Juno News - January 05, 2022


Quebec is the most locked down place in North America


Episode Stats

Length

13 minutes

Words per Minute

187.13509

Word Count

2,500

Sentence Count

10

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the Andrew Lawton Show
00:00:05.880 I've been spending a fair bit of time I realize on Ontario and now again I did a great interview
00:00:14.460 I think it was great anyway before the break with Jason Kenney we cover the whole country here
00:00:18.900 one province I don't cover all that often admittedly is Quebec and part of that is because
00:00:24.120 it's very difficult to find good reporting coming out of Quebec but one person who's been doing a
00:00:30.240 tremendous amount of that is Marie Oakes with the Westphalian Times who has been doing what no other
00:00:36.440 English language journalists are in Quebec with a couple of exceptions I think Rebel does some
00:00:41.340 great work there and has a small team but again hard to compete with the Radio Canada and the
00:00:46.020 Montreal Gazettes which are doing a lot of less than stellar reporting on the pandemic Marie Oakes
00:00:51.780 joins me now good to talk to you thanks for coming on today well thank you Andrew for having me on and
00:00:57.360 yeah that was kind of my focus when I even got involved on the internet was that's exactly what
00:01:04.080 I noticed people were not really looking at what was happening in Quebec and I was pretty shocked
00:01:09.540 a lot of it is in the French media but it doesn't really make its way to English media whether it be
00:01:15.960 the we scandal and you know all the happenings in Quebec with that or like we're going to talk
00:01:21.520 about lockdowns curfews those sort of things that most Canadians and even Americans have no idea
00:01:27.140 that's even going on yeah well I think that's so key and I mean obviously we don't have time to go
00:01:33.600 through the litany of you know reasons that Quebec and the rest of Canada are distinct places but I
00:01:39.120 know we have seen a little bit of media coverage in the last few weeks about Bill 21 for example the
00:01:43.900 the religious symbols ban because that had a rearing of its head in the last little while and I think
00:01:50.860 that underscored that Quebec tends to get away with a lot in part because you have this this political
00:01:56.840 and media culture that that tends not to want to confront these issues head-on so you bring that
00:02:01.700 into a lockdown context Quebec is the only province in the country that has not just imposed a curfew but
00:02:08.020 has now as of New Year's Eve re-imposed a curfew so you can actually be fined just for walking around
00:02:15.200 outside your home in Quebec in the evening yeah and the thing that's so insane about this is the last
00:02:22.660 curfew is 8 p.m so a lot of people who are workers essential workers they couldn't do their grocery
00:02:28.520 shopping most people get off work say 5 or 6 p.m well most of the grocery stores were closing at 7 p.m
00:02:34.840 an hour before the curfew was put in place because they need to get home too because they don't want to
00:02:40.120 get stopped by police and it just became really tedious for so many people and this go around I
00:02:47.740 think a lot of people are noticing police are less likely to pull you over less likely to give you as
00:02:53.740 hard of a time because I think even they are realizing how annoying this is for them to even
00:02:59.080 enforce I mean obviously there's going to be those police officers who will be enforcing it but what I'm
00:03:05.260 hearing from people on the ground is it seems like everyone's changing their tune with this go around
00:03:12.040 with the curfew that's actually an interesting point you raise because I know last time you had Yankee
00:03:18.920 Pollack with Rebel News who I think was just on a matter of principle just walking around Quebec after
00:03:23.980 curfew every every every night and he was reporting what was happening there and and we were seeing that
00:03:29.200 police were being very aggressive not just with him but with other people they were encountering so
00:03:33.600 you're thinking this time in the first few days this has been on the books police in Quebec or even
00:03:39.760 Montreal specifically you think they've pared things down a little bit oh they definitely have I mean of
00:03:47.100 course there's going to be those city police that like this ounce of power you know feel like it's their
00:03:53.400 duty to enforce this but we're also seeing they're being a bit more lenient with say the other night when
00:04:00.080 there was the curfew protesters they didn't right away give them a bunch of fines they waited about
00:04:05.460 30 minutes to an hour and then they gave the fines after you know telling a few of them hey you want
00:04:11.460 to leave or else you're going to get a ticket and I talked to some people and they said yeah I left I
00:04:16.320 did not want to get that ticket you know I made my point I'm leaving so I know it's hard to ascribe
00:04:23.200 motive but from your conversations or even just your intuition do you think that police are being
00:04:28.940 deliberately laxer on this because of perhaps not fully buying into it or do you think they're
00:04:35.720 concerned about what we're seeing in Europe what we're seeing in places like Amsterdam in places
00:04:41.240 like Vienna where citizens are saying you know what we're we're not taking this anymore and the
00:04:46.560 protests become a lot more heated I mean that's possible I wouldn't think a police officer would be
00:04:52.800 really necessarily thinking about that because like we even discussed most people in Canada don't
00:04:57.200 even really know what's happening in Quebec so to really think that people in Quebec exactly know the
00:05:01.980 situation happening in Europe I don't really think that would be the case I just think everyone's pretty
00:05:07.700 exhausted I mean I'm seeing people on the ground who are pretty before they were fine with the
00:05:15.040 restrictions they understood it really speaking out not scared of the consequences of them speaking out in
00:05:22.060 their social circles I'm seeing a lot of young people being pretty upset by this and the police
00:05:26.960 force say in a place like Montreal is quite young so I think they're also just fed up at this point
00:05:33.780 thinking oh we have to do this again because the it didn't make the police look super good because the
00:05:39.380 curfew is I would say generally not very popular but there was just so many people in Quebec being like
00:05:46.740 even though I don't think the curfew necessarily works I'm happy that the government is putting
00:05:52.180 at least something in place to make me feel safer would it be fair to say that Quebec has been the
00:05:59.160 most locked down jurisdiction in Canada except for perhaps you know like the northern territories which
00:06:05.180 I know have had some some very restrictive measures I mean definitely I don't think anywhere else has had
00:06:11.120 this curfew I would say in overall North America in totality you're seeing so many people in Quebec
00:06:16.960 fleeing Quebec they're either going to Florida for vacation because they're like okay these restrictions
00:06:23.680 may last four months and then come spring they're going to lift them again and I'm seeing so many people
00:06:29.820 in Quebec move their entire livelihood their livelihoods their entire lives to Mexico I know like a large
00:06:38.700 amount of people who did that the first lockdown but now even more people this go around
00:06:43.660 well you did a video not long ago talking about yourself making an exodus from Canada explain what led to
00:06:51.400 that well so I am both Canadian and American so I don't want to get a bunch of messages asking how I did
00:06:59.840 it so that's how I was able to leave yeah you'll be dispensing immigration advice for the next several
00:07:05.780 weeks now thanks to that okay she got it in the easy way she had citizenship yeah because a lot of
00:07:10.960 people do ask me how did you do it how did you do it and unfortunately like I can't give that
00:07:16.600 information I wish I had more you know information of how you can do it as well but the reason I did it
00:07:23.820 was with all the border restrictions it was nearly impossible for my family who did not have their
00:07:30.760 Canadian citizenship for them to see me and it was just so hard for me to also go see them and have
00:07:36.820 to deal with the quarantining process on the way back I have many animals I'm an animal lover I could
00:07:43.940 not logistically figure out how I could be two week quarantine not allowed to leave my house and own dogs
00:07:50.220 so it just did not make logistical sense because there was no exemption for quarantine if you had to
00:07:56.580 walk an animal and I lived in an apartment so it was impossible so at that point I was like I miss
00:08:02.160 my family I do not believe Quebec is ever going to be getting out of these lockdowns I have been
00:08:08.600 predicting it for over a year now that this was going to happen again there was going to be another
00:08:14.140 curfew they were going to be really strong on restrictions because a lot of people in Quebec
00:08:19.080 do accept these restrictions and the popularity of the government's extremely high so I just had a really
00:08:25.880 bad outlook on the situation and unfortunately I had a family member in the U.S. become really sick
00:08:33.440 they had a stroke and I wouldn't have been able to say goodbye to them luckily they lived through this
00:08:40.320 but I wanted to spend time with my family and I think a lot of people feel very similar to me and
00:08:46.020 that's why they're also getting their entire family out of places like Quebec and other places in Canada
00:08:51.380 going to places like Mexico where they feel like they can live their lives yeah I mean I never thought
00:08:57.620 you know Mexico would be the bastion of liberty lovers but I've heard from a few people that have
00:09:03.640 or more commonly people that have decided to go down to Florida and Texas and I'm glad you shared what
00:09:09.600 you did Marie because in a lot of cases people tend to talk about this in in ideological terms of you
00:09:14.800 know I'm tired of living in an unfree place I want to go to a free place you've just described there
00:09:19.460 some very real and very legitimate reasons where you could not live your lives it wasn't just this
00:09:26.220 moral objection to continuing to live in Quebec but but actually an inability to live your life
00:09:31.040 and interact with your family and your pets the way I think any person should be able to
00:09:35.320 yeah it was just such a heavy burden on me because the more and more I lived in Quebec I lived in Quebec
00:09:42.160 for about I think six or seven years I first was like oh I want to get out of here I don't like it here
00:09:48.000 and then I really put my roots down in Quebec I was looking at you know possibly buying my first
00:09:53.160 home in Saint Adele I was thinking about staying for the rest of my life even though I'm an Anglophone
00:09:58.620 I was like okay I'm going to try and figure this out even though there was already so many blockades
00:10:03.840 for me to live in Quebec I'm a type 1 diabetic very hard to get in the health care system in Quebec
00:10:09.640 for that reason and the Quebec government really just pushed me out and so did the federal government
00:10:16.360 with the border restrictions and even the U.S. government with their also restrictions with
00:10:21.720 Canada it was just this whole tornado I thought right now at this time I'd be living the rest of
00:10:27.660 my life in you know a more rural part of Quebec but obviously that didn't happen
00:10:33.160 I just out of curiosity here do you find in Quebec because you mentioned that people tend to support
00:10:39.120 what's happening and that I don't think is unique to Quebec that's been one of the biggest
00:10:43.400 disheartening things I've seen elsewhere now I think the last lockdown might be the the exception
00:10:48.220 in Ontario but a lot of people seem to be willing to go along with this do you find there's a language
00:10:53.180 divide where Anglo Quebecers and Franco Quebecers are approaching this differently or does that not
00:10:59.060 factor into it from what you've seen I don't know if that's necessarily a factor I would say the factor
00:11:06.260 is with the French is only so far as because they are stuck in this ecosystem or this echo chamber of
00:11:15.440 the French media and the French media in Quebec is really pro lockdown there was even a journalist at
00:11:21.960 the last last press conference saying you know this is the consequences of letting unvaccinated people
00:11:28.360 like be allowed to be in Quebec and asking if they're going to mandate the vaccine for everyone
00:11:34.320 how that might happen I don't really know exactly and asking if they're going to extend the vaccine
00:11:39.540 passport to more places than it already is so you have a media in Quebec that has no pushback there's
00:11:46.400 no like opposition media like say maybe more so in English speaking part of Canada or like the US
00:11:53.060 so I think a lot of that is the issue with Quebec and for francophone speakers is really the only media
00:12:02.100 they have access to is a media that upholds the government rule doesn't speak against it is no
00:12:08.220 opposition to the government is a talking piece for the government is super pro lockdown super pro
00:12:13.960 restrictions where it just becomes really difficult for anyone who is French speaking to break out of that
00:12:22.760 bubble because all they know is that and when there has been you know this media this radio show in Quebec
00:12:30.240 city that was speaking out against the government the government pulled their ads so they gave them
00:12:36.020 a consequence hey you're speaking out against us well the way you make money is through government ads
00:12:41.400 like so many media all over Canada so that that's what they'll do in opposition times yeah very well said
00:12:49.500 but as I mentioned when we were setting up this interview even with you having fled Quebec you still do a
00:12:54.960 better job covering the story of what's happening in Quebec with lockdown than any other English
00:13:00.240 reporters in Canada and I'd venture to say probably a lot of the the French reporters too I just don't
00:13:04.640 follow their work as much as I probably could Marie Oakes of the Westphalian Times an absolute pleasure
00:13:10.120 thanks very much for coming on today thank you Andrew have a good one thanks for listening to the
00:13:15.240 Andrew Lawton show support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news