I am forwarding a copy of the letter that I forwarded to the Premier’s office. I don’t know if anyone reads those e-mail and this is why I am also reaching out to you. Feel free to forward this to anyone you see fit. I am near tears and in desperation as a mother of four whose children are fading away despite my husband’s and my efforts to demonstrate any hope for the future. I feel like I’m hitting a brick wall but I have to try for them.
“…I live in Mississauga and we’ve technically been in lockdown since March of 2019. I understand 2-6 weeks, even 3 months but we’re talking over a year of child isolation, deprivation and torment. These children and especially teenagers see nothing but computer screens all day long. It is affecting them physically, psychologically and emotionally. They are being tortured in all of these three areas. They’ve been stripped of any joy, social connection or dreams for the future. And today it brutally dawned on me that during this third wave they are being treated worse than dogs.
1) Dogs have their dog parks where they get to exercise and socialize. And although children ‘graciously’ got their playgrounds back, teenagers have no basketball courts, no baseball diamonds, no soccer fields, no volleyball fields, no hockey rinks, nothing! Long gone are school team sports, music bands and drama clubs.
2) Dogs are able to see their vet in person. You pay doctors to sit at home and treat patients over the phone without physical examination.
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3) And this one hit me brutally. I went to Dollarama today where you can buy toys for dogs but you can’t buy toys for children. What kind of madhouse are we running here?
People, I appeal to your conscience and senses! Do understand that you are playing with people’s lives every time you make these nonsensical decisions. I can’t buy a hat for my one year old. I can’t buy shoes for my nine year old. I can’t buy underwear for my teenagers but I can buy booze and weed and chips. Oh yeah! What a bright future we all have in front of us.
Shame! The day we tell our children that books are non-essential, that schools can be closed, that teachers are afraid to teach them in fear of contamination, that their smiles and faces are not important, that they can sit in plastic cages as long as they’re safe and that the only way of interacting with the world is through a screen, God help us.
And stop the lies. You say that you care about them and then you let them down. You said you wouldn’t close schools and then you did. You said that they would have a summer and then you cancelled camps and campgrounds. You said you care about their mental health and then you put them in virtual prisons! They believe you. They have hopes. They are naive and innocent and this will traumatize them for life. Why do the young have to slowly die so the elderly can live? These kids will grow up and they will survive but they will not forget. ..”
Mother from Mississauga
