Masks mandatory by July 27
The city is making masks mandatory in indoor public spaces as of July 27 (why not sooner?). There’s no list yet of the categories of space to be included and I don’t think they really mean “public” if we’re talking about places like groceries, malls and cinemas as mentioned in La Presse. Those are not public spaces.
Meantime, the new health minister, Christian Dubé, says he’ll close or fine bars and clubs if they don’t enforce distancing, because there are too many examples already of the rules being broken – as if anyone couldn’t’ve foreseen this. But it isn’t like we have a bar compliance brigade.
Bryan 18:21 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
I wonder if this delay in mandating masks is going to be another instance where we look back and realize that these were a crucial few weeks when the government failed to act fast enough.
I made a visit to a Jean Coutu today on Mont-Royal and was stunned to see that not one other customer was wearing a mask. It concerns me to see such a low level of uptake on voluntary mask wearing.
Kevin 20:24 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
Ottawa decided this afternoon to mandate masks for all. It’s in effect as of midnight.
Mark Côté 21:07 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
I was going to say that it maybe takes time to draft and pass this kind of law, but if Ottawa can do it so quickly one would hope it wouldn’t have to take three weeks here… and worse there’s going to be a grace period after the law goes into effect.
Chris 21:38 on 2020-07-06 Permalink
Is there going to be a sunset clause? Have they stated an intention for it to be temporary? It’s rare to get government “temporary measures” undone (income tax, liquid on airplanes, etc.).
Tim S. 08:45 on 2020-07-07 Permalink
Ok Chris, I’m bored so I’ll bite. What possible interest is there for the government to make this permanent? If anything, you would think they would be anti-mask for facial recognition purposes.
JaneyB 10:09 on 2020-07-07 Permalink
@Tim S – lol. Exactly.
Here in Verdun, mask are widespread. Interesting neighbourhood differences.
Kate 10:40 on 2020-07-07 Permalink
Chris, they can’t write a sunset clause for a disease we haven’t faced before and whose behaviour is still partly unknown. We can hope that at some future point the health authorities will be able to say that there’s evidence that covid circulating in the population has declined so much that it’s safe to remove masks. At which point the laws will adapt again.
mare 13:59 on 2020-07-07 Permalink
I read the tweet our mayor made announcing the measure, and when I looked at the reactions (I know…) I was genuinely surprised (and appalled) how strong the anti-mask movement is in Canada.
https://twitter.com/Val_Plante/status/1280231014044971008
Tweet after tweet from Covid deniers, infographics about the dangers of wearing masks (French translations of ones I’ve seen in the US), and also lots of personal vitriol directed at Plante. Are these bots? Foreign destabilizing agents? They “write” québécois so I don’t think so, and must conclude Quebeckers are really getting that nasty. Or is The combination of Twitter and the pandemic stress distilling the worst out of people?