(LifeSiteNews) — LifeSiteNews supporter Myles Dear outlined the emotional story of how “God’s hand” helped him to get an immediate vaccine exemption so he could fly across Canada to care for his mother with dementia after his father’s unexpected death.
Speaking with LifeSiteNews, Dear explained that his father was an exceptional man who had dedicated his life to the service of others, and in his later years, this primarily included caring for his wife, who has dementia.
On April 12, while Dear’s mother was in the hospital, Dear’s father went out to his car to retrieve something for his wife. At which point a nurse saw the man “vibrating, or thrashing, or struggling” and the nurse ran out to help him and attempt to rush him into the emergency room.
However, by the time the nurse had reached the man, he had already collapsed and his “heart had stopped.”
Due to his mother’s frail condition, Dear realized that he would need to get to British Columbia, where his parents are located, from Ontario as soon as possible to aid his mother.
Due to Dear’s religious beliefs as a faithful Roman Catholic, which he holds prevents him from disclosing his vaccine status, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s vaccine travel mandate, Dear was not able to board a plane to visit his sick mother, who had just lost her primary caregiver and husband.
Dear told LifeSiteNews that despite the mandate, he was able to get an “almost immediate” exemption, and felt it was important to share how “God and I” were able to successfully obtain the exemption.
“This was a ‘God thing’ that I participated in with some of the skills I had to get done what was necessary to get done,” Dear explained in a phone call with LifeSiteNews.
After hearing of his father’s death, Dear “immediately” made an “airline booking” with WestJet.
After arriving at the airport, Dear said he “told the people at the desk that there’s only four or five places I’m going to be at this point in time,” mentioning that he will either be on a plane, in the lab getting any test necessary, in a hotel waiting to board a plane, on a plane, or in British Columbia with his mother.
Dear told LifeSiteNews that he informed the airport staff politely that going back home was not an option.
While WestJet does allow for religious exemptions in particular circumstances, Dear was told there is a 21-day waiting period before WestJet makes a decision when someone applies for such exemption.
Dear stated that he applied for the exemption, and continued to “respectfully and politely” follow up with WestJet staff at the airport, online, and over the phone, informing them of the dire time constraint of his particular situation.
Dear, who told LifeSiteNews he has a history of being an “advocate” as he has a son who is “medically complex,” said he was able to remain patient and calm with all interactions he had, and merely encouraged each staff member he interacted with to simply “do what they can” to help push his case forward.
Dear outlined that at this time he was told his mother was “beginning to understand that her husband was gone, but didn’t really understand what that meant,” and he realized his presence was becoming ever more urgent.
“She was feeling extremely scared and extremely alone … I needed her to know that there was somebody there for her,” Dear said.
Dear spent two days around the airport, on the phone with various departments of the airline, just continually asking if there was any way to expedite the process.
Finally, Dear was able to have an employee allow him to make his case, and at “4:30 p.m. on Thursday [April 14]” he was told that the regulatory department was beginning to “process his request” and it was accepted shortly thereafter.
“I ended up flying out on Good Friday, and I made it, and I was able to see my mom,” Dear celebrated.
While media and government portray the travel vaccine mandate as the removal of a privilege, and not the transgression of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, due to Canada’s immense size – it can take upwards of four days to drive from Ottawa to British Columbia factoring in for necessary breaks – two prominent political figures have filed lawsuits against the federal government’s policy.
Notably, the last-living drafter of the Charter, former Newfoundland Premier Brian A. Peckford, with the aid of the Justice Centre of Constitutional Freedoms, has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of Canada alleging Trudeau’s mandate violates each Canadian’s “mobility rights” under Section 6.
“It is becoming more obvious that being vaccinated does not stop people from getting Covid and does not stop them from spreading it,” Peckford stated in his announcement of the suit in January. “The government has not shown that the policy makes flying safer — it simply discriminates.”
“The federal travel ban has segregated me from other Canadians. It’s discriminatory, violates my Charter rights, and that’s why I am fighting the travel ban.”