blogcutter

Remember Justin Trudeau standing outside Rideau Cottage and sternly invoking Operation Go Home? At the time, Sophie was inside in self-isolation, having tested positive for Covid 19. Fourteen days later, having been given the all-clear, she fled with the kids to her cottage in Quebec. Seems like she was Justin time... just before Checkpoint Frankie went up.

Not that I blame her, you understand - I probably would have done exactly the same thing, had I been in her situation. I also want to say that I was completely on board when mayors Jim Watson and Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin urged us all to avoid any nonessential interprovincial travel. The argument was that with its distinct government and health care system, things would likely unfold differently on the Quebec side and the Ontario side - they were at different points on the curve that needed to be flattened or planked or whatever. That made sense to me. I figured anything we could do to ensure the health and safety of our Quebec-based children and grandchildren and all the good people of la belle province (hell, maybe even the bad folk too) was fine with me.

But setting up checkpoints and guards from the Gatineau police and Sureté du Québec on all the interprovincial bridges? Frankie, my dear, I DO give a damn about that! It's an unconscionable waste of scarce police resources in a time of national and international crisis. The vast majority of people who ARE legitimately crossing will face needless and possibly life-threatening delays. As for the actual offenders (and that's at best a subjective judgement), how willingly will they comply with future directives from the authorities (some of them not easily enforceable) once they've been hit with $6000 fines? Then there's the matter of the guards jeopardizing their OWN health and safety, plus remember that little clause in the Charter about our right to relocate within Canada? Ah well, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. We are all children of the universe, no less than the trees and the flowers. And at least some of us DO have the right to be here, though one day la terre tournera sans moi...

You know, I worked for over 33 years in the federal public service, twelve of them on the Quebec side. I was in Place du Portage when we had to evacuate because of the ice storm. I walked the streets of Hull during the public service strike in the early 1990s. And I'll never forget having to report to work in Place du Portage on the first Monday of every August, with OC Transpo operating on Sunday service! I would ask those workers in Quebec who are lucky enough to have "un bon boss et un job steady": Do they know which side their daily bread is buttered on?

Perhaps the time has come to make the National Capital Region a federal district, independent of provincial boundaries?