We have greatly praised the “exemplary” solidarity of Quebecers in the face of the health crisis.
This is not my point of view: there is confusion between solidarity and conformism. Because what is social solidarity if not the recognition and protection of the weak links in our society? These weak links that are the poor, the marginalized, the crippled, the refugees, the minorities who live in isolation, the homeless, the excluded, even the artists who survive on incomes equivalent to those of social assistance…
However, what is reflected in the current relentlessness against the unvaccinated (who find themselves here in Quebec, mostly in these groups), is precisely this lack of solidarity: we are calling for scapegoats, punitive measures against these ” mindless” that would put us in danger, while the real causes of our precarious situation, accentuated by the pandemic, are above all among the following: first, the dismantling of our health system, year after year and its bogus reforms, which do not are not, while taking care to protect the achievements of the top of the medical hierarchy; second, the indecent growth of social inequalities. For example, the salary of some medical specialists is twenty times higher than that of a teacher, not to mention the salaries of CEOs of large companies, also around twenty times higher than the average salary of their middle managers, and their annual bonuses, the amount of which would be enough to support a family of four for ten years…
Finally, the growing lack of trust in our governments and in our institutions, which are less and less transparent, paternalistic rather than democratic, a lack of trust fueled by the omnipotence of big business, the big tech and the big pharma, who decide our lives while our leaders are content to govern in reaction to the polls, responding to the pressures of public opinion which will or will not return them to power in the next election.
These findings generate distrust and powerlessness among citizens, who see clearly that their government and its institutions are no longer fulfilling their role of protecting their interests.
At the moment, public opinion is not happy, it is even disgusted, outraged, scandalized by the behavior of the non-vaccinated and other Ostrogoths. Hence this display of increasingly authoritarian, repressive and anti-democratic measures that our government is hastening to put on the table to appease the discontent of right-thinking people, those people who call themselves “in solidarity”, while the measures proposed (including the latest: making the “cursed conspirators pay”) will worsen the living conditions of already marginalized people. Because the non-vaccinated are largely found among these groups with which we have so little solidarity. Does this solidarity apply only to the wealthy and does it only aim to protect their comfort and indifference?
Promoting the punishment of the unvaccinated and the social divide will not remedy the overcrowding of hospitals and the lack of medical personnel. There are solutions, already suggested elsewhere (such as converting unused buildings into COVID care centers, reallocating some of the medical staff working in the private sector to the public system, etc.). I don’t claim to be an expert, but I believe that there is no shortage of experts to find creative solutions.
Furthermore, I believe that the measures that penalize part of the population, some of which are temporarily necessary, must absolutely have an expiry date, while others, which are not scientifically proven, such as the curfew and this insane precedent of charge a health contribution to a category of citizens (today the non-vaccinated, tomorrow perhaps smokers and consumers of junk food, etc.), must be abolished!