A lot of the time, when discussing the various pandemic measures implemented by multiple levels of government, there is a lot of uncertainty as to the effects. It’s only natural, this is a once in a lifetime event (hopefully) and there’s some things you can’t really prepare for. We had SARS, but that’s not really a good comparison.
The latest measures to be enacted in Quebec went further than any other jurisdiction across the country, adding a curfew between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. While the intentions may have been good, the benefits of such a drastic action are . . .
unproven. It may have deterred some people from gathering with their friends at night, and contributed to the decline in cases over the last month, though it’s hard to tell since it was done in combination with an assortment of other measures.
But there were also horrible repercussions that were entirely predictable.
In Montreal, 51 year-old Raphael André froze to death in a portable toilet last week. Homeless people haven’t been exempted from the curfew and it was likely that André was trying to hide from police. A homeless shelter nearby that he frequented had been forced to close overnight, due to a COVID outbreak. The government has put an already vulnerable population between a rock and a hard place, either cram into shelters that were already hitting their capacity and risk getting infected, or take your chances dodging police on the street.
Premier François Legault said in a press conference that he couldn’t possibly exempt homeless people from the curfew. Why you ask? Because then anyone who wanted to break curfew would just pretend to be homeless! No seriously, that was the explanation that he gave.
One of the major problems with this plan is that it leaves the bulk of the decision making process to individual police officers, which inevitably leads to uneven enforcement.
Quebec is also flying by the seat of its pants when it comes to the distribution of vaccines. They’ve tossed aside the manufacturer’s instructions and opted to jab as many people with a single dose as possible, before following up in 90 days with the booster dose. This approach hasn’t been studied, it’s a calculated gamble by our political overlords. Maybe it will prove worth the risk, maybe it won’t, only time will tell.
Vaccines and curfews are only part of the public health response, they have to be implemented in tandem with a variety of other measures. In addition, you have a federal government negotiating on the world stage for a share of the doses and protection equipment, while simultaneously coordinating with the provinces, which each have their own needs and idiosyncrasies. There are a lot of moving parts and it’s inevitable that there will be some major missteps.
However, the provincial government needs to show some flexibility if specific actions, like the curfew, have been causing demonstrable harm to certain communities. A little compassion would go a long way.
Caleb Nickerson
