COVID CURFEW NO PROBLEM — ‘TOWN CLOSED AT NIGHT ANYWAY’

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Talk of a curfew amuses Irene Turney.

While she — and everyone we asked about it in a streeter today — welcomed pending overnight street restrictions in Ontario, she said “people are always breaking the rules, aren’t they.”

She knows.

“I disobeyed myself the odd time during the war,” she laughed.

But “if it halts the spread, I think it’s right.

“I go with the big guys.”

The province could announce a COVID curfew this week as Quebec enters its second similar night tonight.

Irene Turney has seen curfews before during the Second World War and she’s OK “if it halts the spread.”

“We have to do what we have to do to stop the partying,” said Anita Latner. “It’s time to buckle down and get it over with.”

However, she says an 8 p.m. curfew may be too early to roll up the streets.

She’d prefer it an hour or two later — say “9 or 10 p.m.” — and just keep open grocery stores and drug stores.

Gail Harbridge is “frightened” by COVID and just wants to “get out in April.”

Gail Harbridge, whose daughter works in health care, says she’s “frightened” by soaring numbers, including almost 4,000 province-wide Sunday, Jan 10.

While “it’s not as big a problem as in the city, it’s time to get serious,” Harbridge says. “I want to get out in April.”

Latner says “people shouldn’t be going back and forth and bringing it up here.”

She thinks cottagers should pick one residence — up north or down south — and stay in place, said the real estate agent who thinks Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford are “way behind.”

“Get the damn vaccine going and quit farting around,” she said, also adding Ontario’s borders should have been locked down months ago.

Anita Latner says 8 p.m. may be a little too early. She’d prefer a later curfew of 9 or 10 p.m.

Turney says it’s “easy for me the way I live, but I’d like to see my grandkids” — even if this week she said her four-year-old grand-daughter told her she couldn’t talk to grandma for too long because “I have to do my homework” said the kindergarten student on her first day back in virtual school.

For Jana Lopez, she’s “OK with it,” even if it’s hard on her three sons in Toronto.

And Ashley Dicks says she works days at Hortons and is home at night, anyways, with her husband and daughter Gloria, 6.

So she’s good with it as it doesn’t really affect her or her family that much.

Ashley Dicks and her daughter Gloria, 6, are home at nights so a curfew’s no big deal to them.
Jana Lopez has three sons in Toronto who it will affect more than her.

Jamie Gauthier understands the reasoning behind further restrictions and wonders if it will stop the spread.

“Most of the town is closed at night already,” she said while out for a walk this afternoon.

“There’s nowhere to go anyway.”

Perhaps the government could just do what they’re doing now, she said, by allowing people to go for a walk at night and keep their distance.

“Just stop the social gathering,” she said.

Emily Miller, who works in Shoppers Drug Mart and sees lots of people every day coming in the store for flu shots and COVID testing, agrees with the curfew.

“It’s a good idea,” she said heading into work after a break.

Jaime Gauthier wonders if a curfew will help a town already mostly closed at night. She’d prefer an end to big social gatherings.

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