How to traverse the health crisis in Canada ? The Express has interviewed the French on what has changed in their daily lives. Second episode in Vancouver.
In Canada, as elsewhere in the world, the counter of the coronavirus never ends – unfortunately – does not turn. Has the date of April 8, the country of the maple leaf had 18 433 cases of Covid-19, and lamented 401 deaths. Three provinces are, for the moment, particularly affected by the disease : Quebec (9 340 cases and 150 deaths), Ontario (5 276 cases and 174 deaths) and British Columbia (1 291 cases and 43 deaths).
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How the French settled in these provinces live with the situation ? What has changed in their daily life ? Have they had a desire to return to their country of origin ? The Express has interviewed three expatriates in Toronto, Vancouver and Quebec. Second pane with Sarah Gobillon, 29, a sales manager, moved to Vancouver with his spouse from January 2018.
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“in Vancouver, the coronavirus began to be present in the conversations from mid-February. There is a huge asian community in this region of Canada and the first cases have occurred in people returning from Asia, but there was talk of a few people only. I admit that I’ve said that here, we might know an explosion of the disease because of the proximity with Asia… But, for the moment, this does not seem to be the case and, on a personal basis, I do not know anyone who is sick in Vancouver.
For the Canadians, the consciousness took place on the 16th of march, with the speech from Justin Trudeau : he asked everyone stays at home and has announced the closure of the borders. At the time, I found that the authorities had anticipated, because we were still far from eu figures in the number of cases and deaths.
very responsive
I was in the office at the time of the announcements of the Prime minister, and immediately after, our managers have asked us to return to our homes. My company, ICS, a canadian company that organizes conferences at the international) has been very responsive. What I also appreciated is that, in the week that followed this announcement, our human resources manager called all the employees, individually (we are about 60 in the team of Vancouver) to learn how it felt to be morally, how it was installed to work from home, if we needed something, etc, I know that there has been mutual support between colleagues, for those who had forgotten to recover files to their desktop, and who lived far away.
anyway, this was a moment that, in the society, there were regular communications about the rules of hygiene ; for at least two weeks before the official announcements, we no longer had the right to travel, knowing that, having regard to the nature of our business, we were particularly exposed. I think this is going to be a very difficult year for our company – like many others – because 80% of our events have been cancelled. However, we have received messages from management ensuring that the priority was to keep all the employees.
anglo-saxon Culture of respect for the other
in Vancouver, everything is closed (shops, restaurants, etc..), the events were quickly cancelled, and all measures of social distancing have also been put in place. But the containment is less strict than in France, there is no need for an exemption to get out or police control in the streets. However, I find that people respect enough naturally staying in them. Canadians are quite civil in general, we feel that the anglo-saxon culture of respect for the other – but this does not prevent the rays of toilet paper, pasta and household products supermarkets have been robbed, like in France !
In the city, the atmosphere is quite sad. In normal times, in Vancouver, there are two large periods : from October to February, there is nothing going on, it’s raining, it’s gray, everyone stays at home. From march-April, it starts to make really beautiful, the city wakes up and you feel it in the air and in people. At this time, it is far from to be the Vancouver that we know of… At the level of the province, there is a lot of communication, the minister of Health is a daily update on the situation. We feel that the crisis is being taken seriously and I find that we are well informed about what is happening.
pre-natal online
From my side, I limit my outings and I try to live day-to-day, not to over throw me. I am 9 months pregnant (the delivery is expected around April 14) and a return in France was unacceptable. But we had imagined things differently for this event… Our families had to join us these days, they had already taken their plane tickets. Too bad, we will use the video tool to introduce them to the baby : we are already well-connected, and we will be even more !
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I pleiment of trust in the medical profession who follows me on here, with the crisis, the pre-natal are now online, via video conferencing, but my weekly appointments with my doctor have been maintained. We know that visitors will be prohibited at the maternity but my husband will attend the birth. It is already well, for I know that in France, there are facilities where this is not possible any more.”