Welcome to our Dystopian Future

My plan is to post photographs I've taken during the Covid months, in this first series the photographs were taken in March 2020. Below are photos of Cote St-Luc Shopping Centre (a half block from where I live) just days after it was closed due to Covid lockdown. At the time we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into and we're still not sure how this will end. 

Happy Covid Halloween 2020!

 

Mid-May and staying at home

No one is doing much of anything these days, we're sitting at home watching CBC's News Channel. There's Justin at 11 a.m., there are the other politicians at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and on it goes. Legault looked good until Quebec had double the number of Covid-19 cases as Ontario and only half of their population, until the old people began dying in larger numbers than anywhere else in Canada; even Ford looked good compared to Legault. Some of us are still going for daily walks, the streets are quiet at 9 a.m.; does anyone still live in those houses and apartment buildings I pass, there must be someone living there but who are they and how can they be so quiet?

    

Mid-April 2020

It was sunny but cool this mid-April morning. It's hard to believe there are people in all of those apartments and houses, they're so quiet, everything is quiet, the streets, the closed stores, the empty city buses. And then the police drive by in one of their huge new navy blue Ford SUVs, they look old fashioned, from a previous era, almost militaristic. Someone from the City is putting posters at the entrances of apartment buildings, Covid-19 information. Someone is approaching and we avoid each other, I look away and hold my breath until they've passed, you can't be too safe. 

In the midst of the virus, mid-March

The COVID-19 virus preoccupies the news; everyday the number of infected people is rising, people are dying, people are recovering. The virus has become a part of everyday life, restaurants and gyms are closed, concerts and other gatherings are cancelled, some people are quarantined, others are self-isolating at home, our Canadian border is now closed except to Canadians returning home and some Americans. Only four airports are open to international flights, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. Truly, most of us have never lived through anything like this before.

Our deserted street...

Our IGA grocery store at the Cote St-Luc Shopping Centre,
located a half block from where we live

For a few days people were stock-piling food and a few of our grocery store
shelves at the local IGA were depleted, but this didn't last long 

This was the section for toilet paper and paper towels at our IGA

Our pharmacy at the same shopping centre as the IGA; the other day people were streaming out of this place clutching packages of toilet paper, 8, 12, 24 rolls . . .  I don't known why the mania for buying toilet paper began
but it swept North America, as though there would be a shortage of toilet paper . . .