After the family waited five years to go on a charity trip to Hawaii, it was postponed indefinitely due to the Covid-19 restrictions in Canada.
His mother, Lia Louiser, says the sadness was bad enough. Then an Alberta government minister, Tracy Allard, admitted that she had taken a trip with her family to Hawaii for the Christmas holidays because it was a ‘family tradition’.
“It’s just a big slap in the face that this is going to be our year,” Lousier said in an interview with CNN. “We’re going to go at last. We’re going to get into it, hopefully before we lose him, and to see other people, you know, going around because they’ve had a long year or whatever. It hurts. ‘
Canadians who have experienced a travel ban, 14-day quarantines and a week-long lock-up are angry at politicians and government workers who have challenged the health guidelines they helped establish.
After instructing Canadians to soften and cancel holiday plans, more than a dozen high-profile politicians, public health leaders and even a hospital chief are caught taking vacations. What followed were confessions, demotions, resignations and a ferocious, if uncharacteristic exclamation from Canadians.
The setback on social media was intense
In Alberta, where the Covid-19 case numbers are among the highest in the country, eight politicians have admitted to traveling abroad.
Allard was welcomed home from her Christmas vacation in Hawaii to find ‘Aloha Allard’ signs on buildings in the province, a petition for her resignation and a furious setback on social media.
Allard apologizes and resigns her post in Alberta’s cabinet. In a statement, she noted that threats had been made against her children.
“I accept this learning opportunity for myself because I want to earn forgiveness and build trust with my constituents,” she said in the statement. “And I hope people will also consider their response in response.”
“It really feels like an insult,” says Doctor
The consequences for her and others are a measure of the outrage that is currently arising among usually difficult Canadians, especially exhausted health workers.
“Canadians do not tend to get angry quickly, we are pretty calm, you know but I think it was a bit of a turning point for us to say: OK, we made our contribution. What does it say? About what your respect for our sacrifices was, “said dr. Alan Drummond said in an interview with CNN from his medical office in Perth, Ontario.
Drummond worked throughout the pandemic and only left home to treat patients. He had not traveled for more than ten months to see his own children.
Drummond has sparked a storm on Twitter and his message is getting support from angry Canadians.
‘For politicians who have preached to us to limit our activities, to limit our social gatherings, to see our elderly through iPad and glass windows, so that they can ignore the sacrifice of others for their personal pleasure, (it) is hard to articulate how deeply disturbing it is, ‘he said. “It really feels like an insult.”
Many Canadians are also furious about what some consider to be a deliberate plan to hide their vacation plans.
Ontario’s Minister of Finance Rod Phillips has lost his job after a video message posted on Christmas Eve thanking his voters for obedience to lock-up was pre-recorded.
The heartwarming video – complete with gingerbread decor and a cozy fire – was broadcast while on holiday on the Caribbean island of St Barts.
He then returned, apologizing and resigning.
“I know I have disappointed a lot of people. I hope people will appreciate that I have not disappointed anyone more than myself,” he told the media, awaiting his arrival at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
Boy’s mother is angry, disappointed
Braeden is unlikely to see Hawaiian beaches this year. Most Canadians who have seen their vacation to any destination will also not be canceled.
Louiser says doctors did not expect Braeden, who suffers from an extremely rare genetic disease, Hajdu-Cheney syndrome, to live from an early age. She says she tries to give him “as much joy” and as many experiences as possible “because he has a short time on this earth.”
This makes her anger and disappointment with privileged and complacent leaders all the more palpable.
“Why did you not stop and think you’re the one standing in front of the camera and say, ‘Hey, you guys should stay home,'” Lousier says, adding that she and her family are still hoping that Braeden will soon will feel the sand between his toes and the sensory pleasure of rolling waves.