• Black Nova Scotia
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Environment
  • Health
    • COVID
  • Investigation
  • Journalism
  • Labour
  • Policing
  • Politics
    • City Hall
    • Elections
    • Province House
  • Profiles
  • Transit
  • Women
  • Morning File
  • Commentary
  • PRICED OUT
  • @Tim_Bousquet
  • Log In

Halifax Examiner

An independent, adversarial news site in Halifax, NS

  • Home
  • About
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Commenting policy
  • Archives
  • Contact us
  • Subscribe
    • Gift Subscriptions
  • Donate
  • Swag
  • Receipts
  • Manage your account: update card / change level / cancel
You are here: Home / Featured / Strang backpedals on self-isolation exemption for Irving execs

Strang backpedals on self-isolation exemption for Irving execs

3 Irving Shipyard execs travelled to the US and returned, but were exempted from 14-day self-isolation requirement

July 8, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 4 Comments

Irving Shipyard. Photo: Halifax Examiner

The Halifax Examiner is providing all COVID-19 coverage for free.

The Irving Shipyard executives, including president Kevin McCoy, travelled to the United States on company business and returned to Canada, but were exempted from the 14-day self-isolation requirement, Irving spokesperson Tom Hormsby confirmed this morning in response to a question from the Halifax Examiner.

The company issued a statement:

“There are occasions throughout the year when senior management must travel internationally for key in-person activities in support of the National Combat Shipbuilding program, which has been designated as an essential service during the current pandemic. Three members of management recently travelled to the United States to engage with key contractors. Before finalizing their travel, they sought and received permission in advance from both public health and safety authorities within the federal and provincial governments, who provided written approvals with instructions regarding the rules for their travel and upon re-entry to Canada. The rules included the mandatory requirement of obtaining a PCR test for Covid-19 on the day of their return and to self-isolate until the results of the tests were confirmed negative. The individuals have all been tested. One is at home in self-isolation waiting for their results, while the other two results came back negative. In addition, to limit potential exposure, the individuals travelled by private aircraft and did not fly commercially. They also went straight from the airport directly to their homes to self-isolate. Like all employees, upon their eventual return to the shipyard, they will still be required to have daily temperature screenings and to declare daily if there any changes in their health. As an extra precaution due physical distancing and the limited number of people allowed to participate in the upcoming final Sea Trials for the future HMCS Harry DeWolf none of these individuals will participate in the Sea Trials.”

Public Health Ontario notes that “given an incubation period of up to 14 days for COVID-19 disease after exposure, a negative PCR test result in an asymptomatic person should not be used to rule out disease.”

This morning, I asked the Department of Health about the exemption, and while I waited for a response, I started tweeting about what I had learned. The reaction was overwhelming: people were angry that the exemption was granted to highly connected Irving execs, an exemption that would probably not be given to the average person.

This afternoon, I finally got a response to my request for comment from the Department of Health. It came as an announcement from Dr. Robert Strang, the province’s chief medical officer of health:

There have been a number of questions and concerns about an exception granted by Public Health to Irving Shipbuilding for travel to the U.S. I did give an exception in June with very tight restrictions, but now after concerns have been raised, I have revoked that exception and made clear there will be no further company travel to or from the U. S. I have also ordered the individuals be sent home to isolate for 14 days and asked for assurances that COVID testing has been completed.

Strang and Premier Stephen McNeil have announced a COVID-19 briefing for tomorrow at noon. I’ll be on the call.


The Halifax Examiner is an advertising-free, subscriber-supported news site. Your subscription makes this work possible; please subscribe.

Some people have asked that we additionally allow for one-time donations from readers, so we’ve created that opportunity, via the PayPal button below. We also accept e-transfers, cheques, and donations with your credit card; please contact iris “at” halifaxexaminer “dot” ca for details.

Thank you!




Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: coronavirus, COVID-19, Dr. Robert Strang, Irving Shipyard, Kevin McCoy, National Combat Shipbuilding program, pandemic, self-isolation, Tom Hormsby

About Tim Bousquet

Tim Bousquet is the editor and publisher of the Halifax Examiner. email: [email protected]; Twitter

Comments

  1. Brooks Kind says

    July 8, 2020 at 6:24 pm

    Well done, Tim. I bet if you tweeted about this earlier exchange you had with Strang he’d soon be forced to backpedal again, namely the one where he mentioned ‘the “thousands” of travellers coming from the US’ and that ‘the epidemiology shows little increased risk to other people on an airplane when flying with someone who has COVID-19’. The idea that being in small confined space with poor air circulation, sharing bathroom facilities and/or sitting elbow to elbow with someone with Covid-19 for multiple hours poses “little increased risk” is insane, especially when compared with the risk of getting the virus on a plane without any infected people (which is zero). These guys seem to be making it up on the fly.

    Log in to Reply
    • Colin May says

      July 8, 2020 at 10:44 pm

      Cruise ships have great air circulation and that is why they are breeding grounds for rapid transmission of COVID-19.

      Log in to Reply
      • Brooks Kind says

        July 9, 2020 at 6:41 am

        In any case, enforced physical proximity in a small enclosed space over many hours along with shared facilities is surely an environment favouring virus transmission. I would be curious to see the studies that conclude that such conditions present “little increased risk” as Strang claims.

        Log in to Reply
  2. nancyg says

    July 9, 2020 at 4:28 pm

    Two Tier Pandemic to match Canada’s Two Tier Healthcare system. Those Irving execs no doubt know how to get special consideration in the healthcare system along with all the other Influencers in Canada.

    As far as airports, what about private flights? For instance to “Fox Harbour Airport (TC LID: CFH4) is a privately owned airport located 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) north of Fox Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada on the shore of Northumberland Strait.. It was built as part of the Fox Harb’r Resort, owned by Ron Joyce.” Wikipedia. Or those exclusive golf resorts in Cape Breton?

    What about air freight flights into Halifax? Are those crews monitored?

    And why not user pay for all this? If you want to fly, let the passengers or airlines pay for all the necessary monitoring. This should not be a financial burden to NS.

    Hopefully, whistleblowers on both the Two Tier Pandemic and the queue-jumping and influence peddling in the regular healthcare system will come forth with information.

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Two young white women, one with dark hair and one blonde, smile at the camera on a sunny spring day.

Episode 79 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Grace McNutt and Linnea Swinimer are the Minute Women, two Haligonians who host a podcast of the same name about Canadian history as seen through a lens of Heritage Minutes (minutewomenpodcast.ca). In a lively celebration of the show’s second birthday, they stop by to reveal how curling brought them together in podcast — and now BFF — form, their favourite Minutes, that time they thought Jean Chretien was dead, and the impact their show has had. Plus music from brand-new ECMA winners Hillsburn and Zamani.

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

Sign up for email notification

Sign up to receive email notification when we publish new Morning Files and Weekend Files. Note: signing up for this email is NOT the same as subscribing to the Halifax Examiner. To subscribe, click here.

Recent posts

  • RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather is being investigated concerning decision to not alert the public about the mass murderer’s fake police car May 17, 2022
  • City camping: Toronto teaches Halifax another lesson about tents, parks, and homelessness May 17, 2022
  • Halifax police board moving slowly on defunding report recommendations May 16, 2022
  • There’s no meaning in mass murder May 16, 2022
  • Tech issues bedevilled the RCMP response to the mass murders of 2020 May 16, 2022

Commenting policy

All comments on the Halifax Examiner are subject to our commenting policy. You can view our commenting policy here.

Copyright © 2022