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   From: bksherman@latimes.com   
      
   Despite repeatedly urging Canadians to stay home for Easter amid   
   the coronavirus pandemic, even if it meant not seeing their   
   families, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending the   
   decision to go see his.   
      
   The pandemic forced Canadians across the country to abandon   
   hopes of travel to see loved ones and also came amid warnings   
   from public officials for people not to travel to cottages   
   unless that is already their primary residence — and really,   
   just not to leave their homes at all.   
      
   But shortly after calling on Canadians to “stay home” and “Skype   
   that big family dinner,” Trudeau crossed the provincial border   
   from Ottawa into Quebec to visit his wife and three children at   
   Harrington Lake.   
      
   Harrington Lake is the name of a federally designated heritage   
   building maintained by the National Capital Commission that   
   serves as the country residence of Canadian prime ministers.   
      
   While only a half-hour drive from Ottawa, getting to the   
   residence requires crossing the provincial border into Quebec,   
   something police recently set up checkpoints in a bid to limit.   
      
   Trudeau defended the travel when questioned by journalists on   
   Tuesday at his daily briefing.   
      
   “After three weeks of my family living up at Harrington and me   
   working here, I went to join them for Easter weekend. We   
   continue to follow all the instructions from public health   
   authorities,” he said.   
      
   “Yes, but did somebody tell you this was OK?” asked the   
   journalist.   
      
   “All over social media, people are wondering why this exception   
   was OK for you, why it was OK for you to go see your family at   
   the cottage.”   
      
   “My family has been living there for three weeks,” Trudeau   
   repeated. “This is where my wife and my children live.”   
      
   Speaking on background, a government official said the prime   
   minister should be considered an essential worker and,   
   therefore, allowed to cross the border into Quebec.   
      
   The official also suggested the travel should be viewed as the   
   prime minister travelling between his work location and a new   
   primary residence for his family.   
      
   But the Trudeaus live at the 22-room Rideau Cottage in Ottawa’s   
   New Edinburgh neighbourhood — that was where Sophie Grégoire   
   Trudeau completed her quarantine after being diagnosed with   
   COVID-19.   
      
   That diagnosis came on March 12, and her quarantine ended on   
   March 28.   
      
   It’s also the neighbourhood where his children have for years   
   attended school — not in Quebec.   
      
   It is not clear why Grégoire Trudeau and the Trudeau children   
   have decided to live there or why they chose not to come back to   
   Ottawa for Easter.   
      
   Unlike from Ottawa into Gatineau, non-essential travel from   
   Gatineau into Ottawa is not restricted — however, it is possible   
   that had the family returned to Ottawa, they might not have been   
   allowed to go back to their country residence afterwards.   
      
   Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Ontarians not to travel to   
   cottages over the Easter weekend.   
      
   “Please, this long weekend, do not go to your cottage. We can’t   
   stress that enough,” Ford said last week.   
      
   Quebec Premier Francois Legault was asked about Trudeau’s trip   
   by journalists on Tuesday.   
      
   Specifically, one asked him whether he worried the visit set a   
   bad example.   
      
   “What do you say to Quebeckers who say well, if Prime Minister   
   Justin Trudeau did that, I’ll do the same thing?” the journalist   
   asked.   
      
   “No comment,” Legault responded.   
      
   Trudeau isn’t the only leader facing questions about his Easter   
   travel, either.   
      
   Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, his wife and five children   
   flew to Ottawa on Friday ahead of the Saturday wage subsidy bill   
   vote on a nine-seater government aircraft along with the Green   
   Party’s Elizabeth May.   
      
   The close confines of a small aircraft raised questions about   
   why he would bring his wife and children with him when physical   
   distancing cannot be realistically practised on board.   
      
   A spokesperson for Scheer said the flight was scheduled to go   
   from Vancouver to Ottawa and stopped to pick up the whole Scheer   
   family in Regina.   
      
   Scheer defended the move as requiring less travel than if he had   
   to fly back and forth every time the House of Commons sits, and   
   his spokesperson said the family will now be based in Ottawa   
   until June.   
      
   https://globalnews.ca/news/6815936/coronavirus-justin-trudeau-   
   andrew-scheer-easter-travel/   
       
      
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