“Hypothetically—asking for a friend, obviously—can a foreign national work in Canada without a proper permit?”
No matter how it’s phrased, this is the gist of the question I get asked once in a while.
Anything related to my new life under the snow. From bitching about the weather to hockey games and the Stanley Cup, from culture shock to shocking culture, from old Europe to the New Continent, whatever is on my newcomer’s mind!
“Hypothetically—asking for a friend, obviously—can a foreign national work in Canada without a proper permit?”
No matter how it’s phrased, this is the gist of the question I get asked once in a while.
The atmosphere was strange this month. Maybe it’s the grey, rainy, cloudy, foggy an unmistakably colder and colder weather.
We spent October playing the most popular game of 2020—“where are we still allowed to go and what’s safe to do?”
Rules are… anything but simple.
This is why, if honk at me, I probably won’t stop. If we know each other, we can always catch up later.
Last weekend, the three of us crossed Alexandra Bridge between Ontario and Quebec, one of these “let’s do it while we can” moments.
I knew another lockdown was likely. “Red zone” Montreal began a month-long partial lockdown on October 1.
We were next
We did the usual Canadian fall park visit routine at Mackenzie King Estate—checking out the leaves, fighting off bugs, climbing trees and running around.
I’m not overly worried about getting sick given our lifestyle in Ottawa. I'm worried about everything else, though.
Go ahead, read the news and comments below, browse Twitter, chat with a neighbour—there’s anger and outrage all over the place about IRRESPONSIBLE BEHAVIOUR, topped by a layer of virtue signalling...
COVID-19 is disrupting everything but it has yet to infect and affect weather patterns—that would be the other threat, global warming, but I can only deal with one major disaster at the time.
No one knows if, when and how the pandemic will end. Four months is nothing in a lifetime but time really dragged. Yet, some things did change.
I was one of these people who used the trendy “stay safe!” email signoff from March to early May. Now, it feels that “stay sane!” should be the new basic social formula.
We’re trying to change the way we interact because someone, somewhere could be sick. But shouldn’t we the way we deal with viruses when someone does get sick?
The non-essential businesses shutdown didn’t worry me much at first. But it’s been 11 weeks now in Ontario, and “non-essentials” are becoming damn essential.
At 5 p.m., I was pacing up and down Preston Street, on the lookout for a dark car of a make and model I couldn’t remember but with an easy-to-spot Quebec licence plate
the so-called “new normal” is hard to navigate because there’s the reality—the pandemic—and realities, plural, depending on where we are, who we are, who is in charge and other factors.
I’m one of the 11.38 millions of Canadians who are receiving the CERB, a monthly payment of $2,000 for workers who have lost their income due to COVID-19.
Hopes for a quick end to the pandemic have vanished and life in “this is the cheat code to stay alive!” lockdown is starting to morph into “okay, let’s find ways to make this bearable on the longer...
There may be a new normal taking shape for valid public health reasons. Let’s sure make sure it doesn’t include “police state” in the fine print and that freedom and rights aren’t getting killed by...
I don’t bake, the “new normal” doesn’t make me happier, I certainly didn’t find myself and I gave up on becoming flexible enough to do the splits in 30 days.
The TV was switched off... Michel Giannesini, 91 years old, former sound engineer and one of the first people to sell TVs in France left us on April 25, 2020.