It Was a Prison
'Here in Quebec, it was terrible'
Sandra is from the West Island of Montreal. Her late father was a French Canadian truck driver. Her ex-husband, with whom she has two daughters, is also a truck driver.
A professional cook, she spent much of the pandemic at a northern Quebec hunting and fishing lodge. The dining room seats 22. Alone in the kitchen except for another person who helped with the dishes and the cleanup, she worked 16 to 18-hour days.
Rising at 3:00 am, Sandra served high protein breakfasts to up to 20 contract workers affiliated with a Hydro Quebec project. After they departed at 4:15 am (with boxed lunches also prepared by her), she switched to gourmet cooking. The American fishermen who'd paid handsomely to be there enjoyed breakfasts of eggs florentine and benedict. Dinners were attractively garnished affairs of four to six courses. Mushroom bisque, lobster, house-smoked trout, potatoes Parisienne, chocolate eclairs, fancy layer cakes, and fine cheese.
Once a week she fetched groceries in her own pickup truck, driving two hours on a logging road, followed by 40 minutes on a regular road, into the town of Chicoutimi. "When I buy all my food, I need to go at four in the morning and come back around 5 pm, to make sure I have time to do the supper," she says.
In September 2021, Sandra lost her job. Although the official paperwork said otherwise, "the vaccine was the reason why they pushed me out. But it was OK. I have a choice, and I take my choice to stay unvaccinated." Both of her daughters, in their twenties, received COVID shots in order to continue their education. Both have experienced menstrual disruption - one after the first shot, the other after the second. "I don't know if I'll be a grandma now," she says.
After her job ended, Sandra booked three weeks at an all-inclusive in Mexico. But a shadow loomed. She knew that getting back into the country as an unvaxxed person would be a hassle. Moreover, she says, "If I come back, I can't go anywhere. I can't travel. So that's the reason I decided to stay six months there." (Beginning October 30, 2021, anyone aged 12+ needed to be at least partially vaccinated to board a plane in Canada. By November 30, the requirement was full vaccination plus two weeks.)
Sandra planned to remain in Mexico until late March. Her rented condo was small, but she had "sun and Vitamin D," and the beach was a three-minute walk away. She continued to follow French-language news outlets from afar, however, and could see that matters in la belle province were going from bad to worse. "I'm a patriot," she says simply, when explaining why she changed her mind and returned a few days before Christmas. Her homeland was in trouble.
During the final month of 2021, the contrast between these two countries was stark. In her words:
In Mexico, no masks, no nothing. And here in Quebec, it was terrible, terrible. In Mexico it was a free life. Here it was a prison. If I need to go to the big grocery store or Canadian Tire, it was closed for me.
It was crazy. For me, it was unacceptable. Â Â
She says she understood the Freedom Convoy instantly. "All my life, my father was a truck driver, my husband was a truck driver, so I was always on a truck. It was normal. When I see that big movement, I need to participate in that movement. I know it's necessary to be there."
next installment: Defrosting Sausages Under the Hood
Great profile! And now I want to get to know Sandra, and be invited for dinner too!
You're documenting what few Canadians understand ... the lockdown was never necessary and, as we could all see, proven to be useless when many countries remained open.