Posted at 10:00 a.m.
My name is Ilias Benz and I am a teacher, owner and director of a salsa and Latin dance school. I am running out of breath, patience, hope and especially financial resources.
Before I start, I want to mention that I am doubly vaccinated and have followed all the rules since the start of the pandemic. My business has been greatly affected a little more with each of the new waves and new measures. I haven’t been able to pay myself a salary for two years now. In the beginning, I had some confidence in your decisions, I was a good player and I was hopeful that better days were upon us. (The days of rainbows in the windows, after reimbursing customers thousands of dollars…) But this trust has slowly been eroded following your often incomprehensible and contradictory interventions.
First of all, I would like to know your plan for the future, apart from the repeated lockdowns and business closures. I have come to wonder if I should change domains or continue to lose money every day… and for how long?
The situation is serious, but when the measures are no longer sustainable, we should perhaps think of a new approach, right? As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. At least, it would be necessary above all to put an end to your paternalistic discourse. I believe that people are responsible enough, that they have done more than they can and that they are tired of it.
Everyone has made the necessary efforts, but those whose business is closed (dance, cinema, restaurant, the field of culture, etc.) can no longer bear it. These people, including myself, lose their livelihood, their financial contribution to the family. Some will lose their homes and others will lose their minds! Unfortunately, government aid is not enough. Under these conditions, we are simply not viable.
Our dance schools
I find the closure of our dance schools particularly frustrating and contradictory. When we had the right, we operated safely and escaped any outbreaks. So, when I see that you open the schools, that all the students go to dinner next to each other, well glued and without masks while chatting, that’s where the wires touch. I will preach for my parish.
In a dance class, everyone is registered and easily traceable, vaccinated, in their square, distanced and masked… Much safer than at the SAQ, Costco or Carrefour Laval on a Saturday!
What I want is to work. Open my school for good without constantly being in fear of another closure. It’s being able to put my teachers back to work, teach my students, see their smile and see them flourish and, above all, have a salary to pay for my house and support my family!
Zero risk
Finally, I 100% agree that we focus our resources on vulnerable people. On the other hand, let sports and hobbies function as normally as possible. Our companies have been quite mortgaged by your measures. No risk does not exist. We are rightly saying more and more that we have to learn to live with the virus. Shouldn’t we just accept some risk and return to a semblance of normality? Or learn to live in confinement and end up becoming associable and neurotic?
Let us provide a service that is absolutely essential to the physical and psychological well-being of our clients. Let us play our social anti-stress role. Help us keep people fit so they are ultimately less at risk and even more resilient to COVID-19.
So reassure me, give me advice so that I can survive and earn a living, for me and my family.