As of August 12, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada had 26,111 protected-person permanent residence applications it was not finalizing because the applicant listed Uganda as country of residence. On July 28, Uganda’s Ministry of Health had declared the Ebola outbreak in that country over.
Those files are part of 31,693 permanent residence applications frozen under an order the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration extended in the Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 36, published September 5. The freeze runs to September 28. It is one of three Ebola instruments in that issue. A foreign national who has been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last 21 days cannot board a flight to Canada. Anyone who has been in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan in that window faces a health assessment on arrival and, unless exempt, 21 days of quarantine.
The World Health Organization had, by August 17, reported 5,105 confirmed cases and 2,420 deaths. The Public Health Agency of Canada’s explanatory note assessed the overall risk to the Canadian population as low.
No Approved Vaccine, and a 21-Day Incubation
The virus is Bundibugyo. The Quarantine Act order’s explanatory note says there are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments for it. Early symptoms are non-specific. The incubation period runs up to 21 days. That period is written into every instrument in the Gazette.
The WHO declared the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a public health emergency of international concern on May 17, 2026. Two federal notes in this issue describe the same event in different language. The immigration note, using figures as of August 12, calls it the largest Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo virus ever reported in the DRC, and says it is expanding more rapidly than any previous Ebola event. It puts the DRC at 4,665 confirmed cases and 2,184 deaths, Uganda at 20 confirmed cases and 2 deaths plus one probable case and one probable death, and records one imported case in France and two in Germany. The quarantine note, using WHO figures five days later, calls it the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, with 5,105 confirmed cases and 2,420 deaths, and says transmission in certain affected areas is still outpacing containment.
The immigration note traces the geography. The outbreak began in the Mongbwalu health zone in Ituri Province. Over the last two months, the note says, it had expanded to six provinces (Ituri, North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uélé, Tshopo, and Bas-Uélé) and 54 health zones. The quarantine note lists insecurity, population mobility, limited healthcare capacity, and community mistrust among the factors that continue to pose challenges for case detection and outbreak control.
Uganda’s Ministry of Health declared the outbreak in that country over on July 28, after 42 days without a new confirmed locally transmitted case. The last confirmed case there had been discharged on June 16. The WHO, in a Disease Outbreak News update dated August 1, kept its risk assessment at “high” in Uganda because of cross-border spread and epidemiological links with eastern DRC, and “high” in neighbouring countries. South Sudan had reported no confirmed cases. Ten suspected cases had tested negative. The WHO Regional Office still assessed the risk of cross-border transmission as imminent. All three countries remain inside Canada’s orders.
Three Signatures, One Clock
The Governor in Council made the Minimizing the Risk of Exposure to Ebola Disease in Canada Order, 2026, No. 2 on August 28 as P.C. 2026-779, on the recommendation of the Minister of Health, under section 58 of the Quarantine Act. It took effect at 00:00 Eastern Daylight Time on August 30. It succeeds P.C. 2026-0522, as amended by P.C. 2026-0711, which came into force on May 30 and July 20.
Section 3 of the order prohibits a foreign national from entering Canada if they have been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the 21 days before the day they intend to enter. Canadian citizens, permanent residents, and persons registered under the Indian Act may still enter. Travellers who have been in Uganda, South Sudan, or any other country the Minister of Health has assessed as high or very high risk may also enter. On arrival, a person who has been in any of those countries in the previous 21 days must disclose that travel history to a screening officer or quarantine officer and undergo a health assessment.
If the officer finds them asymptomatic, they must produce a suitable quarantine plan: a civic address, contact information, a place where they can avoid contact with anyone they did not travel with, where no one else is present unless that person already lives there, and where they can get the necessities of life without leaving. They travel there without delay. They stay until the end of the 21-day period that begins on the day they enter Canada. They report arrival within 48 hours. They monitor themselves for fever, chills, a sore throat, joint or muscle pain, a rash, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or bleeding. If they cannot produce a plan, they go to a quarantine facility.
If the officer finds them symptomatic, or if symptoms appear later, they isolate at a medical facility, or at another place the officer judges suitable, until 21 days have run from entry or from the first appearance of symptoms, whichever is later, and until the officer determines they no longer present a public health risk. They are not to take public transportation, including an aircraft, bus, train, subway, taxi, or ride-sharing service, to get to a medical examination.
Crew members, certain diplomats, visiting forces, Canadian Forces members entering on duty, and people entering to provide medical care are exempt from the full quarantine rules. They still have to watch themselves for 21 days and report symptoms. Two classes of person, medical personnel and anyone the Minister decides is in the national interest, need a letter from the Public Health Agency of Canada before they move. They present it to the air carrier before boarding, and to a screening officer or quarantine officer on request.
Deputy Minister of Transport Michael Vandergrift signed the matching aviation instrument on August 21: the Interim Order to Prevent Certain Persons from Boarding Flights to Canada Due to Ebola Disease, No. 2, under the Aeronautics Act. It comes into force on the day the quarantine order does. Private operators and air carriers must not let a foreign national who has been in the DRC board a flight to Canada unless that person has been outside the DRC for 21 consecutive days immediately before the flight. The foreign national is under the same prohibition. The exception is a person permitted to enter under the quarantine order. An individual who defies either boarding rule faces a maximum penalty of $150,000. A corporation faces $1,500,000.
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Lena Metlege Diab signed the third piece on August 23. It comes into force at 22:00 Eastern Daylight Time on August 28. It does not wait for the airport. The Order Amending the Minimizing the Risk of Exposure to Ebola Disease in Canada Order (Immigration Applications and Documents) extends the original May 27 freeze to 23:59:59 Eastern Daylight Time on September 28. It applies to foreign nationals outside Canada whose country of residence, as stated on their application, is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, or Uganda. Finalizing of applications for permanent resident visas, temporary resident visas, electronic travel authorizations, work permits, study permits, and temporary resident permits is suspended. Documents already issued in those classes are suspended. Airlines receive a “no board” message through existing systems between airlines and the Canada Border Services Agency.
The Minister may exempt a person after weighing public health risk, mitigation measures, whether the person is in urgent need of protection, or other humanitarian and compassionate considerations. An exemption under one order does not confer an exemption under the others. Canadian citizens, permanent residents, persons registered under the Indian Act, citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States, and accredited foreign representatives are outside this freeze. So are people already in Canada who are applying to extend a work or study permit.
31,693 Applications, and 24,949 Documents Already Issued
The immigration note publishes three tables, all extracted as of August 12, from applicants who identified their country of residence as the DRC, South Sudan, or Uganda, irrespective of citizenship. The numbers, the note says, may fluctuate as documents expire, clients arrive, or applications are finalized.
Table 1 counts documents already issued and now suspended. Permanent resident documents: 1,534. Temporary resident documents: 23,415. Combined: 24,949. Visitors make up most of that stock, 20,028 of the temporary resident documents. Students account for 2,983. Among permanent resident documents already in hand, the protected persons class accounts for 1,197. The table note defines that class as including protected persons landed in Canada, dependants abroad, and resettled refugees.
Table 2 is the larger freeze. It counts permanent residence applications, for people who have not yet arrived, in prospective, processing, and landing inventory. Total: 31,693. The protected persons class is 27,787 of them. Uganda alone is 28,708 applications, of which 26,111 are protected persons. The DRC is 2,278. South Sudan is 707. Family class is 2,977. Economic class is 578.
Table 3 counts temporary resident applications not yet arrived: 10,465. Visitors, including temporary resident visa and electronic travel authorization applications, are 9,286. Students are 1,037. Workers are 94. Temporary resident permits are 48. The DRC accounts for 8,032 of those temporary resident applications. Uganda accounts for 2,375.
Once the order expires or is repealed, the note says, finalizing of applications will resume, and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will undertake efforts to expedite processing. Until then the files sit.
The quarantine note states the government’s reason for the entry prohibition. Foreign nationals without a right of entry who have been in the DRC in the preceding 21 days are kept out so they do not add to the number of potentially exposed people who may require public health resources in Canada. People with a right of entry are managed through the domestic public health system. The same note says it is beneficial for Canada to remain aligned with the United States and Mexico, and records a further reason: recent changes to U.S. measures, and “the resulting significant risk that additional foreign nationals who have been in the DRC may attempt to travel to Canada as a route to the United States.”
The immigration note describes the freeze as an upstream control. Public health measures, it says, are most effective at multiple points rather than at a single airport prohibition that depends on rapid assessment in a high-traffic environment. Through control of immigration documents, the note says, the government can prevent travel before a person reaches the aircraft.
Failure to comply with the quarantine order is an offence under the Quarantine Act. Maximum penalties are a fine of up to $1,000,000, imprisonment for three years, or both.
Until 23:59:59 on September 28
The quarantine order has effect until 23:59:59 Eastern Daylight Time on September 28, 2026. For a person who enters Canada between 00:00 on September 8 and the end of September 28, it continues until 23:59:59 on October 19.
The aviation interim order ceases at the same September 28 minute. The immigration freeze ends at the same minute. The Minister of Citizenship and Immigration may repeal the immigration order, extend it again, add or remove documents, or except certain foreign nationals. The Minister of Health may, at any time, assess or reassess the risk in a foreign country and add a country or take one off the list.
The immigration note records the operational layer behind the legal one. Additional quarantine officers and screening officers are deployed at Montréal-Trudeau and Toronto Pearson. Existing screening is maintained at Calgary, Vancouver, and Ottawa. Signage and handouts on Ebola symptoms are in place at Montréal, Toronto Pearson, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Ottawa. Enhanced questions were added to Primary Inspection Kiosks for travellers who had been in the DRC, Uganda, or South Sudan within 21 days. The Public Health Agency of Canada is running a 24-7 Central Notification System.
The Gazette issue that carries all of this is dated September 5. By then the boarding ban and the quarantine rules had already been in force for six days. The files from Uganda had been under the freeze since May 27.
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Source Documents
King’s Printer for Canada. (2026, September 5). Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 36. Ottawa: Government of Canada. https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2026/2026-09-05/pdf/g1-16036.pdf
Department of Transport. (2026, August 21). Interim Order to Prevent Certain Persons from Boarding Flights to Canada Due to Ebola Disease, No. 2. Signed by Michael Vandergrift, Deputy Minister of Transport. In Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 36.
Public Health Agency of Canada. (2026, August 28). Minimizing the Risk of Exposure to Ebola Disease in Canada Order, 2026, No. 2 (P.C. 2026-779). In Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 36.
Department of Citizenship and Immigration. (2026, August 23). Order Amending the Minimizing the Risk of Exposure to Ebola Disease in Canada Order (Immigration Applications and Documents). Signed by Lena Metlege Diab. In Canada Gazette, Part I, Vol. 160, No. 36.
at 5,105 confirmed cases, and 2,420 deaths, that is Black Death (Bubonic Plague) levels of mortality and no vaccine or specific treatment, no wonder there is a quarantine order in place. I wonder how libertarians would have handled it? Just let them come in, it will sort itself out?