A Sunshine Coast family stuck in Ecuador was scheduled to catch a flight back to Canada on Wednesday, March 25, a little over a week after friends here launched an online petition calling for “immediate government and embassy assistance” for them and other Canadians having problems getting back from abroad.
Jenny Groves, Simon Hocking and their children, Finley and Sabine, were visiting the Galapagos Islands when the country started restricting travel.
The petition had garnered nearly 6,000 signatures by March 24.
In an email to Coast Reporter, Simon Hocking said the family was able to get off the Galapagos Islands on March 22 after the Ecuadoran government gave special permission for a flight and were in Quito, the country’s capital.
Hocking said because the country remained under a lockdown they weren’t able to get groceries and were “living off of snacks we brought and the overpriced hotel restaurant.” He also said they’re still working on arrangements to get from Toronto, where the repatriation flight will be landing, back to the Coast.
An update from the family posted on the petition home page said, “Thanks heaps to all of you who have cared and wondered and checked in and gone above and beyond to help us during this complicated time. Hope you are all keeping healthy, safe, happy and together – from a distance. We look forward to not being able to see you, but knowing you are so much closer.”
Laura Piersol, a friend who’d been keeping in regular contact with the family during their trip and had permission to discuss their situation with Coast Reporter, said they’re very responsible travellers who had planned the trip well in advance and left in late December, long before travel restrictions were starting to be put in place around the world.
Piersol said via email that she raised the Hocking-Groves family’s situation with West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country MP Patrick Weiler’s office.
The Hocking-Groves family’s case is one of the more extreme examples, but there have been other travellers with Coast connections facing difficulties getting back to Canada.
Federal aid for people with local connections caught abroad was one of the issues raised during a March 19 video conference with Weiler arranged by the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce.
Weiler said the government’s advice to Canadians abroad to return home as soon as possible created a “huge crunch for people to get out of [foreign] countries.”
Weiler said he had spoken to a number of constituents caught up in Morocco’s border shutdown.
“There’s negotiations happening between the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other countries about how we’re going to be able to facilitate this,” Weiler said, noting Morocco, Peru and Panama are among the countries where it’s been particularly difficult to get out.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced March 20 that a flight had been arranged for the Canadians in Morocco, and similar relief for Canadians in Peru, Ecuador and other countries was announced in the following days, but the trips were standard commercial flights and travellers were be expected to pay the fare.
The government is offering loans of up to $5,000 to help Canadians trying to get home cover travel costs.
“It’s a huge challenge to get people home. In Peru alone there are about 3,000 Canadians who are stuck there and there’s no international flights,” Weiler said. “We’re working closely with WestJet, with Air Canada and with other providers to get people home.”
Weiler said the government is keeping in touch with Canadians abroad who’ve registered with Canadian embassies and consulates.
“We’re not going to shut down our border to Canadians, but when other countries shut down their borders it makes it very difficult for us.”
Weiler encouraged anyone who knows of local residents stuck abroad, or has family in that situation, to contact his office. “We have a direct line with consular services and we can usually get an update on where things are at and share the information… I’ll do everything I can to help get them home.”
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons also told Coast Reporter that his office has been contacted about similar situations. “A lot of people are concerned right now about Coasters who are trapped on [cruise] ships and trapped in faraway places,” Simons said, adding that the situations that have come to his office’s attention include a pair of seniors aboard one of the cruise ships currently being denied access to a port.
Canadians abroad who need help to return can contact the Global Affairs Canada 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre at 613-996-8885 or by email at [email protected]
