The city has nixed all festivals and gatherings through July 2. Among other things, the Grand Prix has been postponed to an unknown future date.
Updates from April, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
A brief La Presse piece looks at Mutual Aid Park Ex, a group that sprang up to muster mutual assistance for people in that neighbourhood. Also, a piece in CultMTL reminds us “World Wars aside, people generally don’t get to know they’re experiencing something truly historical while it’s happening, but that’s the situation here. The way we react to this […] will define more than people think. It may well define the rest of our lives.”
JaneyB
This is by far going to be the biggest economic realignment since WWII. It’s also the biggest experience of social solidarity in living memory. Though the fall of the Soviet Union, the Quiet Revolution here and civil wars throughout the world would have provided that quality in a limited way, there’s really been nothing as international as this since WWII. Many young people in North America have never seen any social solidarity at all having grown up within the vast neoliberal landscape. This crisis is frightening – and we haven’t yet seen the disaster that will occur in the poor countries – but I think the relentless gospel of selfishness of the last 40 years is done, done. I would have preferred the gentle dawning of kindness but fear also works. Let’s hope we see some ingenious and even idealistic reconstruction.
walkerp
I hope you are right, JaneyB!
david99
Huh, I’m (semi-) old enough to remember the late 1990s. This is big if we’re looking at the world news. If we’re just looking at Quebec, we’re been through this with the referendum and the ice storm. We’re old hands!
Blork
Continuing with JaneyB’s theme, I wonder if this will be some kind of anti-9-11. Think of the global schisms that occurred after that event and how so much changed everywhere, not for the better and not just in the U.S. But this event has no clear human enemy, and aside from some trade squabbles and whatnot we’re seeing a lot of people and companies stepping up and doing good, and a lot of solidarity across many divides. I’m too much of a cynic to think it will be revolutionary, but I wonder if 20 years from now people will talk about how things changed after COVID-19 the way we now talk about how things changed after 9-11.
Chris
I too hope you are right, JaneyB! But I doubt it. There was similar hope after the Great Recession, with Occupy Wall Street, that big social change was coming, but, not much changed. I predict in a few months everyone will be back to their usual selfish gluttonous materialistic consumerism.
-
Kate
The city has a poster in French and English to go up in apartment buildings with common entrances, explaining what to do about sanitation, visitors and so on.
This feels more “wartime” to me than anything I’ve seen yet.
dmdiem
World War C. For the first time in history, all of humanity is united fighting a common enemy. My money was on aliens bringing the world together, but since the entire planet is on lockdown, this is the literal “the day the earth stood still”.
Meezly
Did I just hear on the radio that jogging will be banned from 10am to 7pm?
Kate
Meezly, I believe that’s in Paris. But I will correct this if I hear otherwise.
-
Kate
There’s been a big fuss in social media about the Jewish General making it a rule you can’t have guests in delivery rooms. An acquaintance even passed around a petition against the ban on Facebook. But Quebec is refusing to intervene.
jonz
I know it’s a big deal to change hospitals even on a temporary basis – I use the Jewish myself – but I’m not going anywhere near it these days and I think couples having children should protect themselves similarly and consider taking the obvious concern of the Quebec government seriously. Everyone is having trouble. My appointments there (at the Jewish) have been changed to being handled by phone and some have been cancelled. I think the prudent thing to do if you care about your safety, and the safety of your child-to-be … to say nothing about your partner, is to change hospitals. I’m certain that’s not easy, but this isn’t a walk in the park.
jeather
My father is continuing his non-elective treatment at the Jewish (moving would not be an option). He says it is deserted and he’s nowhere near the ER. I wouldn’t go there if I didn’t need to, but the ongoing medical care is apparently going great. (He is currently outpatient, but will be not allowed to have visitors when that changes, which will be terrible.)
Kate
All the best to your father, jeather, and I hope he does well.
jeather
We won’t know for a while; he’s, at this point, due to go inpatient on Apr 30 somewhere in the first 3 weeks of June. So it’s a while. Which is good, we can figure out how to plan for no visitors.
Alison Cummins 06:26 on 2020-04-08 Permalink
Including the moving festival?
Kate 08:49 on 2020-04-08 Permalink
Good question. Will Quebec ordain that all leases are extended?
Chris 10:53 on 2020-04-08 Permalink
*If* we can’t even choose where we live anymore, would it be too early to say we’re in a police state?
Kate 11:31 on 2020-04-08 Permalink
Quarantine getting to you, Chris?
Ian 18:43 on 2020-04-08 Permalink
Maybe you can relax by going for a drive 😀
I kid, I kid. In all seriousness, though, I have seen that landlords are still showing apartments and moving companies have been declared essential. The latest convention for viewing an apartment seems to be viewing it by Zoom for the initial viewing. I suppose the real problem would be if the place was already occupied…
Given the super low vacancy rate, that the régie is closed, that a lot of people are out of work, and that this is all a huge hassle, I suspect most people won’t move unless they really have to. Good luck and godspeed to them.
Chris 18:49 on 2020-04-09 Permalink
Kate, in fact, yes, it is. 🙁
But, I tried to highlight the “if” in bold, because obviously it’s hypothetical. But we should be vigilant of our civil liberties. Alberta now says it’s going to be tracking cell phones. Russia now requires everyone carry a government QR code for when they ask for your papers. Israel has shut down most courts of law. Cops in various places are power tripping giving people tickets for walking their dogs. If you boil a frog slowly, it won’t complain.