A bunch of kids who are Canadian citizens have been barred from entering their country after an overseas trip because the ArriveCan app glitched. I’m stunned that nobody in Canada has even tried to question the new policy that bars citizens from entering their own country without an app.
I’m also stunned that the government of Canada has farmed off its border control functions to commercial airlines and nobody has a word of protest to say about this. The airline personnel doesn’t follow the complexities of Canada’s Byzantine and ever-changing border control policies. As a result, they err on the side of caution and demand COVID tests when the Canadian government doesn’t. This happened to me. An American Airlines worker – who is probably not a citizen of Canada – tried to refuse to let me, a citizen, board, because she creatively (and incorrectly) interpreted the Canadian border policies.
As usual, even more than the policy itself, it’s the bovine indifference of the citizens to this plunder that gets to me.
Clarissa's Blog 
What’s really weird is that the Canadian border policies are all readily available online. If I can look them up, surely the airlines can have someone look them up as well.
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They change constantly and different parts of the website say different things. I find it very hard to keep track, and I have a PhD in analyzing textual evidence.
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” change constantly and different parts of the website say different things”
Again, not to sound like a broken record but that seems very soviet… contradictory rules that are always up to interpretation and of course can always be interpreted so that you’re in the wrong with no recourse….
Western elites, IINM, had a weird admiration for soviet (and above all Chinese communist) ways of doing things so I guess it’s no wonder they’re implementing policies that reflect that.
Why peple go along with it is still a mystery….
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Maybe they admire the way top students traditionally apply for government jobs in China. As opposed to the US where Silicon Valley or Wall Street are more popular.
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” students traditionally apply for government jobs in China”
I’m thinking more of the Rockefeller who visited China in 1973 (technically still cultural revolution) and was delighted by the amount of social control exerted over the population….
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In order to exert control, you generally need to recruit the smartest or at least suppress them in some way.
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Absolutely. This is why we keep seeing the educated classes engage in what is effectively a job interview for the position of neoliberal enforcers.
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