Hogan is free to argue that Alberta becoming an independent country could have implications for mobility, citizenship, or employment. What is beyond dispute is that the federal Liberal government already implemented nationwide policies that restricted domestic and international travel based on vaccination status.
Liberal MP Corey Hogan told the Toronto Star that Alberta's independence movement would affect Canadians "in a fundamental sense to travel, to work, to enjoy the entire country that they are citizens of."
It's a striking argument coming from a member of the Liberal government that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, imposed travel restrictions based on vaccination status.
Beginning in late 2021, the federal government required most travellers aged 12 and older to be vaccinated to board commercial flights departing from Canadian airports, travel on interprovincial passenger trains, or board federally regulated marine vessels.
Canadians who were unvaccinated were, with limited exceptions, unable to use those forms of transportation within Canada or to leave the country by air. The policy remained in place until it was suspended in June 2022.
The federal government also required vaccination for many federally regulated public servants and workers in sectors such as air and rail transportation, policies that affected thousands of Canadians' employment.
Whether those measures were justified as a public health response remains a matter of political debate. But they were real restrictions imposed by the federal government on Canadians' ability to travel and, in some cases, to work.
By contrast, Alberta's independence movement is currently advocating for a referendum on whether the province should pursue sovereignty. That's it.
Hogan is free to argue that Alberta becoming an independent country could have implications for mobility, citizenship, or employment. Those are legitimate questions that would have to be addressed in any future negotiations.
What is beyond dispute is that the federal Liberal government, of which Hogan is a member, already implemented nationwide policies that restricted domestic and international travel based on vaccination status.
For Canadians who remember those mandates, warnings about hypothetical future limits on freedom of movement may ring hollow coming from the same political party that imposed real ones.
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