Officials Begin Turning Away Casual Travellers at US-Canada Border

The Peace Arch is pictured at the Canada/USA border in Surrey, B.C. on March 20, 2020. The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward

WASHINGTON—Canada’s shared border with the United States is now closed to casual, non-essential travel in a bilateral effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in North America.

A mutual ban on recreational and incidental travel in both directions, like vacations and cross-border shopping trips, went into effect across the country at midnight ET.