Be Careful What You Wish For

Now that the U.S. has announced its land borders will be open to vaccinated Canadians sometime in November, many, especially snowbirds, are exultant. There are, however, numerous reasons to temper that enthusiasm, including the poor rate of full vaccination south of us (only 57%), the ever-present threat of violence, and the other perennial American pandemic, hatred and racism, the latter of which I shall turn to in a moment.

Edward Keenan suggests the need for caution in his column today. He cites Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on non-essential travel:

“I’m going to quote Eileen de Villa, the Toronto Public Health officer, who offered some really good advice,” Freeland said. “She said, ‘Just try to do the things you need to do, and maybe hold back on doing the things you just want to do.’ And I think, if you just keep doing that a few more weeks, Canada can really fully put COVID behind us.

The key medical authority in her government, Health Minister Patty Hajdu, said over the weekend that Canadians should travel to the U.S. only when it’s “absolutely necessary,” specifically warning against going to some U.S. states where COVID-19 is “very, very out of control.”

But as I suggested above, there are other reasons to avoid unnecessary travel to the U.S., including its twin plagues of violence and racism. It is the latter I will examine next, and I have to warn you, it gets ugly.

There is a man named Michael Slawson who has been exposed on Twitter for what he really is, and what follows is somewhat hard to watch:

H/t Danesh and Michael Mc

It also appears that Slawson has an unhealthy interest in young girls:

I am happy to report that Slawson's Twitter account has been suspended. I am sure I'm but one of hundreds who lodged a complaint about him, so can hardly take credit for his removal. And one would be foolish to think that there are not countless others like him still spewing their hatred on various social media platforms. 

My admiration and respect go out to Danesh and Michael Mc for exposing this dangerous malefactor whose hatred and perversion is but one of the many reasons I cannot see myself ever returning to the United States.

 

 

Poor, Poor Pitiful Me

 That seems to be the reaction of our hapless snowbirds, now that February 22 has been announced as the date international travellers arriving by air will have to quarantine for up to three days at designated hotels, costing them about $2000.

It just isn't fair, according to our older citizens, apparently too fragile to endure Canadian winters but hale enough to risk Covid-19 in southern hotspots.

Valorie Crooks, Canada research chair in health service geographies, says:

There are many reasons behind snowbirds’ decisions to travel to warmer climates each year, including during the pandemic ....

“You get a lot of people discussing things like improved arthritis symptoms, even changes to the amount of medication that is required.”

Others have planned their retirement finances around “snowbirding” and the pandemic has not changed that budgetary reality, she said.

It's not as if they weren't warned about travelling during a pandemic:

 Toronto-based insurance broker Martin Firestone said he’s advised against travelling during the pandemic, but more than a thousand of his snowbird clients are abroad and they’re all opposed to the hotel quarantine.

He said about a third of his clients headed south in November and hundreds more were spurred on in January by the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccine in Florida for people age 65 and older, though Firestone is careful not to count his clients among “vaccine tourists,” since most own property there.

Exceptions should be made, according to people like Denise Dumont, a Canadian living full time in Fort Lauderdale, asserting

 snowbirds “don’t act like regular visitors.”

“I don’t think it is fair to treat them like a simple visitor who will go for an all-inclusive two-week vacation in Mexico,” said Dumont, the editor in chief of Le Soleil de la Floride, an online source for francophone news in Florida.

As much as some might feel for the plight of these hapless oldsters, the only thing I can suggest is that on their return flight, they might want to give a listen to the following to reflect on the often cruel vagaries of life.

 

 

Snowbirds Must Pay The Price For Their Selfishness

 

Like the majority of Canadians, my wife and I have taken all the precautions we can during this long season of Covid-19. We have not seen our son and daughter-in-law, who live out West, for over a year. Our daughter and her husband we have only seen outside the house, observing physical distancing. We shop for groceries once every two weeks in a large store, double-masking the whole time. 

None of these measures are pleasant, but they are wholly necessary if we are ever to come to grips with this pernicious virus.

Others feel differently, gathering willy-nilly as the spirit moves them, be it through gatherings of extended families, parties, or the other myriad circumstances in which close contact inevitably occurs. 

As a senior, for me the most egregious violation of the spirit of the precautions come from the snowbirds who have willfully chosen to ignore safety and gone on their annual hegiras to Florida, Arizona, etc., their compelling reasons including how hard the Canadian winter can be, their joints need the respite warm weather offers, etc. ad nauseam. For them I feel no sympathy; indeed, contempt might be a better description of my sentiment.

And their plaints, when something goes wrong, ring hollow in my ears. There is, for example, the recent case of a Nova Scotia couple who sojourned to Florida, where things quickly turned horrible awry:

A Kings County couple are facing hefty medical bills after they both became ill with COVID-19 while in Florida. Debbie Mailman of Aylesford says she and her husband, Wayne, travel annually to Florida for six months of the year because their arthritis, muscular issues, fibromyalgia and other existing conditions would leave them in in pain if they stayed in the cold Canadian winter. “If we stayed home we'd be in agony all the time,” she said. “We just come here for the warm weather.”

Their quest for respite didn't go exactly as planned, They quickly fell ill from Covid, resulting in hospitalization that will cost more than $300,000 for her husband's treatment and an unknown amount for hers. 

Clearly, I am not the only one who feels ill-disposed toward selfish indulgences. The following letters from Star readers, reproduced from both the online and print edition, reflect this fact: (I had some formatting problems here, so please forgive the inconsistencies.)

I do not feel one ounce of pity for Canadians who left Canada and have returned, or will be returning, and face a substantial cost to quarantine.

We have been advised for months not to travel. These people are just self-centred and selfish to think only about what they want. The COVID-19 virus and its variants got to this country by travellers, no other way.

Susan Magill, Gravenhurst, Ont.

 

Snowbirds must face consequences of selfishness

• Toronto Star
• 8 Feb 2021

Re Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’, Feb. 4

 

Snowbirds and other Canadians who travelled abroad deserve no sympathy.

 

One traveller mentions being punished for wanting to see the sun. Well, there are many Canadians who would also like to see the sun and close family they haven’t seen for a year and thankfully most of them are respecting the travel advisory and staying home. So no sympathy for those who confuse wants with needs.

Another traveller mentions that New Zealand made an exception to their strict quarantine rules for those who travelled before the new rules came into effect. Well, Canada has had a travel advisory since last spring and those who travelled chose to ignore the rules so, again, no sympathy here.

          A snowbird mentions that the quarantine hotels will be a financial hardship. Well, I’m sure that              Canadians who are struggling financially will be very understanding of those “poor” Canadians              stuck in their second home in the sunny U.S. Snowbirds are rightly facing the consequence of                having ignored the travel advisory that has been around since last spring.

          Claude Gannon, Markham

Re Peeved Canadian snowbirds devising plans to avoid hotel-quarantine ‘jail’, Feb. 4

As snowbirds with a Florida home, we chose to stay in Canada this winter.

          I have no sympathy for those who decided to travel during this worldwide pandemic and now                  may have to pay for a hotel stay on their return to Canada. I know teenagers with more common            sense than some of the seniors interviewed for this article.

 Giving up a winter in the sun is not the worst thing that could happen to a person. We have seen a lot of changes in travel restrictions during the pandemic and should be aware, after having seen what happened in the early months with people on cruises who became ill and had difficulty returning home, that nothing is guaranteed. Also, even though seniors are able to get travel insurance, they are in a group that is often hospitalized with age-related illness. Again, with hospitals full of people suffering from COVID-19 in the U.S., getting the needed health care could be a major problem.

I would hope common sense could make a comeback in our senior population.

 

Edith Ross, Thornhill