2 years of pandemic turmoil give chance for reflection in Windsor-Essex
CBC
Two years ago, people in Windsor-Essex had to embrace an uncertainty that comes with the announcement of a worldwide pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus — now more commonly known as COVID-19.
The World Health Organization made the declaration on March 11, 2020.
CBC Windsor asked a few people to share their thoughts on what they've learned about themselves during the pandemic and what they miss most.
Here what they told us:
Sadaf Ahmed and Pradeep Kumar Dumak are college students in Windsor today, but both were in India when the pandemic first started.
"To be honest we didn't know what a pandemic was at the time. We just heard it on movies and TV shows," said Ahmed.
Both learned quickly it would become an all consuming event for them.
"It's pretty bad. We faced a total lockdown, we were in a room for more than six months," said Kumar Dumak.
They moved to Windsor midway through the pandemic. Kumar Dumak said he's learned to live in the moment after dealing with an uncertain future, while Ahmed misses the mundane actions of a regular life.
"Greeting anyone, even if it was a stranger, there was not a single ounce of doubt to shake hands, to hug. It wasn't a big deal. Now it's still a hesitation."
Meriya Wolin misses some of the mundane parts of life, most notably bowling.
"It's really weird. I'm not even an avid bowler. I suck at it. I need the bumpers. But I just want to go bowling!" she told CBC News this week, pushing her newborn baby in a stroller.
Wolin gave birth during the pandemic and said her biggest concern while handling COVID-19 was her kids, and what's next for them.
"I have a three year old, she's starting school next year. What's that going to look like?," she said.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.
Premier Susan Holt is defending her decision to not use electricity exports to Maine as leverage against U.S. tariffs, arguing the move might cause long-term pain for New Brunswickers.
Montreal's St. Patrick's Day parade first started on Saint-Paul Street in 1824, and a couple centuries later, this annual tradition is still going strong.