AS CASES RISE, SO DOES SHAMING

Anger over holiday travel during lockdown

EDMONTON • COVID -19 cases are at record levels and Christmas is coming. Across the country, people are shopping and contemplating family visits or holiday getaways from their locked- down apartments and homes.

All of these normal holiday activities could conceivably be breaking the COVID rules in many parts of the country, or at least violating the spirit of public health measures in place.

It has given rise to a new wave of COVID- shaming, especially in regions where case counts are lower, and people want to keep it that way.

Re velstoke, B. C., is a popular destination for resort and backcountry skiers, but British Columbia has a ban on non-essential travel, for residents and nonresidents.

“You drive by the Days Inn, and the parking lot is full of trucks w/ trailers from Alberta,” says one anonymous post on The Stoke List, a local website. “Why is this being tolerated? ... You want to curb the spread of the virus, start enforcing this. Hand out fines, impound vehicles, jail time.”

The first wave of the pandemic saw numerous examples of shaming those perceived to be breaking the rules.

There were reports in British Columbia of vandalized vehicles if they had Alberta plates. In Ontario cottage country regions, local permanent residents were objecting to the summer people and tourists coming to their towns.

And this summer saw condemnation of young people out enjoying themselves all across the country.

Canada is now well into the second wave. Some 67,500 people are currently infected with the virus, and 12,325 people have died, according to federal government data. Provinces and territories have tightened restrictions to try and bring down the daily case counts, ranging from full lockdowns in Manitoba and Nunavut, to regional strategies in Alberta, B.C., Quebec and Ontario.

Back in Revelstoke, Coun. Cody Younker said people don't seem to be listening to travel recommendations and it puts the tourist-driven town in a tough spot.

“The town is pretty full of out-of-town visitors, there's lots of people in the grocery store that we don't recognize,” Younker said. “I'm thankful that people want to come here ... right now is just not the time to do that. I'm frustrated seeing people come. I'm worried.”

An old- timers hockey team in B.C. was responsible for returning from Alberta with sick players and spreading COVID among dozens of people in their unidentified home community. “I'm not going to give them away because I understand and what I'm hearing from my colleagues around the province is, it's not unique,” said Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.'S top health official.

Provincial leaders such as Premier Doug Ford in Ontario, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen Mcneil and Brian Pallister, premier of Manitoba, have not shied away from shaming COVID miscreants and rule-breakers.

Mcneil didn't mince words in calling out those responsible for the rupture of the Atlantic Bubble, which held until some recent outbreaks. Mcneil explicitly called out young people for “living as if COVID doesn't exist.”

“Let's call this what it is; we are having a problem with 18- to 35-year-olds. They are going out when they feel sick, they are going out in large groups, and quite frankly different groups, and not distancing,” said Mcneil.

Experts say shaming is not an effective way to change people's behaviour.

“Remember that it's very difficult to change (people's) minds. Focus your conversations on what the consensus is, what the science says, and what we can do as a community,” said Tim Caulfield, the Canada Research Chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta.

Michelle Driedger, a professor in the department of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba, said people need to balance their short-term desires with long-term impact, and that public health messaging should reflect that.

“People are tired, they're fatigued, they don't want to be doing this anymore, but we don't really have other options until we have solid vaccine plans in place and people being immunized,” Driedger said.

Max Emerson Taylor, 22, ran for mayor of Halifax in the last election. He has this advice for public officials: “Right now, a lot of young people are making the right moves, so instead of continuing to point a finger, we should continue to encourage them doing the right things they're doing.”