When Merton LaBounty of Bowmansville put Tammy Yonkers of Fort Erie on a flight home after she visited him in August, he promised not to shave or cut his hair "until I kissed her again," he said.
The results of their pandemic-mandated separation are visible, flowing from under LaBounty's mask and ball cap. A construction engineer who opened a business here after moving from Lake George in 2019 to be closer to Yonkers, he'd like to be more clean cut. But most of all, he'd like to be able to see her again. Both of them have been vaccinated, he said.
LaBounty was one of nine people who stood in Sole Park near the foot of the Peace Bridge on Sunday, holding signs and flags. The protest, organized by a group called Families are Essential, was planned to raise awareness of the separation of loved ones caused by Covid-19 cross-border restrictions.
The group wants people on both the Canadian and American sides who have loved ones on the other side to be able to cross the border, the same as essential workers.
"Our goal is to make families essential like essential workers, or at least the restrictions being a little bit easier on us," said Families are Essential organizer Sandy Pearce.
Despite the Province of Ontario's emergency stay-at-home order issued Thursday due to a spike in cases, Pearce said some 80 people gathered at the Mather Arch near the Peace Bridge to protest family separations.
An American citizen who has lived in Fort Erie for 42 years, Pearce is worried about the health and well-being of her mother and stepfather in Hamburg and her father in Blasdell, all age 90 and above."My mother needs my help, my father needs my help," she said, which she was frequently able to provide with pre-pandemic trips across the border.
She can still cross into the United States to see them, Pearce said, because "they cannot deny me entry into my country. Coming back is when there is a problem."
Upon her return to Canada, she is required to have a government-monitored 14-day quarantine, and three Covid-19 tests – before crossing, at crossing and 10 days later.
"Not everybody can go through these quarantines or have all these tests," she said.
Canadian citizens are able to cross into the United States by land or bridge "only if they have an essential job," she said, not for family visits.
The restrictions on land and bridge travel have changed a few times since the border was closed to non-essential travel on March 21, 2020, but there are no exceptions for people who have been vaccinated.
The only exemptions are for people deemed essential workers, those who maintain the flow of essential goods, people who are entering Canada for medical care unrelated to Covid-19, those who regularly cross the border to work or people who live in an integrated trans-border community.
"This group is not saying to open the borders to everybody," said Deborah Williams, a member of the group who was helping out with public relations. "But they make no allowance for people who are fully vaccinated." She said, "Truck drivers, medical workers and students are crossing the border every single day and they aren't quarantined or tested."
Last week's tightened restrictions prohibit people in Ontario from leaving their homes except for food, medicine, medical appointments, work that cannot be done remotely, school or outdoor exercise.
A few days before the stay-at-home order, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its warning that "even fully vaccinated travelers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants and should avoid all travel to Canada."
Phillip Ebbole of Niagara Falls and Joanne Ferns of St. Catharines, who have been a couple for about 18 months, occasionally stand at each end of the 1,079-foot-long Whirlpool Rapids Bridge and wave to each other while talking on the phone. "Both of us want to be together," said Ebbole.
Because air travel has never been restricted the way bridge and land crossings have been, several people had managed to see their loved ones when they flew into the United States.
Suzanne Weingarten of Buffalo last saw her boyfriend, Oliver Collins of Port Colborne, in August, when he drove to Toronto, took a flight to Chicago, and waited four hours for a connecting flight to Buffalo. What would have been a half-hour trip by car ended up taking seven hours, she said.
Sisters Sheila Wartinger of Buffalo and Christina MacDonald of Ontario both hold dual Canadian-U.S. citizenship.
"When Tina comes to see me, they let her right through," Wartinger said. "Getting back to Canada, she's full of anxiety. She can quarantine, because she works from home. But it's our birthright to cross both borders."

Geniuses they are.
Families are essential - what a great insight!