FREED: IT'S TIME TO GET ANGRY

Why is Legault punishing us for his mistakes?

We have entered the latest stage of the five stages of COVID grief — anger.

Stage 1 was fear and sadness as many died and we all hid from each other as if we were biological weapons — and maybe we were.

Stage 2 was frustration and bargaining: “OK. I'll give up that winter vacation I booked — after all, the airlines are offering delayed flights till the end of 2020!”

Who knew that would be COVID'S heart of darkness?

Stage 3 was boredom, which struck in winter, when we felt locked up like prisoners. Through dark, lonely months people learned to take their vacations in Los Living Room, since Puerto Backyarda was frozen over.

Stage 4 came recently, though briefly — hope! — as vaccines appeared and Quebec began to reopen. The end finally seemed near, but the variants shocked and frustrated us — and for many the government has done the same, helping provoke:

Stage 5. Even long government-supportive francophone commentators are now complaining about the premier's endless yo-yoing on rules. Why reopen gyms and crowded classrooms when variants were on the way, some ask, using words like “incoherent” and “panicky.”

Frustrated gym owners ask: How could you close our gyms only days after reopening them, after closing them, after opening them? They should also ask that gym owner in Quebec City who created his own mini-epidemic.

Thousands of readers have also contacted me, many enraged about our continuing threemonth curfew — unique in North America. Yet now our premier's set it back to 8 p.m. again, effectively punishing us for his mistake in opening up classrooms too soon, when experts and many of us said “Don't!”

Yet there's been zero scientific evidence offered that the curfew's made any difference in changing our case rates from elsewhere.

Most cases are in workplaces and schools. Why prevent the rest of us from taking an evening spring stroll?

Why treat us like the continent's badly behaved children, when Montreal's stable case numbers show we're largely very responsible.

However, young people I know are already sleeping over at friends' homes to avoid curfew — I fear more will now.

Everyone's fed up with ever-changing rules that often seem eccentric and contradictory. Many complain they can't visit their immediate family indoors, although it's legal to take their extended family of 25 to a movie.

You're also not supposed to see a tiny group of people outside, but you can if you're playing sports. So a birthday party is OK if you're doing jumping-jacks, not cutting cake.

Will another new rule say it's OK to play team soccer as long as you don't use a ball?

The newest change is that two cyclists, runners or walkers from different homes must wear masks outside. This has shocked the cycling world, where many hard-breathing bikers fear asphyxiation.

What else? Will swimmers have to wear masks when their heads come up for air, then remove them when they submerge?

Why demand masks outdoors? I wrote recently there's one-twentieth the chance of getting COVID outdoors as indoors. But a major new study by Ireland's leading pandemic health agency now finds it's actually one-thousandth.

Why do anything to discourage people from being outdoors? Again, does anyone else on the continent have this rule? If so, I can't find it.

Premier Legault says to blame only him if you disagree with his latest policies. Well, I do.

In all fairness, people in other provinces have entered the anger stage as well, though they have less cause than we do. Many Ontarians are furious at Premier Doug Ford for recently announcing reopenings in many regions, when his own advisers warned of a third-wave disaster.

Commentators are also bashing Ford for closing outdoor patios (and campgrounds) barely a week after they opened, also citing the Irish outdoor study.

In Alberta, half of Jason Kenney's MNAS are publicly condemning “tough” new health measures he's declared. What harsh new measures are infuriating them?

Gyms are closing like they are here. Indoor restaurants, which have been open for months, are also closing, although patios can remain open as in eight other provinces — practically a fantasy here in Quebec.

Canada has 10 provinces and three territories, but we seem to have 22 different sets of rules for beating COVID, none as harsh as ours.

Beneath some of our growing anger is the virus itself. Everyone thought the vaccines had won the war and the end was nigh — but like a bad horror film the virus has come back from the dead, mutating into scarier new variants, like a supervillain who appears to die, only to multiply.

Meanwhile vaccine euphoria has turned to vaccine hesitation for too many suffering Astrazenophobia.

Things are hard enough with the sacrifices we must make for proven scientific reasons — such as masking, social distancing and avoiding others indoors.

Having the government punish us more, by creating rules without hard science behind them is demoralizing and possibly counterproductive.

The last stage of grief is usually acceptance, but I and many others won't feel accepting until the rules make scientific sense — and our right to activities like a simple evening walk is restored.