Exclusive! The Canadian opposition does not incite

How a liberal government handles the epidemic situation and the crisis and how its conservative opposition behaves. A conversation with Zsolt Bede Fazekas, the owner of the Independent Hungarian Radio Toronto and the owner of the Pannónia bookstore.

 

How does a strong economy respond to such a crisis?

The Canadian people, the state and the health sector take the rules much more strictly than at home. Someone might say that we speak easily, because this is a rich country and obviously the health care is good, there is money for everything here, but that is not the case. Small entrepreneurs receive very little support, I know this from being a small entrepreneur myself. We didn't get any help, just a loan. We were able to borrow sixty thousand dollars, if we return this by the end of 2022, then we can keep twenty thousand dollars. We calculated that this amount will not even cover a quarter of the shop's wages. Our situation is very difficult, I don't even know how artists make a living. Twenty-five thousand small businesses have already been destroyed, ten thousand restaurants have closed permanently. This is also an older figure, since then their number has probably increased. One or two customers visit our bookstore every day, not all at the same time, yet we were closed, but at the same time the big supermarkets are opening, where people go in droves.

Is healthcare prepared for the increased workload?

Here, too, they freed up a lot of space in the hospitals, but here in Toronto they ran out of ventilators, which is very interesting, because we are the richest city in Canada, and seriously ill patients had to be taken to hospitals in the surrounding cities. Here in the province of Ontario, the situation is good thanks to the strict regulations, but in the state of Manitoba, thirty-three percent of those tested are positive . A lot of Indians have been coming here lately. Despite the emergence of the Indian variant of the virus, the government allowed Indian planes in for weeks.

Were there demonstrations against the austerity measures?

There are movements. Just last week there was one in Ottawa, a Hungarian friend of mine also went, because he already has a hard time bearing the confinement, but there is no general uproar. We did not receive the promised vaccine for a very long time, so we proceeded slowly with the vaccination. Now the process has sped up because the vaccines are arriving faster, so there is a tumult where they are vaccinating and not at the demonstrations . There are very few true virus deniers. Most Canadians follow the rules, even those who don't believe in them. We are very keen to get vaccinated. In Toronto, sixty percent of the population has been vaccinated once, fifty percent in the province, and thirty-five percent of the population across Canada. Of the fifteen million vaccinations administered, only 3.3 percent received a second vaccination . We have to wait four months to get the second injection, because until now there was not enough vaccine. The process was sped up, but instead of shortening the time between the two vaccinations, the age limit was lowered. Now they are starting to vaccinate people over the age of eighteen. Kilometer-long queues stand at pop-up vaccination sites (vaccination sites built quickly from scratch) or in front of designated pharmacies. I recently saw a picture of a stadium where the lines are also crowded and snaking. They go there the day before with a tent and camping chairs, because it is not certain that it will be their turn. When we found out where vaccine arrives, where we can register on the Internet, we tried. Registration started at eight o'clock, when we pressed the button at eight o'clock there were already five hundred and twenty-seven thousand people in front of us.

Is it possible to choose among the vaccines?

When it turned out in the United States that AstraZeneca was not such a safe vaccine, they either gave Pfizer or Moderna instead. AstraZeneca was transferred here to us by the Americans when they said they no longer needed it. We solved this. They stopped this vaccine, they only bring in as much as is needed for the second vaccination.

How did the opposition there react to the government's crisis management?

We were united, which does not mean that there were no criticisms. I have seen the domestic opposition and I have also seen the opposition here, how it relates to the government's measures. The difference is heaven and earth. We didn't get enough vaccines but no one ever told Trudeau or the health minister that he was a butcher or a murderer! They were criticized for not getting enough vaccine once they agreed with America, but not in an unqualified style. Only one representative of Hungarian descent, the democratic politician Andrea Horwath, attacked the government, in the style of Tímea Szabó. Well, he was constantly shouting in parliament. We have a real opposition that criticizes some measures, but constructively. There is no orderly tone, no butchery, no murder.

Does the movement of people with a vaccination card help the economy?

Now in Toronto, almost everything is actually closed, compared to the fact that sixty percent of the city's residents have definitely received a vaccine. We are very strict. I don't know what the Hungarians would say if the system worked like this at home. If I were to travel home now, because I still want to see my elderly mother, I would have to have a test seventy-two hours before departure. I can't get on the plane to Canada without it. Upon arrival, I have to check into a hotel for three days at my own expense, and then they test me again. This should be done even for those who are vaccinated. It happened that these couple of days cost a family of three four or five thousand dollars. That's why they got buttered bread and water. In case of a negative result, you can go home, but ten days of home quarantine is mandatory. If you are positive, you have to go on to a paid accommodation where there are only sick people, where you have to stay until you are cured. But I still don't see people yelling and dirtying themselves on the Internet, on Facebook. Everyone is patiently bearing the situation. The willingness to vaccinate is also much greater than at home, and I claim it is because the opposition did not make people uncertain.

What is the government's plan for restarting after the epidemic?

It's as if they don't deal with this here in Canada. For now, it's just about how we're going to fight the epidemic. Interestingly, those who lost their jobs are better off because they get $2,000 a month, even if they were making $1,000 before. The owner of a shop, which has just reopened, complains that he can't find workers because he can't pay so much. In addition, hundreds of thousands of people applied for aid without even being unemployed. I don't hear about subsidies here like in Hungary. They didn't give us a single cent of our taxes. When we asked the landlord for a discount on the rent of the bookstore because we are not open and have no income, he replied that we should try to look positively into the future. "Good Luck."

László B. Németh

The pictures were taken by: Zsolt Bede Fazekas