Canada's COVID-19 Crisis
Story by Eve Boardman, photograph by Graham Rutton
After telling Canadians to hunker down for the holidays and cancel their plans, more than a dozen high-profile politicians and public figures have been caught taking vacations. What promptly followed were resignations, confessions, demotions, and many infuriated Canadians.
In Alberta alone, where COVID case numbers are among the highest in the country, 8 politicians have admitted to traveling abroad. Five legislative assembly members of Alberta’s United Conservative Party have been demoted for travelling abroad over the holidays and violating COVID travel warnings issued by federal and provincial governments. On top of that, one of Alberta’s government ministers, Tracy Allard, confessed to taking a trip with her family to Hawaii for the Christmas holidays because it was a "family tradition”. Jamie Huckabay, the chief of staff to Alberta’s Premier, travelled to the United Kingdom. They were both asked to step down. Conservative parliament member, David Sweet, resigned as chair of the House of Commons’ ethics committee after he travelled to the United States to deal with a “property issue”, but then stayed for leisure. Scott Moe, premier of Saskatchewan, said in a statement he accepted the resignation of Highways Minister Joe Hargrave, who visited California. NDP member Niki Ashton stepped down from her role in parliament after travelling to visit her ill grandmother in Greece without telling NDP leader, Jagmeet Singh.
Lori Turnbull, a political scientist, commented on the actions of Aston: “... Even travel out of compassion can send the wrong message when residents have made personal sacrifices during the pandemic”, she stated. “There are people who are living close to family members and who haven’t been able to be with them when they die. Being separated from one another has been one of the most haunting, miserable parts of this pandemic,” she said. “For many it feels politicians are breaking this rule – but we can’t.”
"Canadians don't tend to rapidly become outraged, we're pretty calm, you know but I think this has sort of been a bit of a tipping point for us to say, OK, we have done our bit. What does this say about what your respect for our sacrifices has been," said Dr. Alan Drummond in an interview with CNN from his medical office in Perth, Ontario. He continued to express his feelings on Twitter: "For politicians who have been preaching to us to restrict our activities, to restrict our social gatherings, to see our elderly loved ones through iPad and glass windows, for them to then ignore the sacrifice of others for their personal pleasure, (it) is hard to articulate how deeply disturbing that is," he said. "It truly feels like an insult.”
However, what may be even more enraging is the fact that some attempted to deliberately cover it up. Ontario's finance minister, Rod Phillips, lost his job after a video message posted on Christmas Eve thanking his constituents for obeying lockdown turned out to be pre-recorded.
The heart-warming video -- complete with gingerbread décor and a cozy fire -- was aired as he vacationed on the Caribbean island of St Barts.
This all comes as Canada is bearing a total of 778,119 COVID cases and 20,016 deaths. Canadians who have endured a travel ban, 14 day quarantines and weeks-long lockdowns are angry with politicians and government workers who are flouting the very health guidelines they helped put in place.
