00:00:00.000I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the feelings of restlessness,
00:00:07.900annoyance, and even doubt are starting to kick in as we enter the sixth or seventh week of the
00:00:13.780pandemic. I can't even keep track at this point. In my private conversations, I am hearing that
00:00:19.380more people are ready to reopen the economy, but they may not express that publicly because
00:00:24.880the public voices that are expressing that or are calling for reopening of the economy
00:00:29.680are often getting mocked. This sentiment that I'm detecting and that other people are detecting
00:00:35.300as well coincides with an Angus Reid survey published on April 20th that found concern
00:00:41.340about personally contracting the virus has fallen for the first time since early March, dropping
00:00:47.040from 73% two weeks ago to 61%. So fear of the coronavirus itself is on the decline. As for
00:00:56.640reopening the economy, on one side we have the pro-lockdown stay-home crowd. I've seen
00:01:03.080some refer to these people as social distance warriors, which I think is a hilarious term.
00:01:08.640The social distance warriors often make fun of or criticize the anti-lockdown crowd, so
00:01:15.620the people who want to open up, for just being all about GDP and money and they just want the
00:01:20.680cash to start flowing again. But I think we should be a little more charitable of their
00:01:25.060position in that the anti-lockdown crowd, they're concerned about jobs and family finances and
00:01:31.980paying rent and in some cases government overreach as demonstrated by the nonsensical fines that
00:01:38.840have been given out by bylaw officers and the nonsensical closure of parks. We've now got
00:01:45.300a $180 billion deficit to deal with, and that was the figure from a couple weeks ago, so it's
00:01:51.020surely more now. So how is this deficit going to affect the quality of life for the next generations
00:01:57.560of citizens who will be the ones responsible for paying that off? And at least when I talk about
00:02:03.920reopening the economy, I'm not talking about only businesses and jobs and restaurants and retail.
00:02:08.900I'm talking about the restoration of quality of life, so the reopening of our lives, which includes
00:02:15.440the reopening of parks, playgrounds, beaches, recreational facilities, basketball courts,
00:02:22.120everything like that. Now on Saturday, there was a relatively large anti-lockdown protest in Ontario
00:02:28.020in front of Queen's Park. It attracted between 100 and 200 people. And as my True North colleague
00:02:34.440Anthony Fury wrote on Twitter in reference to these protests, he said,
00:02:38.820a word of caution. The fact that anti-lockdown protests happening later today may include some
00:02:44.480fringe voices with ridiculous signs saying silly things doesn't somehow negate the need for us to
00:02:49.920prioritize a smart, targeted reopening of the economy as soon as is possible. And if I can add to this
00:02:56.620point, I think a lot of people agree with some of the points that the protesters are making. Not all of
00:03:03.880it, but you know, about how the economic effects of the shutdowns are going to wreak havoc on people's
00:03:09.740lives, about how small businesses are closing down, about how our civil liberties are being encroached
00:03:16.440upon. All of these things are valid concerns. But then you see how these protesters are being mocked on
00:03:23.140social media, or you see that some of the protesters who are being highlighted in the media might be
00:03:29.040individuals who are, who have particularly fringe ideas, or they might be behaving in an aggressive
00:03:34.960manner, which is all a turnoff. And then someone who's at home, kind of thinking to themselves,
00:03:41.000well, yeah, I would like to go back to work. I would like my kids to go back to school. I think
00:03:45.460it's silly that they've closed the parks and playgrounds. Those people will now suppress those
00:03:50.460thoughts because they don't want to be associated with, you know, the fringe, the people who are being
00:03:55.080mocked. So they learn to just stay quiet. You know, they don't want to be made fun of. And Premier Ford
00:04:02.400also spoke out against the protesters. Here's a clip from Saturday.
00:04:06.860These people that are absolutely irresponsible, it's reckless to do what they're doing. And personally,
00:04:14.840I think it's selfish. We have healthcare workers down the street at these hospitals working around the
00:04:22.3603 o'clock to protect the community. 99.9% of the people in this province are working together, side by side. That's the reason we were able to see a flattening of the curve.
00:04:34.460But then we have, you know, a bunch of yahoos out in the front of Queen's Park sitting there protesting that the place isn't open. As they're breaking the law and putting everyone in jeopardy, putting themselves in jeopardy, putting the workers in jeopardy.
00:04:52.120And God forbid one of them end up in the hospital down the street.
00:04:56.080Vancouver has been host to a few smaller protests as well with a couple dozen people.
00:05:02.180And Dan Dix, who runs a YouTube channel, he posted a small clip of himself at the protest on Twitter.
00:05:10.240And it blew up because some blue checks had some choice words for him.
00:05:15.820Notably, the actor Seth Rogen called him an idiot, but with some expletives thrown in there.
00:05:23.200And some other minor Canadian figures were just piling on, calling him an idiot and a moron.
00:05:29.480And so if you yourself are skeptical of some aspects of the lockdowns, but you're following the reaction to the protesters here,
00:05:38.500well, you're going to learn pretty fast that you're going to want to stay quiet unless you want to be mocked.
00:05:43.680And so it's very likely that we will see these protests continue to be written off as fringe and ridiculous for the next little while.
00:05:52.720But, or it could, they could get bigger, they could gain momentum.
00:05:57.040So we will have to wait and see on that end.
00:05:59.660I'm Lindsay Shepard, investigative journalism fellow with True North.