After the family waited five years to go on a charity trip to Hawaii, it was indefinitely postponed due to Canadian Covid-19 restrictions.
His mother, Lia Louiser, says the heartbreak was bad enough. Then an Alberta Secretary, Tracy Allard, admitted that she had taken a trip to Hawaii with her family for the Christmas holidays because it was a “family tradition.”
“It’s just a huge slap in the face that this was going to be our year,” Lousier said in an interview with CNN. ‘We were finally going. We’d get it in, hopefully before we lose it, and to see other people, you know, were jets sitting around because they had … a long year or whatever. hurtful. ”
Canadians who have passed a travel ban, fourteen-day quarantines and weeks-long lockdowns are angry with politicians and government employees for ignoring the health guidelines they have put in place.
After telling Canadians to cancel their vacation plans, more than a dozen high-profile politicians, public health leaders and even a hospital director have been caught on vacation. What followed were confessions, demotions, layoffs and a ferocious, if unusual outrage from Canadians.
The response on social media has been intense
In Alberta, where the Covid-19 file is among the highest in the country, eight politicians have admitted to traveling abroad.
Welcomed home from her Christmas vacation in Hawaii, Allard found ‘Aloha Allard’ signs on buildings in the county, a petition demanding her resignation and a furious response on social media.
Allard apologized and resigned from the Alberta cabinet. In a statement, she noted that threats had been made against her children.
“I am taking this learning opportunity for myself as I seek to earn forgiveness and rebuild the trust of my constituents,” she said in the statement. “And I hope people will also consider their actions in response.”
“It really feels like an insult,” says the doctor
The consequences for her and others are a measure of the outrage now rife among the usually hard-to-hurt Canadians, especially exhausted health workers.
“Canadians don’t tend to get furious, we’re pretty calm, you know, but I think this has been a bit of a tipping point for us to say, okay, we did our part. What does this say? About what your respect for our sacrifices has been, ”said Dr. Alan Drummond in an interview with CNN from his medical office in Perth, Ontario.
Drummond has worked through the pandemic, leaving home alone to treat patients. He hasn’t even traveled to see his own children in over 10 months.
Drummond is causing a storm on Twitter, and his message is supported by angry Canadians.
“For politicians who have preached to us to limit our activities, to limit our social gatherings, to see our elderly loved ones through iPad and glass windows, so that they then ignore the sacrifice of others for their personal pleasure, (it) is hard to put into words how deeply troubling that is, “he said.” It really feels like an insult. “
Many Canadians are also outraged at what appears to be a deliberate plan by some to hide their vacation plans.
Ontario Treasury Secretary Rod Phillips lost his job after a video message was posted on Christmas Eve to thank his constituents for obeying the lockdown.
The heartwarming video – complete with gingerbread decor and a cozy fire – aired while on vacation on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.
He then returned, apologized and resigned.
“I know I have disappointed a lot of people. I hope people will appreciate that I have not disappointed anyone more than myself,” he told the media ahead of his arrival at Pearson Airport in Toronto.
The boy’s mother is angry, disappointed
Braeden is unlikely to see any Hawaiian beaches this year. Nor will most Canadians who have seen their vacation going to any destination get canceled.
Louiser says doctors did not expect Braeden, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic disease called Hajdu-Cheney syndrome, to live beyond childhood. She says she tries to give him “as much joy as possible” and as many experiences as possible “because he has little time on this earth.”
It makes her anger and disappointment at privileged and complacent leaders all the more tangible.
“Why didn’t you stop and think you’re the one standing in front of the camera and saying, ‘Hey guys, you have to stay home,’ says Lousier, adding that she and her family still hope that Braeden will soon feel the sand between his toes and the sensory pleasure of rolling waves.