Montreal streets empty during first curfew in 50 years

Before the 8 p.m. curfew deadline hit and an eerie stillness descended over Canada’s second largest city Saturday night, life was about as normal as it gets during a pandemic.

At the Provigo on Sherbrooke St. W. a handful of people lined up to pay for their groceries. Overall the store wasn’t much busier than usual, supervisor Alyssa Maximov said. Nor had there been a run on dry beans. Or toilet paper.

“COVID is old news for everyone, now,” she said. But closing at 7:30 every night for instead of 11 will be hard on some, she predicted.

“There are some people who don’t exist during the day,” she said. “I’ve never seen them in the store before 9 p.m.”

For Laura Guerschanik, picking up a few things at a quiet Pharmaprix at 7 p.m., the curfew that requires all Quebecers with the exception of essential workers to stay in their homes between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. for the next month won’t be particularly disruptive because she works 9-5. She considers the directive a necessary evil to try to reduce Quebec’s COVID-19 case rate, which is the highest per capita in Canada.

But it still causes pain, because she has three boys between the ages of 20 and 25, and as of 5 p.m. Saturday they had all decamped to stay with their girlfriends.

“So I won’t see them for a few days,” she said. “Normally we have supper together.”

At a corner store down the street named, aptly, Dépanneur, clerk Hassan Rad served a couple late shoppers, including one who bought $90 in beer and wine. There was no major last-minute beer rush.

Still, there will be losses because of the curfew, he said.

“Imagine, if I could have 10 more customers like the $90 guy tonight.”

Instead, they shut their doors at 7:30, three-and-ahalf hours hours early. His boss estimates he’ll lose at least $3,000 for the month.

By 8 p.m., when Quebec’s first curfew in half a century was officially underway, the cars that had been common on the roads half an hour earlier all but disappeared.

Ste-catherine St., the city’s busiest shopping thoroughfare was deserted save the occasional worker, dog walker, or homeless person wandering the streets. Restaurant delivery cars and scooters drove by, as did the odd police car, some with lights flashing, some not. They didn’t stop to ask what people on the street were still doing there. The only establishments open were gas stations, and they were empty.

Montrealers, for the most part, were obeying the curfew.

At Cabot Square Park at the corner of Ste-catherine St. and Atwater Ave., normally a popular gathering spot for the homeless, the only resident was 20-year-old Akash Singh, who was just getting off his shift at the Adonis supermarket and had a letter to prove it. He’s losing hours because of the curfew. He doesn’t know if the government will reimburse them.

Singh was waiting for the 104 bus, piloted by John Daoust. The bus was empty, but Daoust said his route passes by a major hospital, and it felt good to know “that we’ll be there for the front line workers that rely on us.” Accustomed to being stuck in traffic, driving a city bus in downtown Montreal “without a soul in sight is a bit mindboggling. A bit ghastly,” he said. “It’s definitely a once ina-lifetime thing.”

The last curfew in Quebec came 50 years ago, during the October crisis .

A march protesting the curfew in the Plateau-montRoyal borough drew a few dozen people, closely followed by numerous police vehicles and a helicopter. The march ended after 15 minutes, and several protesters were issued tickets. Another protest in Quebec City resulted in fines of over $1,500 being issued to about 20 demonstrators, police said. The Sûreté du Québec tweeted that outside of a few incidents, most people were respecting the curfew.