By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
What happened to the Wellman family of Port Hope when their daughter Mackenzie flew from Germany to visit was poor payback for doing the right thing.
Lisa Wellman made sure her daughter had the requisite quarantine-hotel booking. The $640 bill was bad enough, she said in a recent interview. But the total lack of security and attention to Mackenzie’s food sensitivities added insult to injury. She wants her money back, but she can’t even get anyone to pay attention.
And as a final kick in the pants, the hotel stay may not even have been necessary.
Though a resident of Germany, 24-year-old Mackenzie is a Canadian citizen. For that reason (and the fact that she is fully vaccinated), the family had wondered if she might be exempt. Unable to get any answer from the Ministry of Health when they asked, they decided not to risk complicating her situation.
Lisa made the hotel reservation at Towne Place Suites in Mississauga, and stressed the fact that Mackenzie has gluten and lactose sensitivities.
Mackenzie flew into Pearson May 23. Customs made sure she filled out the questionnaire and produced documentation from the negative COVID test she had before she boarded her flight from Germany. After she had another COVID test, collected her luggage and went to leave, the security guard asked her what hotel she was going to and directed her to the proper door to call a cab.
Knowing Mackenzie’s dietary challenges, Lisa went to the hotel with the care package she had prepared. She knew Mackenzie had a first-floor room and hoped she might manage a window visit.
First, though, she went to the desk to see about getting that care package delivered. They told her, “You can just go down the hall to her room.”
Lisa knew it wasn’t right, but could not resist the chance to see her daughter for the first time in almost two years. Along with the joy, however, she also felt outrage.
And that was just the beginning.
Even though Lisa had made clear Mackenzie’s dietary requirements – and even though Mackenzie reminded them when she checked in – it was as if they hadn’t bothered.
Mackenzie’s supper that night was butter chicken with wheat berry salad. Mackenzie was jet-lagged and tired out, and thought it was rice.
There was yogurt with breakfast next morning, but fortunately the care package contained breakfast foods.
Lunch was chicken salad. Mackenzie called the desk to complain, and they said to call out and order something – they would reimburse her.
Supper just didn’t appear. She called the desk at 8 p.m. and they said they didn’t have anything for her. The person on duty felt so bad, she gave Mackenzie the Lean Cuisine dinner she’d brought from home for her own meal – which, unfortunately, had dairy in it.
Lisa couldn’t stand it any longer, and told Mackenzie they were going to leave – and fortunately, Mackenzie’s test came back at 4 a.m., so that was okay.
The next step is a quarantine. Mackenzie is doing this time in her parents’ home, and her mother is quarantining with her. Her father moved out to stay with friends, so he can continue to work.
“I feel like I got scammed from the Federal government – $640!” Lisa said.
“The government has put this big show on – if you come to Canada, international travellers have to do this or it’s a $3,000 fine or six months in jail. All you have to do is book the hotel, get the confirmation number, cancel it and send in the confirmation number – that’s all you need.
“There’s no security at the hotel – I got to go see her. I feel like we got scammed.”
She took her grievance right to the top, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office said it was a matter for Minister of Health Patty Hajdu. No answer has been forthcoming from that office.
She contacted the leaders of the Conservatives and NDP – Erin O’Toole and Jagmeet Singh – but again, no answer.
“No one seems to care. Are they all just sweeping it under the carpet? I contacted Global News, CTV, the Toronto Sun. Why doesn’t anyone want to hear this story? This is ridiculous. The Federal government is standing in front of all these media people, lying to everybody,” Lisa said.
“We got scammed because we tried to follow the rules. I’m not working – I want my money back.”
Lisa did get an answer from Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini, who contacted MP Philip Lawrence on her behalf – and there’s been no answer from Lawrence’s office.
Mackenzie’s food was part of the hotel bill, but all they gave her (that she could eat) were some apples and oranges. Her mother’s care package of gluten-free foods and lactose-free milk got her through, along with the lunch she ordered in from Skip The Dishes.
And if not for her mother, she could not even have had that lunch. She was without credit cards or even Canadian currency (which should not have been necessary, since the hotel was supposed to feed her).
“What if I didn’t have any family here?” Mackenzie said.
“I think the government should do better.”
As for the hotel, “why bother asking if someone has dietary restrictions if you are not going to follow through. If my mother hadn’t brought me a care package, I wouldn’t have had eaten anything for two days.”
Even though things went so wrong, Mackenzie believes strongly in doing the right thing in these COVID times. If everyone had done so from the start, she said, these kinds of restrictions would be unnecessary by now.
This has been as much of a problem in Germany as it has in Canada, she said. They went into lockdown in October, and her trip to Canada came at a time when restrictions were just lifting – more than half a year shut down, she said, because of the kind of people who go to anti-lockdown and anti-mask demonstrations.
“We live on the border of Austria, and we couldn’t go there and go for a hike. If you got caught driving and didn’t have a reason, you would get in trouble. We had curfews – if you were seen out after 9 p.m. Without a dog, you got fined,” Mackenzie said.
It’s unfortunate she left those kinds of restrictions to land in Canada and get entangled in a whole new bunch of restrictions – poorly administered, at that. But at least she had her mother to get her through it all.
“In darkness, a bit of light,” she said.
