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Removal of vaccine passport causes mixed feelings in Montreal

Though many have let out a collective sigh of relief after two years of on-and-off COVID-19 restrictions, some have concerns about how fast the province is reopening.

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A semblance of normalcy settled over Montreal on Saturday when, for the first time since September, customers didn’t have to show proof of vaccination to enter businesses like restaurants, gyms and cinemas.

Though many — particularly business owners — have let out a collective sigh of relief after two years of on-and-off restrictions, some have concerns about how fast the province has reopened given the continued presence of COVID-19 and the risks it poses. The vaccine passport was the second-to-last measure to be removed in Quebec, with the mask mandate expected to follow within weeks.

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For Herby Whyne, the owner of Hard Knox Gym on Notre-Dame St., it’s a welcome change. Though his clients were respectful of the measure while it was in place, he said it cost him about one-fifth of his business.

“(The pandemic) did hurt us, and this time around, it was worse,” he said. “We were very close to closing our doors. So I’m very, very grateful and happy that (the removal of the passport) came at the time it did, because things were rough.”

Whyne said he feels comfortable with the change from a health standpoint — the pandemic has resulted in increased cleaning that will be maintained in an environment that already prioritized cleanliness.

“Use common sense — keep washing our hands, keep cleaning our weights and be as safe as we can,” he said. “But this is life — this is it.”

Beyond the financial effect on the gym, Whyne said his clients, like much of the population, have been affected both mentally and physically by the pandemic.

“It’s out of control,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more kids coming in now with anxiety, parents coming in with anxiety, couples coming in just needing to get that frustration out. You know, the buildup over all this time … there’s been a lot of damage throughout all this.”

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Claudia Nicole and Micah Milton, who both work in the restaurant industry, enjoy a coffee at Lili and Oli café in Montreal on Saturday, March 12, 2022.
Claudia Nicole and Micah Milton, who both work in the restaurant industry, enjoy a coffee at Lili and Oli café in Montreal on Saturday, March 12, 2022. Photo by Allen McInnis /Montreal Gazette

At Lili & Oli, a café with locations in the Sud-Ouest and Verdun, owner Patrick Hebert said the removal of the passport will make the day-to-day easier logistically, but he’s not sure he’s comfortable people who chose not to follow recommendations are free to come in now.

“A lot of the feeling that I’ve been getting is that there’s a lot of bragging, like ‘the kids can go free now,’” he said. “I find it a bit insulting to those who have followed the rules. Regardless of whether you’re for it or against it, there’s still that kind of respect for each other’s opinions that I feel is gone.”

Micah Milton, the head chef at Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce in the Plateau who popped into Lili & Oli’s Notre-Dame St. location Saturday morning, said it feels like the world is opening up again.

“We got vaxxed up, so we’ve been able to go out this whole time, but … it feels like we’re pulling back a bit, which is the best feeling of the whole thing,” he said. “I feel personally not as affected — business is about to get very busy, so in that light it’s a little intense, but beyond that it’s nice to feel things pulling back a bit.”

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Claudia Nicole, who works at the restaurant with Milton, added the province’s reopening feels like “a long time coming.”

Two years ago to the day, Quebecers nervously awaited instructions from government officials after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Today, with most restrictions being removed shortly after an alarming wave of a more transmissible variant and the looming threat of another, some people feel completely abandoned.

South Shore resident Krista Mines has two children and another on the way. Though she and her husband are boosted, her youngest can’t yet get vaccinated and she remains at-risk because of her pregnancy.

“We were happily going back out to restaurants after the major Omicron wave went down and things were feeling a little more normal again,” she said. “We like going out, we like going to local businesses who have been struggling especially, and now without vaccine passports … we don’t have that comfort level anymore.”

Mines said she’s had concerns over the measures since the start of the pandemic, but especially so now.

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“It just seems like a whole lot of extra risk put into our lives all at once and it could have been done more slowly,” she said. “It just seems like they’re rushing to just say life is normal again without giving time for life to actually be normal again.”

Concordia journalism student Kaity Brady shares Mines’s concerns.

“To have (the passport) lifted just when it seems like objectively, we are in a good place, feels like we’re just going to torch it for no reason and I also worry just about the future, too,” she said. “I mean sure, the politicians can quote how vaccinated we are now, but when no one has to keep getting them … then the next variant might come along, and I just feel like we’re sort of marching down towards disaster later in the year, and we’re sort of individualizing a collective thing. We can’t individualize public health.”

kthomas@postmedia.com

twitter.com/katelynthomas

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