We are now two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and no doubt everyone is frustrated and emotionally and physically fatigued from it all. We have cycled through what now feels like an infinite number of “waves” of peak infections, and their accompanying public health restrictions. The latter have ranged from face mask mandates and school and business closures, to travel restrictions and vaccine passports. And now the prospect of truly mandatory vaccinations, with Quebec promising “significant” financial penalties for those not vaccinated, could cause already simmering tensions in the country to become combustible.
