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I have already written my MP expressing my concerns over the reported request from Major League Baseball and the Toronto Blue Jays to the federal government to grant a quarantine exemption to players and club officials entering Canada.
With cases decreasing in Ontario but either held steady or increasing in many parts of the United States, it is not wise to waive this condition for a baseball team whose schedule will have them travel to the United States multiple times this summer.
On top of that, the Blue Jays will host nine teams based in the United States, all with at least 50 players and officials who will need to cross the border and stay multiple days in Toronto. All this to play in the Rogers Centre which will be empty of fans.
The isolation protocols that would be required to keep both Blue Jays and visiting baseball personnel from interacting with the general public in Toronto and spreading potential disease to Toronto-based workers
would have to be so strict (ie. not leaving the Rogers Centre / Marriott Hotel) that I cannot see how it can be practically enforced.
I understand the advantages to allow the Blue Jays to play at their true home stadium in 2020 and the risk to the team should they attempt to train and play in Dunedin, Florida.
However, why should Torontonians—and Canadians more broadly—take the risk that comes with allowing hundreds of people to cross the border without proper quarantine for a decidedly inessential cause?
