It Was Horrible

'They’re going to make me lose my job at this certain date in October.'

Dan and his wife, Heather. Photo taken in Ottawa, supplied by them.

In early 2020, when much of the workforce was advised to remain at home due to a scary, poorly understood virus rapidly spreading from China to the rest of the world, Dan Scott didn’t have that luxury. As an aircraft mechanic, his labour was considered an essential service. His employer gave him a letter to show police should he be questioned while travelling to or from work.

Entire planeloads of disposable gloves and medical masks were being rushed to China via chartered aircraft. In his late forties at the time, Dan helped make those flights happen. When a charter flies into locales in which the aircraft company has no maintenance contract, a mechanic must be brought along. Dan volunteered for one of the Shanghai flights. He was fully prepared to fly into the storm, half a world away, rather than remain safely back in Ontario. In the end, someone else did that flight, but Dan was part of a team that delivered mobile hospital units to Puerto Rico. He flew into Chile and elsewhere.

During the first year of the pandemic, therefore, Dan was a hero. Praise for essential workers was widespread and effusive. How quickly times change. By the end of the following year he'd become a zero - discarded, barred from his workplace after declining COVID vaccines.

When he climbed into Rich’s van for the six-hour drive to Ottawa, he'd already been through the wringer. He describes himself as a "basic, simple person," a practical guy. But "things weren't adding up," he says. And once the authorities started forcing the vaccines on people, his misgivings multiplied.

At the time, his wife worked as a pharmacy technician at a local hospital. "She saw firsthand," he says. "A lot of the stuff that was coming in was not normal." Myocarditis, blocked arteries. "Perfectly healthy triathlete coming in with a heart attack. What’s in this vaccine? I’m not a sheep. I don’t just follow because everybody else is. If I think something's odd, I question it. I hold back a little."

Neither he nor his wife were comfortable taking the shots. They had two teenaged daughters at home, and their paycheques were now at risk. "I went on stress leave," says Dan,

It was horrible. They’re going to make me lose my job at this certain date in October. I was super stressed. I wasn't sleeping at night. I was very irritable with my family. I was in the process of talking to my doctors about it. They’re saying 'Oh, just get the jab, it’s in your best interest.'

 I’m like, 'I don’t want the jab.'

Those responsible for assessing his short-term disability claim on behalf of an insurance company never once met him in person. The innumerable questions over the telephone always seemed to circle back to the one he refused to answer, "Are you vaxxed?"

I’m like, 'That’s my personal information. I don’t need to tell you that because you’re not my doctor.'

'Oh well, you can just tell me.'

'It’s my personal information, I don’t wish to share it.'

'OK, yeah, we understand.' And then they'd repeat it, 'So you don’t want to share that you’re vaxxed or not.' Three weeks went by. No answer whether I got my short term disability. Then, on the Monday, nope it was denied. OK, I’ll appeal it. Another three weeks.

I was still getting paid, they were paying me my vacation time, which was very fortunate. So I had some money when I was off on my trip to Ottawa. But my short term disability didn't go through. They denied it.

Dan describes the weeks he spent in the nation's capital as unforgettable. “I’ve done a lot of things in this crazy world, been a lot of places,” he says. "But I mean, driving to Ottawa and seeing thousands of people on the overpasses, waving and cheering us on. Oh my goodness, that was inspirational for Rich and I both. We were in tears."

The three weeks that followed were, he continues,

truly memorable. A lot of goodhearted people constantly asking us if we needed something. Helping us with laundry and gas money. Bringing us food, snacks. The generosity was incredible. The love that was pouring out from everybody was overwhelming.

The first week was brutally cold. Storage space was limited, and food left outdoors froze solid. Dan says these problems were addressed by the arrival of a refrigerated trailer, which got parked a little behind them on Wellington Street. Known as ‘reefers,’ they're normally used to transport perishables to supermarkets. It’s Dan’s understanding that two brothers near Sarnia, Ontario (an eight-hour drive away), sent the truck to Ottawa to support the truckers. It had been filled, beforehand, with $15,000 of donated food.

There was "lots of bacon, sausages, hamburgers. They had juices and water. They had cereals, they had soups - you name it. It was a grocery store all in the back of this reefer." Skids were recycled into stairs to make access easier. People were "constantly sorting through everything, and reorganizing," he remembers. Food donations kept flooding in, until eventually the trailer couldn’t hold any more.

Along the streets on which the truckers were parked, banquet tables displayed snacks, bags of apples or potatoes, an array of toiletries, ear plugs by the boxful - all free for the taking. Everywhere you looked, food was being prepared. In Dan’s words,

The homeless were so well fed. There was so much food. I mean, the BBQs were just constantly running from morning until after dinner. Whatever their little niche was, their religious beliefs, the types of foods that they eat. They were sharing it with everybody. It was interesting, just to try all the different foods.

Everybody was just helping everybody. I personally went to a [local charity] where we donated a bunch of food and clothing. Because people were bringing tons of clothing - like coats, socks, underwear, hats, mitts, hand warmers, feet warmers. And we literally grabbed a bunch of it and filled the back of this lady’s jeep and took it there.

next installment: Tears and Prayers