Candy stores and ‘dreaded’ homes: Coronavirus contradictions
One doesn’t want to be a pandemic pooper here, but since when is a candy store an essential service? I like a jaw-breaker, gummy worm, licorice twister or jelly-bean as much as the next guy (not really), but I honestly think I could get by without a bonbon buzz until the virus darkness lifts.
Around the corner, on a normally busy commercial street, the candy store is open for business, while rows of other stores nearby selling goods arguably as essential as sweets - shoes, clothes, home furnishings and knick-knacks, for example - remain shuttered indefinitely. A plaque in rainbowy letters in the window of the candy store proudly proclaims: Autorisation gouvernementale pour rester ouvert.
We can only speculate the government authorization accorded the candy store is based on it being on the official Quebec list of “essential services and commercial activities” under the category of “grocery stores and other food retailers.” OK, so despite what anti-big Sugar zealots and our mothers might have told us, candy apparently is a food.
One cannot blame the neighbourhood confectioner for putting government pandemic regulations to the test, but how does that explain the seemingly arbitrary and random exclusion of other store-front purveyors of goods and services from the list of permissible commercial activities?
The goal of the big economic pause has been to reduce the amount of direct or incidental human contact by which the COVID-19 virus is spread. So shutting down obvious indoor petri dishes like shopping malls and factories would seem to make sense. How, though, does a block-long line-up at Walmart pose less of a risk than the occasional customer popping into a shoe boutique to check out the latest spring styles?
This sour-puss questioning of the essentialness of candy shops comes as the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government rolls out its strategy of “deconfinement,” to gradually restart the economy. We already saw a glimmer of common sense with the authorized reopening of service stations, garden centres, landscaping companies and some residential construction. The mining industry also got the green light to get back to work. In each sector, of course, workers and customers are expected to observe the germ containment measures which by now are second nature to virtually all citizens.
One wonders, however, what is taking so long to get the construction industry in general up and running, given such chantiers are as secure as an army base from general public access. And then there’s the already short construction season. A debate is looming about whether the annual two-week construction holiday at the end of July will be cancelled. So far union leaders are cool to the idea, claiming, with some justification, that the weeks of virus-forced lay-off cooped up at home have hardly been the equivalent of frolicking on the beaches of Maine.
Restarting an economy is yet another of the many unique and shall we say utterly unexpected challenges thrust upon our elected officials and their attendant bureaucracies.
Premier Francois Legault, a bean-counting businessman in his soul, must have tortured sleep about having had to put the brakes on an economy it’s been his political mission to boost. Indeed, prior to the pandemic, Quebec was on a roll, leading the nation in growth and employment rates.
There will be plenty of time to analyse, debate and learn from this COVID-19 experience. Years from now it will probably seem surreal. An outbreak of an unknown virus in a remote Chinese city in mid-january paralyzes much of the world within a head-spinning matter of a few weeks. Can’t make that stuff up.
For the Legault government which had made a massive revamp of the province’s patchwork seniors home network a major plank in its 2018 election platform, the pandemic exposed, tragically late, the lethal failings of the current regime.
CIn the campaign, Legault used the word “dreaded” in describing the state of Centres d’hébergement et soin de longue durée (CHSLD). How right he was. The vast majority of Quebec’s coronavirus deaths have happened in care homes.
Quebec, as observers have noted, has had two pandemics: a relatively tame one in the general population with hospitals far from critical capacity, and a raging one within nursing homes with the army called in to lend a hand.
Meanwhile, the candy stores remain open.
ALACS Agression Estrie offers, among other things, support services to girls and women who are victims of sexual exploitation. During this COVID-19 period our team notes that these people, who are already intensely marginalized as a baseline, are even more affected, vulnerable and left behind.
Has the Coronavirus succeeded in stopping requests from the clients of prostitution? No. On the contrary, women are forced to continue prostitution to survive and, in some cases, to ensure the survival of their children. Research and field experience have shown just how violent the sex industry is for women. The current situation, with the risk of contracting COVID-19, adds another layer to the dangers of their reality.
Poverty is one of the factors that have led the majority of these women into the abyss of sexual exploitation. The noose is now tightening more on them. How can they protect themselves from the Coronavirus by stopping prostitution when they are unable to declare their income and therefore receive financial support from the government? There is no question that COVID-19 is a risk factor here for keeping girls and women in the sex industry, despite the fact that more than 90% of them want to get out.
It is the duty of governments to ensure the safety and integrity of citizens. In order to ensure that no woman is forgotten in inhuman conditions, CALACS Agression Estrie asks governments to take responsibility today. We demand concrete, rapid and sufficient actions: a real funded plan to end prostitution and financial support for the resources / organizations that help these women.
In solidarity with the girls and women who are victims of sexual exploitation,
Calacs Agression Estrie