Curfew-Shocking People in Quebec

People wear face masks as they walk along a street prior to a curfew in Montreal, Saturday, January 9, 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. The Quebec government has imposed a curfew to help stop the spread of COVID-19 starting at 8 p.m until 5 a.m. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

"I'm not sure that's going to be feasible [people in Quebec emulating Italians during the springtime COVID quarantine, singing from balconies] during the cold winter nights in Quebec."

"[Placing people under curfew so they're unable to leave their homes lacking an acceptable reason fails to create a sense of solidarity, the] all in this together [spirit]."

"OK, we've just got to get through this four weeks, assuming the lockdown is not extended [people tend to think]."

"The rationale is that when people disregard social distancing, they do it at night. So, you lock everyone down. Of course, you're still putting people in closed spaces It just happens to be their own homes."

"This thing has lasted so long. People were expecting and hoping in 2021 things would open up."

"If we're going to have a curfew there needs to be in place, and visibly in place, mental health resources to help people get through this period."

"Most people will be resilient. We're not going to like it. We're gonna feel stressed out and irritable and perhaps depressed, but most people will bounce back."

Steven Taylor, Clinical Psychologist, professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia

 CTV News

 

Quebecers may feel they see a glimmer of light at the end of this latest tunnel with yet another door slammed against their freedom of movement when Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced "We're talking here about saving lives and we're talking about saving our health-care system", as he announced new emergency measures to take effect in Quebec from Saturday, 9th of January, among them a 8:00 pm to 5:00 am curfew. A curfew meant to be strictly enforced; only those with acceptable reasons to be out will be spared fines of up to $6,000.

 

This news for Quebecers represents the first in the country to impose a curfew, but Quebec, after all, has experienced the most deaths due to COVID within its population of any other province or territory. True, 80 percent of those deaths have taken place within long-term care residences, and the curfew obviously doesn't impact on them, so it isn't surprising a bit of consternation may arise from the situation of locking everyone down at night. And according to mental health experts, the newly imposed curfew represents another stress level upon people already suffering the effects of ongoing lockdowns.

 

The rationale for the curfew appears to elude the mental health experts. COVID-19 saturating the province is the driving force behind such moves of desperation, when governments don't know what else they can do to convince their populations to take the ongoing and growing prevalence of infections seriously enough to deter them from breaking the health rules meant to protect the greater population. Residents will still be permitted outside excursions for emergencies and "humanitarian reasons", including walking the family dog, picking up teenagers from work, or filling prescriptions at a pharmacy.

 

Those people whose employment leads to working shifts will be excepted but in general everyone  is expected to remain in their  homes in the evening, and to commit to staying there until the morning light. Any who venture out lacking a sanctioned (or valid) reason to be out and about during the curfew hours risk hefty fines of between $1,000 and $6,000. Desperate means, the government insists are a requirement if they are to hope to be able to stop the minority of people who insist on ignoring     COVID rules. 

 

Civil liberty concerns are becoming visible: "What's crucial is how the curfew is enforced", stated Michael Bryant, executive director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. To the present, Quebec's enforcement during COVID lockdowns has tended to be on the "overzealous" side, disproportionately  impacting racialized communities and the homeless in an atmosphere prevailing where residents are encouraged to carry proof they have a valid reason to explain their outside presence at night.

 

Urgences-santé paramedics transport a patient to the COVID-19 unit of Notre-Dame Hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette

Ar the very least, 8.6 million Quebecers can anticipate the curfew expiration of February 8. As far as some are concerned in the face of a clear public health priority all else is superseded in importance, that the psychological harms of distancing and curfews are less important than the potential physical harms visited by the virus. "Given the rapid spread of the virus, distancing may turn out to be more important in saving lives than vaccines", according to professor emeritus Dr.Allan Frances at Duke University. 

Dr.Thombs, who as a senior investigator at the Lady David Institute of Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital, is leading a review of how COVID and pandemic policies affect the human psyche feels the restrictions are already impacting people in various ways. Studies indicate that young adults are deeply affected where social interactions with others are being aborted leading to loneliness. This, in the face of confirmed cases accelerating as never before with Canada seeing an increase of 100,000 cases in just over two weeks.

There is a lack of compelling data proving that curfews work. Setting up controlled studies is difficult, explained Dr.Taylor, author of The Psychology of Pandemics: Preparing for the Next Global Outbreak of Infectious Disease. The effort of balancing the containment of infection as opposed to concern over people's mental well being is top of the agenda. A rise in anxiety, depression, substance abuse and domestic violence has already been recognized, and additional instances of all those stressors will be emphasized in Quebec under its enhanced lockdown.

The more curfews you introduce people to and the longer they remain in force, the more oppressive and stressful the situation is for everyone involved, since humans are gregarious social animals, and estranging us from all social interactions that have meaning in our lives and create enjoyment impacts moods and with bleak moods comes irrationality.

"Whenever you do these kinds of things,  you want to pick your battles, pick your target, help people understand what you're trying to accomplish and lay out what that is."

"It's not clear to me at least what shutting down at eight o'clock is going to do."

"We always cope with stressors when they're shorter than longer, and when we have as much information as possible about what's going to be involved. What happens after 8? There is a real risk that it will make things more difficult for busy people who can't get their errands done, such as those working and caring for young children."

"Normal development really relies on socialization at that point in their lives [young people]. Other people are being hammered financially and don't know if they can support their families."

"...It does seem like people are really slipping and aren't being particularly cognizant about following [public health] principles."

"I don't know that shocking people without a clear purpose of what the shock is trying to stop works. What are they targeting here? What are the main sources of transmission? What are they trying to cut down.?" 

Brett Thombs, professor, faculty of medicine, McGill University

In Quebec It's the Enormous Death Toll

Quebec Premier Francois Legault CP/Paul Chiasson

"We are obliged to provide a type of shock treatment so that people reduce their visits."

"Police officers will be there to make sure everybody respects the rules."
"We have had the battle of our lives and unfortunately the battle is not over." 

Quebec Premier Francois Legault

 

 "Our hospitals are on the verge of a breaking point."

"[The] partial measures [in place] have had] no effect on the increasing trend of cases."

Roxane Burges Da Silva, professor, public health, Universite de Montreal

"We are going to truly surpass our capacity in the next two to three weeks if we don't do something."

"Ramping up testing of asymptomatic individuals in congregate settings whether it is in schools or the workplace should have been done. Period. Full stop."

"The biggest worry is, eventually, if we don't do anything, we'll get to the point where it's going to be the decision where we have two patients, one ventilator and someone has to decide."

"[In December Legault closed all] non essential [retail stores extending the winter break for elementary and high school students. But while those measures slowed the spread of the virus, they failed to] render the curve flat."

Dr.Donald Sheppard, chair, microbiology and immunology department, McGill University

After a rise in COVID-19 cases, Quebec is instituting the strictest measures since the spring. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

Quebec was the worst-hit COVID-19-caseload in the country initially when the SARS-CoV-2 virus entered Canada last year in March and it remains so to the present time. The initial entry just happened to coincide with the academic spring break and in Quebec that break takes place a week before it does elsewhere, in other provinces. Although there was concerned anticipation over a spreading coronavirus with dreadful news coming out first from China, then Italy and Spain as they attempted to cope with the vicious spread, Quebecers took their usual spring break trips abroad.

And the inevitable happened, as they brought back with them virulent strains of COVID-19 that quickly spread in the community, and Montreal in particular became an object lesson in the need to take stringent measures swiftly and if at all possible, proactively. A week later spring break time arrived in other provinces and recommendations were to curtail travel. Governments did what they could to alert and advise, to issue warnings and instructions to their populations while there were pockets of resistance particularly from religious communities that helped further the spread; inadvertently but inevitably. 

Spring and summer were quieter periods with some relief in the numbers of new COVID cases and a relaxation of rules. But then came Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. A population that felt it had withheld itself from traditional visits with family and friends had problems contemplating separation on these important family holidays and resolve faltered. Surveys of Canadians related that an unsurprisingly large proportion of families took a calculated risk and returned to visiting one another. With the weeks following each of the holidays seeing another upward spike in cases.

 

 

 

The latest survey, the Leger/Association for Canadian Studies poll found that 48 percent of all those surveyed visited with people outside their households, while 52 percent of respondents said they had not. But it is clear from the survey that close to half of all Canadians visited with family or friends over the winter holiday period, and case numbers, already steep in this second COVID wave, began to skyrocket and still does not fully reflect the apex of the rise. The largest percentages provincially of those visiting during the holidays were those in Quebec and Ontario.

Quebec now becomes the first province to impose draconian measures in determined hopes of curbing the dynamic spread of the novel coronavirus. Premier Legault, during a news conference stressed that schools, retail stores and other businesses have been closed since December, and yet COVID-19 infections simply continued to rise. Transmission, he pointed out, largely traceable to private gatherings. Henceforth and until February 8 all non-essential businesses ordered to close in December are to remain closed until February.

There is also a curfew and anyone who thinks of wandering about on the street after 8:00 p.m. for no acceptable reason will be subject to fines between $1,000 and $6,000, substantial enough to make anyone think twice about challenging the curfew. On January 11 primary schools are to reopen and high schools will follow a week later. Mid-week, Quebec reported 2,641 new cases for that day alone, along with 47 additional deaths from COVID.

According to the provincial health department, hospitalizations had leaped by 76 to 1,393, the largest number of patients since last May, with 202 people in intensive care. Dr. Sheppard spoke of the province's health-care system under severe strain with surgeries and cancer screenings put off, while intensive care units are filling up. He spoke of breast cancer patients presenting with larger tumours than before the pandemic, the result of late diagnoses. 

Quebec's government-mandated health care think tank, the INESS Institute, warned that hospitals in the Montreal area are certain to run out of dedicated coronavirus beds within three weeks. It has been since October that much of Quebec has been under partial lockdown with bars, restaurant dining rooms, gyms and entertainment venues closed. All "non-essential" retail stores were closed in December and the winter break for students was extended.

Dr.Borges Da Silva feels the curfew is sensible since it will force people to consider whether it is worthwhile before they make arrangements to go out and have a beer with a friend. As far as she is concerned, illicit gatherings over the holidays have made a major impact on the spread of COVID-19 in the province. No one is under any illusions that there will not be push-back from the public over the curfew, however.