Apparently I find therapeutic value in taking huge, heaping piles of shit and boiling them down to their essential elements–pardon the image, but the CAQ’s behaviour is more than worthy of this crappy metaphor.

At today’s vomit conference, Legault commented plainly (for the very first time) that « the situation is *not* under control in Montreal, » that it’s scary, and that no one is more worried about Montreal than he is–a clear attempt to save/boost face in the wake of Trudeau having expressed ‘concern’ for Montrealers’ wellbeing.

Today the press pressed him more than usual on the insane INSPQ projections published without announcement or discussion of any kind on Friday at 4pm (the ones that predict Montreal will see 150 deaths a day by July if we reopen as planned–not taking into account CHSLDs).

They asked why it was published at such an inopportune time for discussion, pointing out that many Montrealers were then faced with an entire weekend of profound anxiety. Not to mention, schools outside the city happened to open the day following said weekend! They asked why no one had at least addressed the public over the weekend, as the study warranted something in the way of a comment. They asked if the CAQ had been aware of these projections before they were published. They asked and somewhat persisted.

What proceeded was a frankly outrageous display of damaged reputation control in which both Legault and Arruda floundered fantastically, even contradicting each other in obvious ways. Legault’s face looked like it might crinkle up and freeze that way, and Arruda looked as frazzled as a baby chick who has just been born–without the cuteness factor. Hard to imagine, maybe, but just telling it like I see it.

In their ‘efforts’ to answer and not look abhorrently evasive, Legault maintained that the INSPQ is an independent body and that they had no idea when the study would be released. The fact that it was released on a Friday afternoon was beyond their control. He also shrugged (in a dismissive fashion that can only have been rehearsed), insisting that the projections don’t hold anything new, that they simply affirm what he’s been saying all along: it’s in control outside of MTL, but not in MTL [I’ll just point out the patent untruth of this–they’ve been saying it’s stable in MTL outside of CHSLDs the whole time]. Talk about gaslighting–our government relies on their ability to make us question our own minds. And they’re horrible at it. When pressed, he went even further down the path of apparent righteousness by insisting that refusing to address the public about the study over the weekend (Le Devoir asked and he said no, btw) was « not negligent, » that he felt the 3 conferences a week were enough. He rolled his eyes somewhere in there.

Arruda, when pressed about the INSPQ study, said he’d known it would be published on Friday or Monday, but didn’t know the numbers would be « so explosive » (apparently forgetting that Legault had already said the numbers were just an affirmation of what they already knew). When pressed further about why he hadn’t addressed the public about the projections he knew were about to be published when he visited Montreal on Friday, he scrambled like an egg, repeating the same thing about not knowing it would be so explosive.

Somewhere in the middle of this bitter mess of a vomit conference, Legault gave himself a pat on the back, pointing out that the INSPQ study had confirmed that they’d made the right decision by delaying the reopening of MTL’s schools and businesses until May 25th. When asked why they didn’t just push pause on specific dates until things are more under control, his line was that it’s because « businesses need to prepare, » and that they’d simply continue pushing the date if need be. I guess it’s better to instill a chronic anxiety in us all, retraumatizing people with the uncertainty of reopening week after week than to fucken hit pause and simply give businesses notice once things become more stable. And here I thought they were champions of mental health.

When they were pressed on why the CAQ is already beginning to allow Montrealers to travel to other areas of Quebec, effectively allowing people from a major hot spot to spread the virus in areas with hardly any cases, Legault actually had the gall to say that if people kept their 2-meter distance it should be fine, and that he didn’t want Quebecers « divided. » « We’re all in this together, » he continued, « and we all have to roll up our sleeves. » If that’s not appalling reasoning for choosing not to protect a cold spot from a virus-ridden hot spot, I don’t know what is. He added that if too many Montrealers flooded other areas and the virus seemed to be spreading, they might reinstate restrictions then. Arruda effectively agreed that it’s not *yet* bad enough to confine MTL. Gotta get some of them tourist dollars, first, I’m sure.

When asked about *who* was affected by the roughly 200 new deaths that occurred over the weekend, Arruda, rifling madly through his papers, finally mumbled something about only half of those being in CHSLDs.

When asked about the possibility of Montrealers ending up back in full confinement for the summer due to premature reopening potentially causing a spike in deaths, Legault insisted, yet again, that no one is more worried about it than he is. And his eye twitched. I almost missed it!

The truth is, our illustrious premier would have much preferred to spend today’s conference waxing sentimental about a Covid-19 benefit show for Quebec, which apparently happened over the weekend, featuring such shining Quebec stars as Celine Dion, Jean-Pierre Ferland, Ginette Reno, and a wackload of others hailing from la belle province. I could almost have laughed at the faraway look of joy in Legault’s eyes as he listed off their names (he veered onto this topic toward the start of the conference). Swollen nationalistic pride: his true, skewed motive for so much. That’s why it gave me the shudders when he went on about how proud he is of Quebecers, like some big, gross wannabe daddy. Ew.

The icing on today’s shit cake was a renewed call for health workers who are absent, or who had the virus but who’ve completed their isolation, to return. For those who happened to catch wind of this, I believe it was last week that McCann said healthcare workers who had contracted the virus could (must?) still come back to work as long as their symptoms had stopped. To be clear, infected staff moving between locations (not all of them symptomatic) are a real contributor to the spread of the virus–and therefore the insane staffing shortage.

I’ve thus far heard no concrete anything on the increased testing and contact tracing efforts we supposedly need if we’re to gain any semblance of ‘control’ in the coming months. They keep saying it’s happening, it needs to happen, we’re working on making it happen, but no actual plans, explanations or details to be discerned. And nothing useful from our mayor either. Plante seems afraid of stepping on Legault’s (obviously gnarled) toes, and more content to suck up to Arruda, in spite of the fact that she’s expressed she thinks « Quebec is going too fast. »

As far as I’m concerned, it happens to still be too early to reopen schools in the rest of Quebec too, and it also happens to be too early to force people back to work in construction and manufacturing (not that it’s *ever* ok to force people into unsafe work). The bar is far too low, friends.

The cherry on top of the icing on today’s shit cake: when a reporter asked Legault if he thought the slogan « Ça va bien aller » was appropriate for Montreal’s context now, he smiled and said, « Oui, ça va bien aller, éventuellement.”

1. Quebec English schools are trying to exercise their minority language governance rights by saying they need more time and flexibility, that they wanna make sure it’s safe before making plans to reopen, that they refuse to follow the government timeline. The CAQ essentially says: no, you have no choice. Do as we say, because we say so. Oh, and they’re also not planning to provide protective equipment because they don’t deem it necessary.

2. Legault’s team finally *admits* that the « free beds » they’ve been talking about as our ultimate salvation in the face of adversity are located largely *outside* of Montreal.

3. Legault’s team admits that the Quebec reality *outside* of Montreal fulfills the WHO reopening criteria, but that Montreal does not. Nevertheless, they remain poised to proceed as planned in the city. Just, carefully. You know, carefully. To throw the naysayers a bone, they’ve pushed back the opening of some businesses a week, to the 18th. Their attitude has prompted many Montrealers to feel we are being thrown under the bus.

4. No journalist is asking about construction workers, even though « everyone knows » they can’t respect the safety precautions very well, if at all, on most sites. My partner, who is in construction, contacted his union rep recently, asking about their position on the CNESST’s questionable safety protocols which stipulate that protective equipment is ‘not recommended’ unless the 2 meter distance is broken for ‘more than 15 minutes,’ and the non-response he received was along the lines of: « The human body is made to fight off illnesses. The best you can do is take care of your health and that of your family. If you get the virus, you’ll build up immunity. Who knows, you may have had it already. Don’t worry bud, we’ll come out alright! »

5. Rumours have been flying that the Legault government stacked the INSPQ (Santé Publique) board with more government-aligned members days after the INSPQ expressed a difference of opinion (namely they wanted to be more cautious in plans to reopen). As of yet, evidence of their disagreements with the INSPQ as well as evidence of nominations for 5 new board members can be found online, but I still fail to find an analysis or confirmation of the situation anywhere. Info on this welcome.

6. My apologies for saying so, but the CAQ can go right ahead and suck my CAQ. Been holding that one back for a while, but no longer. It enrages me to watch people left with no other choice but to put themselves and their families at risk for our government’s nationalistic, money-first agenda under the guise of mental health and child wellbeing. Their approach is consistently paternalistic, ill-conceived, and downright hostile to those who ask questions requiring actual consideration.

It’s very demoralizing to live in a place, where, day after day, one’s « leadership » demonstrates a blatant lack of regard for human life and wellbeing.

I will NEVER judge a person who has to go back to work or send their kids to school for lack of options–our society is not set up to meaningfully address the inequalities that fuel it. And that is precisely the status quo our government is pushing so hard to rush back to.

HOWEVER, I don’t believe for a second that Legault is rushing the fuck out of this reopening (as cases continue to explode) out of a concern for the wellbeing of vulnerable children. So, I WILL judge him and his government. The latest is that he’s now saying *maybe* Montreal isn’t ready, okay, good. That’s the result of endless people criticizing him constantly. Maybe it’ll pan out. But it’s exhausting.

If our government was so concerned, they might try not recklessly endangering the lives of said children and their families. They might instead rush to urgently address the root causes of violence in homes through education and cold, hard funding where it counts, say for shelters, hotlines, rent cancellations. I was once a child with an abusive parent, and without much money. And yet I fail to see how our government is doing anything to help families. From where I’m standing, all they are saying is, if we open schools to young kids again, their parents will be able to reenter the workforce, which is good for the economy. They are also saying that with kids back in school, any abuse at the hands of family won’t be as high profile as it is now (it will, of course, continue, behind the scenes). Same is true of poverty. That is all they are saying by doing nothing and calling it everything.

If they were so concerned, they might, once numbers at least start to plateau, consider a plan more along the lines of what New Brunswick is doing: they are starting off by allowing ‘2-family household bubbles’ in order to ward of the mental effects of isolation. Then, they are evaluating its effects over 2-4 weeks, and going from there. They are holding off on opening any schools until *at least* September. These are the actions of a province who haven’t had ANY deaths at all (and just 118 cases), and they waited until they had had NO new cases for a week to announce this plan. But really, they might follow the example of any other province, or indeed ANY place that is actually allowing this scary experience humanity is living to humble them into respecting life a bit more. Alas, doing so is not so lucrative–as we understand lucrative, anyway.

While no plan is unflawed, I find Quebec’s approach to be criminally negligent, dishonest, and downright offensive to my intelligence. Although I have emotional attachments to Quebec, having grown up in the Townships, this place is just sad right now. And living in Montreal is a nightmare at the moment: feels a bit like being a lab rat in a cage. 🙂

Sending love and resilience to all in these deeply questionable times.

Yeah, so really tired of feeling there’s no better recourse than bloody facebook, but alas.

1. Fear won’t save your ass…

During yesterday’s daily press conference, good ol’ Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economic Development, when asked by a reporter (although I am not giving credit to reporters for their hard-hitting questions) whether employees were being given an option of whether or not to go back to work, just as parents are been giving the option of whether or not to send their kids to school, he responded only that there was « still time to convince them. » Later, in an interview with Le Devoir, the Minister of Labour, Jean Boulet said that « Fear of the coronavirus will not be enough to justify a refusal to work when the Quebec economy reopens. Return will be mandatory for employees unless they mention a specific situation already addressed by the law or their collective agreements. »

2. …but safety protocols will.

Fitzgibbon then referenced the handy workplace safety standards that CNESST had a hand in creating. My partner, who happens to be in construction, has looked over these standards, and just yesterday posted on CNESST’s wall asking about their source of information for the following guidelines:

« It is not recommended for a construction worker to wear specific personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect themselves from COVID-19 when the physical distance of 2 meters is respected […] If the physical distance cannot be respected for more than 15 minutes without a physical barrier, measures must be taken to protect workers (see the section on personal protective equipment). « 

I mean, forget the fact that keeping a distance in construction is already a joke. 15 minutes!! His question was erased and no response was given. There is zero transparency here (the biggest trouble of all), and loathsome/lazy/uneducated safety culture.

3. Our government is misguided & misinformed

Meanwhile, Quebec continues to compare our province to Sweden even though Sweden is an outlier with a totally different setup and far fewer cases–and their approach has and is still taking a major toll (a controversial one at that). Plus, other places that have tried this approach have failed even more miserably. AND, Quebec continues to comfort us with the hope of ample hospital beds (even though the only reason these beds are free is because other important elective surgeries have been cancelled). AND they have failed to outline how they will deal with contact tracing/amping up testing, AND their « gradual » approach involves jam-packing the opening of 3 sectors into a single month, etc., etc.

We need to try and stop this from happening.

1. I’m so thankful for the scientific evidence provided by Quebec’s Santé Publique. I bow down to thee, Santé Publique, and shun the advice of out-of-province/international medical experts. Quebecers are clearly a unique breed of human that have different mental and physical health requirements than people elsewhere. As well, I am buoyed by Legault’s confidence that « it’ll probably be the same in September, » so we might as well not wait.

2. I am filled with hope that the CAQ has chosen such an all-encompassing indicator of covid control: not ever-rising numbers as might be expected, or rates of infection, no, but extra hospital beds of course–nothing more, nothing less. They are right to keep repeating the same message: when will we get the point, already? Quebec is living two realities: one in CHSLDs and one outside of CHSLDs. As long as they continue to ignore and dismiss significant outbreaks in grocery stores, hospitals, prisons, homes, and neighbourhoods like Montreal Nord (which are peripheral at best, and full of immigrants), this will of course remain true. What we don’t believe can’t hurt us. And besides: these outbreaks are exceptions, and are under control.

3. I admire Legault’s ability to quickly shift his narrative, based on the optics of the day. It’s an important asset in any political leader. As his subjects we have followed swiftly from ‘flatten the curve,’ to ‘herd immunity,’ to ‘social reasons,’ the latter two being the underlying rationale for reopening. So what if they now admit herd immunity is not a proven thing at all? Why wouldn’t we still enact the same exact plan, but for social reasons? Clearly there is no other way to deal with the special social fallout Quebec is experiencing compared to everywhere else than to break quarantine and reopen schools. Clearly we can’t imagine any more effective solution than that.

4. I’m happy that young, healthy teachers are willing to take the risk for the sake of the children. And I’m confident they’ll be able to keep groups of 15 young kids 2 meters apart without issue. Equally, I’m sure that construction workers are heeding every precaution day after day as they rush to finish projects that have fallen behind–but really, they are young, healthy men, so what does it matter?

5. I am thrilled that Legault is a businessman first and that risks are being taken without the delay that other places will suffer as they wait for knowledge to crystallize and curves to flatten. Our economy will be so strong it may survive us yet! And people will say: wow, look at Quebec!

6. I am impressed that our leadership has left school attendance up to parents, washing their hands of any responsibility for outcomes. What better way to collect scientific evidence for Santé Publique than to observe an early group of willing test subjects? Well, maybe not the teachers, but at least the kids will be willing, right?

What are you happy about? 🙂