Days after Ren Navarro of Kitchener, Ontario, first saw large bottles of hand sanitizer at a beer event, she awoke to news of a sweeping shutdown meant to stop the spread of a novel coronavirus in Ontario.
The World Health Organization's declaration of a global pandemic on March 11th, 2020, set into motion policies that would upend the lives of Canadians for years to come — from the closing of borders, to shutting down schools and businesses, to banning social gatherings.
Five years later, some Canadians remember the COVID-19 pandemic as a time of chaos, fear and grief, but also of solidarity and reflection — and raising concerns that the lessons learned from the crisis are already being forgotten.
Though not as severe as measures in China or South Korea, Canada's public health measures included unprecedented restrictions as well as fiscal stimulus and social protection efforts, Sanjay Ruparelia, an associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University.
While Canadians showed a high-level of co-operation in the early days of the pandemic, the cohesion began to fray as disagreements over the balance of civil liberties and public safety.