The Pandemic is Chasing Us into the Ocean

Amani Alsheikh

A Syrian writer and journalist currently residing in Canada, Amani Alsheikh has written for several Arab websites, including Raseef 22, focusing on gender and social justice issues.

Crossing to safe areas does not necessarily mean fleeing war zones. It may be escaping the red circles attached to the name of your city, which have, for over a year, routinely confirmed that you are still living the nightmare of COVID-19.

Since I moved to Toronto last October, every day has been the same. Most nonessential services have been shut down, and dozens of official statements have been issued reminding us to avoid our loved ones.

On Friday, April 16, 2021, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the increasing of power for enforcement measures. Local police were given the authority to stop people in the streets and to break up any gathering.

For myself, after a full year of being imprisoned in a loop of home to work and back, it became a necessity to leave the province.

Crazy ideas can revive the soul. This political decision, which was issued on Friday by the authorities, was followed by our plan to travel to Halifax through Quebec. We had a narrow window until Monday, when the new decisions—which included shutting down the borders between provinces, limiting travel to ‘absolutely essential’—would be enforced.

The world is similar between Toronto and Montreal. The same lines upon the highway, the same cars, and the countless, green and white highway exits preserve the sense of familiarity. I still feel like I am in the same place. There is a virtual line linking two of Canada’s most famous cities.

Montreal is unlike itself 

We arrive in Montreal at four in the afternoon. The downtown is silent. The Mandatory Distance between people is followed, and the spacious gaps between cars confirm that this town is filled with ghosts. The curfew begins at eight o’clock. After that, you will need to provide the police with a certified permit explaining your reasons for going out.

Diala, 42, lives in the centre of Montreal, on the side of the Old City and the Old Port. She says that the curfew hasn’t struck people as an impediment to their lifestyle, largely because of the short winter days. But this has begun to change.

April showers bring May flowers, and better weather brings longer days. As the temperatures have increased, questions have circled through the community: Is running at night any different from running in the morning? How does imposing a curfew actually affect the curve of COVID-19 infections and deaths?

These questions about the rights of Montrealers to leave their homes at night soon turn to frustration, anger. The first protest took place on March 14th with thousands of demonstrators. At this protest, the police issued 144 violations against some rioters and some of those who did not respect the mask-wearing mandate.

Since then, people have gathered every Saturday in the old port or on Saint Catherine Street to protest the curfew, and the passion and the anger of the rioters has escalated. The subsequent April 8th demonstration took a violent turn. A group of rioters set a few small fires and destroyed the facades of some shops in the Old City. The police were obliged to use force in dispersing these protests.

“As a citizen, I am ready to adhere responsibly to all social distancing measures… wearing masks, washing hands, etc.,” said Abdel El-Othmani, 33, from the Rosemont area. “But the curfew limits my freedom as a citizen.”

“I did not participate in the protests, but I support them. I do not like riots as a form of protesting, as they widen the gap between the protesters and the authorities. The curfew, though, feels like an uncivic measure of taming the citizens.” Othmani added.

As I sit on the house porch in Montreal, I chat with a friend who let us in, despite breaking the official restrictions. We watch the police car parked in the middle of the quiet street before us, stopping one car after another. We take guesses on who got a ticket and who didn’t.

As we wait for five o’clock—the time the curfew is lifted— I have the same feeling of suffocation that pushed me to escape from the crowds of Ontario. The line of similarities between the two cities is still there. More so, it has transformed into a line I could almost feel in my heart.

New Brunswick and the transit check

We set off at dawn. We are headed to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We have 13 hours of driving to the east before us, across the rest of Quebec and all of New Brunswick.

Every traveler must submit a form attesting that they don’t have any COVID-19 symptoms and listing their reason for travel, including their final destination. The government authority then sends an email with an authorization number, which is shown on the borders between Quebec and New Brunswick. This process is then repeated at the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with new forms and a new authorization number.

The empty space ahead of us now feels ideal, an escape. At the border leaving Quebec, our registration is checked, and the authorities wish us a good trip, before repeating the importance of adhering to social distancing, washing our hands, wearing our masks, and staying at home. They advise us to use “The Drive Through” if we have to stop for a cup of coffee, and reiterate the necessity of quarantining when we arrive in Halifax until we have our test results.

The extending mountains at both ends of the road contrast the wide horizon ahead. The kilometre counter on Google Maps counts slowly down. We continue our journey.

New Brunswick has a population of about 777,000, according to 2019 government statistics. Since the pandemic began, the province has recorded only 1,839 cases. In a simple comparison with Ontario’s population of 14.57 million and 441,000 Covid cases within a year, the change in environment becomes quite clear. The more the kilometres east increase, the more the red circles disappear. We journey hopefully into a new world.

We flee and it follows us! 

For many months between the second and third wave of the virus, the number of cases in Nova Scotia was zero. At the entrance checkpoint to the province, a police officer iterated everything we had to do upon our arrival in Halifax before welcoming us and removing the roadblock.

“[Halifax] has not suffered like others with Covid due to its small size and population,” says Helen, 26, a downtown resident. “It is sufficient for the 500 thousand people to adhere to social distancing and hand washing; to conquer the evil virus”.

“People actually committed to social distancing and you can observe that on the sidewalks,” she added.

The city has not been subjected to intense quarantine or a general lock down for the past year. Regardless, they have reached the third wave of this virus along with us. Following zero to eight cases on Monday, then 38 cases on Thursday, the Nova Scotia government finally announced that Halifax would be in quarantine for a period of four weeks, starting on Friday April 23. The quarantine includes a closure of most non-essential services, while preserving some services with an absorption capacity. Only 25 percent are indoors. A citizen can meet with a group of up to five people, both indoors and outdoors.

The lockdown in Halifax feels exactly like the start of the pandemic felt in Toronto. We are granted a modicum of liberty to move around. I have heartburn. I have been dreaming of an open beauty salon for an entire year. We arrive and it is closed. It is as if only a slight delay in time separates me from the third wave of the pandemic. I fled to the Atlantic ocean and it followed close behind.

Even among Conservative supporters, backlash has led to outrage against Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s choices throughout Ontario. In his recent statement, with a lump in his throat and tears in his eyes, Ford apologized for the increased powers granted to the police to stop people and limit their freedom to roam. This followed a number of police departments in the region, including the Toronto Police, refusing to follow his course of action.

All that pressure of different types and shapes in Quebec, and the failure of the rest of the provinces to survive the third wave raises an urgent question: What must be contained first, the virus or the anger?