Juno News - More Canadians are starting to question the lockdown

00:00:00.000 I think as the winter really sets in, more Canadians are going to start asking some more

00:00:08.940 critical questions of the various restrictions that we are living under right now and whether

00:00:13.280 or not they're entirely necessary. You know, I got to say, I've had it pretty good when it comes

00:00:18.700 to shopping experiences during the pandemic. I haven't had to wait in too many lines, or if I've

00:00:23.380 gotten to the store and there is a big line, my day has been such that I've said, okay, well,

00:00:26.960 forget about it, go run your other errand, come back here later, that kind of thing. When I have

00:00:31.060 been in line, it's been beautiful summer weather, so no real complaints. Well, the other day, I went

00:00:35.960 to the grocery store and because of the logistics of my day, I pretty much just had to commit to going

00:00:40.320 and get what I needed, whatever the lineup situation was like, and I got there. Sure enough, there was

00:00:45.620 a line. And this is December in Canada, so it was not warm. It was cold and it wasn't snowing, but it

00:00:52.660 was raining. Now, I'm not personally complaining because I knew I wouldn't be there for all that

00:00:56.440 long and I had my gear on and so forth. It wasn't really all that bad of an experience for me,

00:01:01.260 but I got to thinking. I was looking around the line and a couple people ahead of me, there was

00:01:05.240 a lady who had her small daughter and she was sort of clinging on to her mom's legs there.

00:01:08.940 I looked back a little bit. There was an older lady who was really trying to pull her coat around

00:01:12.880 her and so forth and just trying to brace herself for the next few minutes of cold. And I looked around

00:01:17.200 and I thought, really? Really? Are we going to be doing this for the next few months? Are we going to be

00:01:22.380 doing this in January, in February, and minus this, minus that, with the wind just howling and

00:01:28.380 hitting up against your cheeks and giving you that frostbite feeling that nobody wants to be standing

00:01:32.840 outside for? Well, it looks like, based on the way a lot of officials are speaking, yes, we are going to

00:01:38.540 be doing that for January, for February, throughout the Canadian winter. And yet, more and more we learn,

00:01:45.140 is coronavirus transmission really happening in stores? I had that front page story in the Toronto Sun,

00:01:51.080 0.1%. That was the percentage of cases that Ontario had chalked up their coronavirus cases to for retail.

00:01:59.440 Oh, and by the way, that wasn't just shoppers getting it from each other. That included employees in the

00:02:04.460 back room, in the storeroom, before and after the store had opened and closed, having their lunch break and so forth,

00:02:10.140 hanging out, in close contact, without masks. Are people really catching coronavirus from each other

00:02:16.620 in these sort of fleeting, brief encounters, passing by in an aisle at a grocery store, or even at the

00:02:22.440 checkout, where, when I went the other day, the same lady was there at the checkout, who has been there

00:02:27.840 working eight-hour shifts, day in, day out, for years, and definitely since the pandemic began in March.

00:02:33.800 And that I know of, that lady has not at all gotten sick. The federal app that Justin Trudeau is always

00:02:39.520 encouraging everyone to download. You know what actually makes it kick in, which, what makes it

00:02:43.820 register contact? 15 minutes of close contact within six feet. 15 minutes or more. Are you ever

00:02:50.980 actually that close to someone for that long in a stranger situation in public like that? That's

00:02:56.700 normally family and so forth. So why are we doing all of these restrictions around grocery stores

00:03:02.420 and elsewhere? Does it add up? That's my question to you. And I think that's a question that more and

00:03:09.060 more Canadians are going to be asking themselves and each other, and yes, the politicians and public

00:03:13.480 health officials, as the cold weather really sets in.

Juno News - December 14, 2020