I don’t give a shit about Quebec’s « data transmission problems » or any of the other many dysfunctions our province suffers from. The fact that the last 24 hours « only » saw 37 deaths is not comforting, and neither is the fact that the other 165 deaths added to the day’s tally (for a total of 202) were actually « from previous days. » Gimme a fucking break. 4641 lives have been lost to the virus in Quebec since March (2919 in MTL), and we now have over 50,000 cases.

Our government continues to treat people like numbers, using every excuse available to devalue life, all the while spewing offensive lies about how *only* the elderly or *only* those with pre-exisiting health conditions can be negatively affected–as though their lives are a sacrifice we must choose to make, and as though people with said health problems are a minority, and as though there aren’t a shit ton of people with unknown risk factors at play, and as though young healthy people aren’t dying and/or getting very sick, and as though human beings have no business being humble, patient, and wise.

On Wednesday, South Korea reopened their schools, and just a day later, 79 new cases were recorded, the highest daily figure in two months (they sure haven’t seen Quebec, though, am I right?). In response, they’ve been forced to close 200 schools just days after reopening. As of a couple days ago here in Quebec, it was reported that 41 students and staff have been infected since schools outside MTL reopened (though they lack info from 12 school boards, which I can only imagine has to do with more of those pesky « data transmission problems »). Arruda’s response? It hasn’t caused any « significant negative impacts, » so they’re carrying on. In fact, the *numbers* (because what else is there?) look so good to Legault that they’re reopening hairdressers, nail salons, and other personal care businesses in MTL on June 15th. Also, in case you’re having trouble keeping up, tomorrow (Monday), we’re looking at the opening of daycares in MTL, shopping malls outside MTL, private health services like dentists, optometrists and physiotherapists, and hair/beauty salons outside MTL. Also included in these reopening plans are pet grooming services, courthouses, Quebec rental board hearings, recording studios, SAAQ service centres, campgrounds, etc. They even managed to convince Kanehsatake to take down their checkpoints and allow visitors to access Oka Park again, despite their very legitimate fears. Part of that agreement was that Montrealers not be allowed in just yet, and yet they’re gaining entry all the same. It seems SEPAQ didn’t record that little detail during their meeting. Ah well.

It’s almost as though our government doesn’t want us to think there’s any reason to take this seriously anymore (not that they ever did–if anything, we’ve had to spend energy convincing them to take it seriously). It’s almost as though people are tired now, and have decided to just follow their example. It’s almost like it doesn’t matter that the propaganda we keep getting mailed to our door about safety protocols is pure lip service. It’s almost as though they don’t expect us to even look at said propaganda and see that masks are still only recommended if you’re less than 2 meters from another person–even though masks are now « strongly recommended » for everyone, according to their press conferences. They surely don’t want us noticing CNESST’s recommendations for workers, which includes only wearing a mask if you break the 2 meters for 15+ minutes. It’s almost as though they want us to get tired enough of their shitty mixed messaging and incoherence to say, « fuck it all. » After all, this is the same government that took all of 3 weeks to get fed up enough with the idea of locking down during a global pandemic to start talking about reopening–May 4 was the first date they threw out there. That was the start of our rollercoaster of calendar dates, our roller coaster of death. I’m not being dramatic.

To state the obvious: the CAQ doesn’t care about people. As long as *not too many* of them die, the success of the economy is still worth their lives. This must be why the CAQ hired the McKinsey firm to the tune of $1.7 million to help with « implementing the methodology » of deconfinement. Fun fact: this is the same firm that helped Trump out with his illegal immigration policies around the time all those kids were torn from their parents and caged at the border. Despite insistence on the part of Quebec’s other parties that the CAQ be transparent about the advice given them by McKinsey, Legault has refused, while still insisting on the party’s transparency.

People I know who *were* taking precautions seriously–against all odds it seems (we’re a minority!), have kinda sorta stopped. They’re kinda sorta saying fuck it. And I get it. I really do. I wanna say fuck it, too. But I think the total arrogance of our ‘leadership’ combined with the advent of summer still aren’t good enough reasons *not* to learn from the mistakes and successes of other places: Sweden, for instance, recorded the highest number of deaths per capita in the world in the last 2 weeks and their approach, which Quebec set out to mimic, is widely considered a massive failure. Meanwhile, Vietnam has managed to keep its death toll at zero (!) by instituting a strict but meaningful lockdown early on, in spite of very limited testing resources. After 3 months they are now finally loosening and reopening and it’s been going well for weeks now. People there continue to wear masks in public, which are mandatory during this crisis in 50+ countries.

Although Quebec may seem racist, sexist, ageist, ableist, hostile to native people, asylum seekers and immigrants (except for those immigrants coming in to work for shit in CHSLDs), and protesters (even if peaceful), in actual fact, Quebec is a free country. We make our own destiny–we don’t need to learn from others (unless it’s going to help us get our economy back to 100%). Ça va bien aller.

Excuse my sarcasm. Really though: this second wave shit is real elsewhere, and it’ll be real here too. Probably before the fall. To me, it seems the first wave hasn’t even begun to subside, so I have to imagine that with everything reopening and people saying « fuck it, » it’s gonna get way worse than it was.

It’s hard to be here right now. But I think we need to keep taking precautions, keep up the 2 meter crap, whenever possible wear a mask to help protect others, and if you’re forced to work in unsafe conditions, speak up or join with others to cause a fuss. Times are getting more fucking real every day. Might as well seize each day, right, and act like it’s a life worth living?