Ambrosie has stated the schedule won’t start before the beginning of July. Without proper government clearance, the three-down league would not be able to bring players north of the border.
