I didn't ask. I assume that they weren't aware of the 'essential travel' test.
I think that is probably why they got refused. The rules keep changing and people may have been more focused on getting on the flight and not realized that you need a essential reason to enter Canada. Canada doesn’t want people arriving to visit family during covid. Most insurance companies don’t cover covid anymore and the provinces don’t want to care for even more people in their hospitals especially extra seniors or any FNs.