Confinement

The action of confining or state of being confined. Since we returned to Canada on March 26 I have not gone out in our car. I have not been outside the immediate area of our coach save for some short walks. In other words, I have avoided all non-essential travel. Until yesterday.

Yesterday I took a drive to plot a route for cycling and to pick up a replacement for our water hose at Canadian Tire. Essential? Given my current state of mental health, absolutely. Almost two months of house arrest can take a toll.

Things are beginning to open up in Ontario.

From the Government of Ontario’s newsroom:

Private parks and campgrounds may open to enable preparation for the season and to allow access for trailers and recreational vehicles whose owners have a full season contract.

I’m not sure what that statement really means and, based on some of the social media sites I follow, no one else seems to know either. Does allowing access mean that recreational campers with a seasonal contract can enjoy camping for the week-end while those without a seasonal contract are not allowed? Seems to be the case. Does that mean that recreational campers with seasonal contracts can engage in non-essential travel to go to a private campground for a few days? Not at all clear.

There was quite an influx of people that came into their seasonal sites at our park over this long week-end. This despite the Ontario government still urging restrictions on non-essential travel.

Non-essential travel is defined by the government as any travel that is considered tourism or recreational in nature.

So confusing.

Here is what our media told us about non-essential travel over the long week-end:

The Ontario government is urging all residents of that province to stay home whenever possible.

Beyond that, there is no evidence on the province’s website that suggests travel within the province – including to seasonal properties – is in any way limited.

However, Premier Doug Ford has urged cottagers to “hold off” on visiting their properties this weekend after it became clear that many popular cottage communities were uncomfortable with the idea of hosting out-of-town guests.

At this point, it is becoming less and less likely that the overall population will continue to abide with strict confinement protocols. I follow Viva Frie, a Montreal lawyer turned vlogger, and here is one of his tweets from a few days back:

It went from “flatten the curve” to “find a cure”. From “social distancing” to “house arrest”. From “2 weeks” to “3 months”. From “we’re in it together” to “snitch on your neighbors”. From “individual liberty” to “comply or pay fine”. We lost the target. And government knows it.

We have been doing our part to flatten the curve and we will continue to do so however I find much of what comes out from the government to be confusing and contradictory particularly as it relates to the RV community.

Our government keeps telling us that it makes all of these decisions based on science and guidance from medical experts. Likely from this source.

I am curious as to the science behind restricting seasonal campers from going to their sites two weeks ago but allowing them to go now. I am curious as to the science behind allowing a seasonal camper in a self-contained RV to go to a private campground for the long week-end and yet prohibiting a non-seasonal camper with a self-contained RV from doing the exact same thing. I am curious as to the science behind urging people to stay home and yet allowing private campgrounds to provide access for trailers and recreational vehicles whose owners have a full season contract.

There is no science at play here I suspect. Just an arbitrary set of rules and regulations.

The province will continue to reopen gradually and presumably it will continue the process as long as the risk to the population remains manageable.

It was wonderful to see many of our RV friends return to their seasonal sites. Hopefully this will soon be the case for the rest of the RV community.