Allison Hanes: 2021 was a roller coaster

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This year ends almost as it began: in the midst of great uncertainty.

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The pandemic continues. COVID-19 cases are on the rise again. A new variant, Omicron, is spreading rapidly, apparently capable of evading vaccines.

Even if the vast majority of Quebecers have rolled up their sleeves and we live with fewer restrictions in our daily lives. This is not exactly how we thought 2021 would end. Most of us think that the global pandemic is over by now. And while it seemed, for a while, that we were leaving COVID-19 behind, it turned out to be an illusion. The virus, and humanity, had other plans.

The year began in a dark and lonely tunnel. There were closings. We were homebound and subject to a curfew. It was an unprecedented suspension of civil liberties. But what choice did we have as we anxiously waited for the vaccines to arrive?

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They finally came. Quebec worked its way through the age groups, with approval granted to vaccinate teens 12 and older in late spring. Things we are looking for. In the sun, with the resumption of many daily activities, life returned to feeling relatively normal. Thanks to vaccines, a testament to human ingenuity and scientific prowess, we were able to breathe a little easier.

But not everyone seized the opportunity to get vaccinated against a virus that had turned our world upside down. The conspiracy theories and misinformation that generated such covidiocy as protests against masks turned instead to opposition to mass vaccination, vaccine mandates, and vaccine passports. The refusal of a few to use the tools available to protect the majority has weakened social ties and tested patience.

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We are only as strong as our weakest link. And even when we are finally able to immunize a larger proportion of the population, including children ages 5 to 11 now receiving their first vaccine, there has been enough resistance to fuel the contagion and allow the virus to mutate.

Western privileges and the hoarding of vaccines by rich countries have also played a role in the continuation of the pandemic. Although we can count our blessings for our double or even triple protection in Quebec and Canada, the difficulties experienced by the poorest countries in acquiring doses are a great shame and counterproductive. Until everyone is safe, no one will be safe. Omicron’s arrival brings this lesson home.

The pandemic may have dominated 2021, but there were other notable events.

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The climate crisis hit Canada with scorching heat in the west. Lytton, BC broke temperature records one day and flared the next. The fires that raged through British Columbia’s forests in the summer weakened the soil. When an atmospheric river dumped downpour rains on the province in the fall, it flooded the city that only a few months earlier had caught fire. These extremes are not felt the same across the country, but they show that the effects of climate change are upon us.

The deaths of 15-year-old Meriem Boundaoui, 16-year-old Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, 16-year-old Thomas Trudel and 20-year-old Hani Ouahdi in violent homicides in Montreal were a wake-up call that children are not doing well. The stabbing of a teacher at a school in early December and the rise in gun violence are alarming signs that much more money, time and attention needs to be invested in youth. Not only must we prevent children at risk from joining gangs and collecting weapons, but we must also save innocent bystanders, such as the four victims, who became the tragic faces of this dangerous phenomenon.

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Bill 96, Quebec’s effort to strengthen the French language, was a reminder to English speakers that we can never take our rights or our status in the province for granted. The proposed law seeks to redefine who is English-speaking, enshrine collective rights before individual ones, and defend against challenges by invoking the clause in a preventive manner, however. If we can agree that French deserves protection, we wonder why it should be done at the expense of minority rights.

The fall 2021 elections resulted in another minority government for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals and a strong second term for Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. Amid the confusion, voters chose the status quo.

If 2021 was a wild roller coaster, it feels a lot like we’re back where we started. But are we going to get off in 2022? Or will we experience all those ups and downs again? If there is one lesson to be learned from 2021, it is to expect the unexpected. And between pandemics and the climate emergency, normal may now be lurching from crisis to crisis.

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