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The only good thing Dean Nixon can say about his prison is that he has a view.
From the balcony of his small fourth-floor apartment, the Guelph, Ontario resident can see the open countryside. Able, at least, to imagine freedom, if not to experience it.
Nixon, a 46-year-old horse trainer and stage 4 cancer patient, lives in bureaucratic limbo, forced to self-isolate for the next year while in Canada due to the country’s COVID-19 quarantine restrictions.
As for border and health officials, Nixon poses a danger because he has to travel to the United States twice a month for life-saving treatment that is not available in Canada. And according to current regulations, she has to self-isolate in her apartment for 14 days each time she returns, resulting in a perpetual quarantine.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Nixon said last week, standing on the balcony with her dog, Jeanna, as she talked to a reporter on the sidewalk four floors below. “The only thing I’m guilty of is trying to save my life.
“We have people who regularly cross the border for work. We have American executives entering Canada who are allowed to circumnavigate mandatory quarantine. I’m trying to understand how a truck driver, or nurse, is less of a threat to the public health than I am. , when I am part of the population at risk “.
Nixon was first diagnosed with anal cancer in the spring of 2016, and by that fall, the disease metastasized, spreading to the liver. His doctors in Ontario could only offer more chemotherapy and weak hopes. So Nixon searched the Internet and found an experimental program for patients with human papillomavirus-related cancers run by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md.
Doctors enrolled him in a one-year trial of a new immunotherapy drug beginning in early 2017. Nixon’s cancer went into remission, but returned a few months after treatment ended. He returned to the drug for another year in early 2019, with equally promising results. But a follow-up scan last July discovered new tumors and began another round of treatments in early October, requiring 26 visits to the United States over the next year.
Exemption for treatment in Canada, but not for those going overseas
Nixon is usually out of the country for less than 48 hours. He wears a mask whenever he’s in public, keeps his distance, and washes his hands often. Stay at a Maryland Airbnb that caters to NIH patients, paying special attention to sanitizing its rooms. And on the hospital’s vast campus, COVID-19 precautions are even stricter, with mandatory screening, masks and gloves, and limited interaction with staff. Since the pandemic began in March, the NIH has recorded only one coronavirus transmission on its campus.
But none of this has impressed Canadian border agents or officials from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), who have so far refused to exempt Nixon from following the mandatory 14-day quarantine every time he returns home. His latest crossing and self-isolation order came on November 18.
Find the situation particularly irritating as people traveling to Canada for medical treatment do not need to isolate themselves. More than five million federal quarantine waivers have been granted since last March, mostly to essential workers such as truck drivers, nurses and technicians. But corporate titans are getting them too, as detailed in a series of recent CBC News investigations that uncovered discretionary business trips by top U.S. executives.
“There’s really no consideration for what my routine would be like, where I live, my situation …” Nixon said. “On a personal level, it means that I cannot visit friends, family, I cannot take my dog for a walk, I cannot be outdoors, I cannot exercise … It just lets me sit here and think about my illness. Which is not a great thing. “
Unable to work and facing financial ruin
The quarantine is also interfering with his livelihood, training racehorses with standard harnesses. The farm where his operation is based is only a seven-minute drive from his apartment, but he can’t visit since the beginning of October. Instead he tries to keep track of how horses run, eat, and behave via phone calls and text messages with his hired hand. He has already lost two clients and fears that others may follow.
“[The horses] do not talk. So the n ° 1 tool at our disposal is to be able to monitor animals. And if you can’t observe them, you can’t do your job, ”Nixon said.
For the past six weeks, Nixon has been trying to contact his local Liberal MP, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, and the Canadian Cancer Society for assistance. So far no one has been able to help. He also appealed to PHAC for a special exemption but was turned down.
In an email sent earlier this week, the federal health agency told Nixon that the quarantine exemptions “are intentionally limited to minimize the introduction and spread of COVID-19” and that it is unlikely to qualify.
“Unfortunately, there are no exemptions for travelers returning to Canada from receiving medical treatment in the United States,” the statement read.
CBC News contacted the Canada Border Services Agency and PHAC about the Nixon case, asking why medical exemptions flow in only one direction. The CBSA said it only applies the rules set by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the federal government. PHAC has yet to provide a comment or explanation.
No choice but to seek treatment in the United States
Julius Strauss, who oversees Nixon’s treatment at the NIH Clinical Center, says he is concerned about how his patient will cope with the effects of a year-long blockage.
“I’m worried about Mr. Nixon’s mental health, being stuck with this diagnosis and not having any ability to interact,” Strauss said.
“I understand the security precautions, but I also have concerns about his financial difficulties because he is unable to do his normal job.”
Immunotherapy is Nixon’s only viable choice, the doctor says.
“It’s crucial for him, this treatment,” Strauss said. “It’s not experimental for him. Because for him, we know it works.”
Nixon isn’t sure he’s the only one facing such a cross-border dilemma. There are no other Canadians currently being treated at the NIH. And no one has come forward in the patient support forums where he posts.
Nixon’s goal is to someday create a group to help more Canadians access foreign clinical trials. But first he has to find a way to address the pandemic and its restrictions.
“If I don’t go to the United States, I will not receive treatment and I will probably die. If I don’t go to work, I cannot afford to go to the United States and I will probably die,” he said.
His wishes are as simple as government regulations are complex.
“I just wish I could go to work, maybe take my dog for a walk, and that’s it. I don’t ask for much. What they ask, I think, is so much more.”
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