Tag: expressing opinions

Ottawa Under Siege?

February 18

The headline said “Ottawa under siege” and then “Ottawa under occupation”. I live in Ottawa and frankly, I did not understand what they were talking about. In our neighborhood, there was nothing different from yesterday or the week before. Or the month before. I did not see one single truck pulling through our streets. I went shopping, went for my walks, and continued with my usual activities, including going to the gym, etc. so where is this siege?

Ottawa’s population is one million people; the metro area, including the Quebec side (the City of Gatineau), is one and a half million people. One part of the downtown area is the Parliamentary Precinct that is one kilometer long along Wellington Street and is a narrow band of land housing the Center, East and West blocks plus the Supreme Court building and the Archives (Parliament meets in the Center Block). The northern boundary of the Parliamentary District is the Ottawa River. The Precinct is a narrow sliver of land.

The protesters jammed up Wellington Street and then expanded to occupy the next few streets in the downtown area. Most of the buildings in this area are office buildings but include some condo high-rises. Further out there are more low rise residential apartments. The protesters occupied a four-block area going south from Wellington Street. I do not know how many people live in the occupied zone, but I would hazard to say that there are no more than a thousand.

The diesel fumes, the honking, the dancing, and the parties plus the fires where the protesters drank and conducted themselves in a loud manner surely irritated the nearby residents. And there was taunting as well for people who wore masks. But there was no vandalism to speak of and what I heard was that it was a party type of atmosphere downtown. OK. So the occupation was downtown and covered the kilometer-long Wellington Street and a few parallel streets south of Wellington. So would that be half a square kilometer area: it is one kilometer long and half a kilometer wide? The area of the City of Ottawa is 2800 square kilometers, not including the Quebec side). So we are talking about much less than one percent of the area of Ottawa where the occupation is.

But, the occupied area is an important part of Ottawa, both economically and symbolically.  Many people, including government employees, work remotely, away from the downtown area. Their absence hurt downtown shops economically.

The Parliamentary Precinct is an important tourist destination as well, even in the winter. No question that the protesters create a nuisance for people living and working in the area. But to claim that the City is under siege is an overstatement. It is an exaggeration beyond reason. Outside of the small affected area, the city is carrying on normally as if there were nothing dramatic occurring.

I live nine kilometers from Parliament (by road) and if it were not for the newspapers and television, I would not have known that there was is an “occupation” downtown. For people with no interest in politics and no desire to go downtown, the protest is nothing more than an interesting episode on television. Please, do not exaggerate and sow panic! Just my opinion.

When I talk to a dog instead of a person, then it is time to move on from lockdown!

December 12, 2022

I decided I was ready to socialize when I talked to a dog instead of a person! The owner of the dog was not friendly to my “hello” and so I snapped my fingers at his dog on a leash. The dog ran over to me and smelled my hand. I talked to the dog. The owner then jerked at the leash to get the dog moving on. It is uncommon for me to talk to dogs on the street. The next day I had a detailed talk with the boy collecting shopping carts at Food Basics; I explained to him my glasses fogged up and did not see him offering a cart to me. I explained to the boy the constant challenge of my fogging up glasses when going into stores from the cold into the warm. After wiping my glasses clean, I noticed the larger, professional-looking mask he wore. He explained it was an N95, that he ordered on Amazon made by 3M. It felt good to socialize with a live body; a change from being mostly solitary at home, locked down because of the Covid.

People are different, of course, and have varying needs for interaction with other people. Some are gregarious, while others can probably live more hermit-like. I can exist mostly by myself, but I am on the verge of feeling a need for more interaction with people after a couple of years of isolation.

I hit a triple yesterday when I called my clinic to talk with a doctor. The clinic gave me a phone interview that was alright although not a real in-person experience talking with someone. But the remote consultation resulted in a personal visit with a doctor. An outing like this is welcome now, even if it is a visit to a doctor that could have unpleasant surprises. Further, the doctor sent me to have an x-ray at the medical imaging center.

At the imaging center, where I went there this morning when it was minus twenty-four celsius (it is minus 11 in Fahrenheit)…..it was the chance for another outing! An opportunity arose for another personal chat when we had to line up outside the door to the clinic in the cold before they beckoned us in. I had a long chat about the cold and what it does to your toes in running shoes I had on, with a young woman in front of me. And with the x-ray technician inside, I discussed her profession, training, and the opportunity for jobs in her field. It was very satisfying to physically engage with someone in a conversation.

In normal times, Imeet with friends for coffee, have lunch with my retired colleagues, engage in heavy political discussions at the gym between using the machines and socializing on the ski hills. But these opportunities have dried up over the past two years: the government announcements for caution, the lockdowns, and the daily numbers of infected, hospitalized, and dead people have created a paranoia resulting in people afraid to get close, much less, talk with others.

In this current lockdown, the restaurants cannot serve inside, and the gyms are closed. I discovered that over the last few months, I have become more and more hungry to seek opportunities to talk with people; not only with my friends, but anyone willing to talk. Now, I am not overly gregarious, but I have a certain amount of desire for social interaction. It would seem people have varying needs for socializing, but I think most of us have reached a desire for an increased level of social interaction, similar to what we had been used to in the past. But, the last two years have trained us to be cautious of others and “keep our distance”, so I was wondering how the governments will change their communication strategy to let people know it is alright again to get together. I think this will be a challenge for the government and may take time.

border crossing, coming home

December 5, 2021

Border Crossing, Coming Home

The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) officer yelled at us to put our masks on; we had just driven up to the port of entry from the United States to Canada at Prescott, Ontario. Having driven eight hours from Pennsylvania, we were tired. As well, we thought that the crossing would be pleasant and quick since we had seen no one on the highway leading to, and on, the international bridge to Canada, and our “ArriveCan” forms were completed and submitted. But, when we arrived down the slope from the bridge to the gates, we noticed two lines of cars, maybe ten in each line. And the lines were going through the border very slowly, ten minutes for each traveler. I was getting impatient with the wait since we had our two vaccinations each plus negative covid test results from a couple of days previously: all the requirements for a quick crossing.

When we pulled up to the window, the officer yelled at us and said if a health inspector were present he/she would give us an $850 fine for not wearing masks and he said he was doing us a favor by explaining the requirements at the border; his brusqueness took us aback and we retorted no signs were saying to wear masks driving up to the kiosk where he sat behind glass. Well, that triggered another out-pour from the officer lecturing us that the law is clear and is on the travel website and it was approved by Order-in-Council! There you have it. I tried to digest all this info while putting my mask on. Kathy was driving, and I sat on the passenger seat, I was clearly over the required distancing from the officer, but he said that all of us in the car should be masked. Fortunately for us, he said a health inspector was not present to give us a fine. But I wondered if the CBSA officer had the authority to write a ticket and if not, why bother blasting us. The point could have been more politely expressed. And he would not even acknowledge that a sign could be useful for people ignorant of this requirement.

The officer wanted to see proof of Kathy’s vaccination papers from the Ontario government. He said he could not decipher the writing on the picture of Kathy’s vaccination certificate she took the night before in a hotel. Then, after responding to the standard questions whether we bought cannabis, tobacco products, had firearms, and/or carried $10,000 in cash on us (we said we wish we had the money), he bade us goodby. He was doing his job. Right? Although the experience did not generate a warm feeling in us crossing the border, we were through in a few minutes.

Driving away from the gate,  I realized that he never asked for proof of having a negative covid test done during the last seventy-two hours. The “ArriveCan” form asks if one has had a test, but it does not ask for the results to be uploaded to the form. And the officer at the border never asked about it. So why do we have to have a negative test when its proof is not needed to enter Canada? I guess it is an honor system.

I remember a few years ago, the border agents used to say “welcome back to Canada”. Not this time. This time, it felt like a humiliating experience being told off and lectured to. On the way home and the next day, I searched the internet for hours for the policy on masking at border crossings with no success. Now I do a lot of research on the internet so I was not new in uncovering information. But I could find nothing; I went back to the “ArriveCan” form and the principal item upfront is a warning not to pay anybody for helping with filling out the ArriveCan document. The text states forcefully that there are fraudulent websites and that we should only look for the canada.ca website which provides the form free and also provides help if needed. I wish the CBSA would go after the fraudulent websites and have better communication skills with average Canadians who may not even understand or know what an “Order-in-Council” is and put up a simple sign at the border that a mask should be worn when approaching the kiosk. How difficult would that be?