Canada Polyam Action Call Right Now: Allow our partners under the new cross-border travel rules

Canada is about to allow relationship partners to visit from the US, but only if the relationship is "exclusive." We have two days to change "exclusive" to "committed."

A still from a CTV News report on Canada's travel restrictions being eased to accommodate partners from the US.

The following action notice is going around Canadian poly groups and was posted to the Polyamory Leadership Network list this morning:

This is an action alert to folks in Canada. Please share in your groups.

Over the weekend, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship announced that starting this Thursday, October 8, they will begin allowing long-term partners of Canadian residents to visit the country, provided they complete the standard 14-day quarantine.

This is great news, except for one word: "exclusive." Eligible relationships will be any "exclusive dating relationship of at least one year." Applicants will be required to sign a notarized declaration of their relationship status. This wording excludes all polyamorous people, regardless of the length or seriousness of our relationships.

The formal rules and application forms are set to be released on Thursday, so we have a very narrow window to exert influence on this decision. We can call our MPs and educate them about the ways this one word will impact us, and ask them to lobby the ministry to change it. The single change we are suggesting is for "exclusive" to become "committed." 

You can find and contact your MP here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en

This isn't a situation where we need to flood the lines with indiscriminate calls and emails. This is a situation where we need people to have personal, targeted calls with their MPs and their MPs' staff about the validity of our relationships, the way this rule will affect us and those we care about, and the importance of making this change. We need to talk to members of all the parties (or at least, the three major left-leaning ones—Liberal, NDP and Green). Their staff are usually very receptive to constituent concerns. Ask for them to follow up with you in writing.

Here is a public (shareable) Facebook post from a married polyamorous woman with a long-term partner in the USA who she hasn't seen since February: https://www.facebook.com/ashley.speed.18/posts/10164101869375459

Here's Carrie Jenkins' tweet about the situation: https://twitter.com/carriejenkins/status/1312474710001684480

Thanks for your help!

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