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Things That The Canadian Government Did In Response To The COVID-19 Pandemic

And The Way The Things Affected People Based On Gender, Race, And Social Status

Covid 19 advertized the world in all facets of human life, including economic,

political, and social. The country panicked because of a life-threatening monster that

dominated the headlines in all parts of the world. There was a need for an emergency

response from the concerned government to negate the effects initiated by the pandemic. To

deal with the pandemic easily, governments worldwide had to collaborate to conform unity

against the monster informs of covid 19, who were less concerned by the barriers brought by

the boundaries. However, the internal actions of the government mattered much in how the

country would survive the monster (Schreiber et al., 2022). the government of Canada was

not left behind. Therefore it had to convene numerous meetings through zoom to negotiate

how to deal with the invisible enemy. The meetings by both federal and state governments

led to the formulation of policies specifically aimed at working against covid 19. The

government used many things, including financial support, public contact restrictions, public

education, and immunization programs, as weapons targeting covid 19 cushioning. However,

the government's actions affected people differently based on gender, social class, and race,

as discussed in the essay.

Firstly, the government gave financial support to people, businesses, and

organizations . people and families of low income are included in the group of people who

benefited from the refundable tax credit reimbursed by the government to sustain the poor in

the wake of the covid 19 crisis. The benefits were divided into two: the basic amount and the

disability supplement (Schreiber et al., 2022). in the program, Canadian workers' benefits

were given to low-income workers by the government. Half of the Canadian worker's benefit

was given by the government in advance as opposed to the former norm of giving the money

at the end of the year. Other beneficiaries of the government funding were the students in
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tertiary institutions. Students who were given loans to study by the government had the

interest of their loan waived up to 2023, giving them relief during the covid 19 economic

regression.

On the other hand, the facilitated funds to ensure the mortgage payment differs. Those

who had borrowed money were instructed to renegotiate the agreement to have the payment

differed after the pandemic; the money was to be paid in full plus the accumulated interest

(Schreiber et al., 2022). the money was to be used to ensure a green economy, inclusive

recovery, and digital adoption in marketing to aid in the competing market.

The government released more funds for creating jobs and economic growth towards

the end of the pandemic.

The government's initiative disbursing funds to people to cushion the suffering of the

Canadians affected people differently, where people suffered in terms of race, social class,

and gender. Covid 19 was categorized as a Chinese disease because it originated in China.

Therefore, all the Chinese settling in Canada rarely benefited from the fund's allocation.

Covid 19 is a brutal disease; according to statistics, whites were more affected than

blacks(Krausz et al., 2020). therefore during fund allocation, the blacks were discriminated

against in the process, making them suffer. During the mortgage deferment discussion, the

whites were favored, with the whites being given priority because most lenders in Canada are

whites. In addition, the covid 19 funds meant for the poor and disabled by the government

were not distributed according to the government initiatives. Most civil servants are middle

class or rich, yet they benefit from the funds at the expense of the poor people. Accessing the

funds was a process, and most poor people could not afford the process giving the rich people

in the community an advantage and making the poor suffer (Krausz et al., 2020).
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On the other hand, there was gender desperation that was visible during the covid 19

pandemic. Women are meant to be the less privileged in the community, so the government

fought for women's rights more than men's. Women were favored in determining the poor

who could benefit from the government funds. Men, on the other hand, were overlooked and

therefore suffering in the process.

Secondly, covid 19 was transmitted through contact, making the government initiate

social distancing and traveling restrictions to contain the transmission of the covid 19 virus.

People were not allowed to meet in social places; the only meetings allowed were the most

crucial ones, like burial ceremonies. Only house-based family members were allowed to

gather together because a big crowd was likely to transmit the virus faster(Crowe et al.,

2021). non-family-based gatherings were restricted to be attended by at most 10 people. On

the other hand, provinces were locked where people were not allowed to travel to some

provinces whose infection rates were termed to be high. Flights were canceled to minimize

travel, as was the case in train and public road services (Crowe et al., 2021). the government

enacted a policy to fine those who break the covid 19 policies on gatherings and movements

across the country. The police service was avered in surveillance to unveil every individual

who attempted to break the law to endanger other people's lives in the country.

Although the restriction laws were enacted to help curb the spread of covid 19 across

the country, the law through fines affected people differently. Where the fines were valid for

a group of people in the country based on gender, race, and social class—banning the public

transport service to restrict the movement of people only affected people of the low social

class. People in high social class own private means of transport and, therefore, could easily

move from one province to another for work, making the economic crisis affect them

moderately(Petersen et al., 2021). in addition, the judiciary system discriminated against the

poor by fining them the same amount as the wealthy people who could bail themselves out of
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the court corridors through their stable income . as usual, the judicial service continued its

discrimination based on race by offering unforgiving fines to a black of Chinese based

offender. On the other hand, the restrictions offered were gender discriminating. Men make

up the majority of the working crew in the country, and the crew was given lesser punishment

for violating covid 19 restrictions (Petersen et al., 2021) . women were glued in their houses,

lacking food and necessities through the restrictions. Therefore, the restriction policies made

by the Canadian government were discriminative in terms of gender, social class, and race.

In addition, the government initiated public education in response to covid 19 to teach

the public about matters of covid 19. The government organized public education to create

awareness of the availability of covid 19. the awareness was created to ensure that each

individual is aware of the present crisis within the country to stay alert (Ye et al.,2020).

prevention of covid 19 was another content passed through education to curb the spread of

covid 19. although it was not the main theme of covid 19 education, misinformation is

another theme that the government invested in it in its efforts to contain covid 19 and

disseminate fear within its people. On the same theme of public education, the government

initiated advertisements, partnerships, social marketing, social media posts, information

resources, and risk population about covid 19. the government educated people to conduct

their business on digital platforms to prevent contact, which was the main way of conducting

the virus (Ye et al.,2020). more partnerships to enable the advancement of marketing to adopt

digital marketing was formed, making the education system a success.

People of different races, social classes, and gender were affected differently by the

public education towards containing covid 19 spread. The message passed by public

educators contained discriminative teachings against the black population and Chinese-based

citizens. On addressing the source of the disease, the Chinese were ever blamed, leading to

discrimination within the country. The blacks are termed dirty, making the education
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assertion of eradicating covid 19 by using cleanliness to abuse the black population (Stuart et

al.,2021). the education offered to the community was discriminative to some social classes.

There were restrictions on the number of people who could gather, making public education

based on social media. Only high and media social classes are guaranteed to have a gadget

that would aid in assessing social media. Therefore, the low social class society was limited

to just a little education on covid 19. Public education was emphasized on online marketing

only suitable for large businesses. The small-scale poor community businesses would then be

paralyzed, leading to their suffering. Gender inequality was also seen through public

education, where the government only termed children and women as the most risk

population to be affected by covid 19. Men were discriminated leading to the public

assumption that men should not be protected from contaminating covid 19 (Stuart et

al.,2021). Therefore covid, 19 public education provided by the government provided gender,

race, and social class disparities.

Also, covid 19 vaccination is another thing that the government-funded to protect its

people from dying due to covid 19. After almost a year of suffering, many countries across

the world invented a covid 19 vaccine meant to mild the symptoms of the disease while also

preventing covid transmission (Desson et al., 2020). through the ministry of health, the

Canadian government approved three vaccines to be vaccinated people freely. The

government initiated a program that prioritized who could receive the vaccine first since the

available doses did not match the entire population. The vaccine was to be given voluntarily

to whoever was willing to get vaccination across the country(Desson et al., 2020). the validity

of the vaccine was ensured through a unique code that made each code unique to others for

effective accountability. The most risked population was the most prioritized to receive the

vaccine first since they were the most endangered population in the world. On top of
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vaccination, the government offered free immunity boosters to the citizens that were given to

citizens using the same criteria used in administering the covid 19 vaccine.

Covid 19 vaccine program facilitated by the government contributed to discrimination

and division of people based on race, social class, and gender. Some men have poor

immunity in the country, but the deductive reasoning that women are weaker than men ruled

men out of priority in receiving covid 19 doses. Men were discriminated against and

therefore struggling enough to receive covid 19 vaccine (Gadermann et al., 2021).

Additionally, the prioritization while receiving covid 19 made the authorities gather reasons

for denying people access to the free covid 19 vaccine. The whites outnumber the blacks in

Canada; therefore, the whites are the most dominant in administration. During the vaccination

process, the whites were favored by their fellow whites, giving them an advantage in

receiving the vaccine.

On the other hand, the low population suffered discrimination while receiving

government-funded vaccination and immunization. Corruption is an acute problem in

Canada(Gadermann et al., 2021). the demand for covid 19 vaccination did not match the

supply by the government, making people corrupt to get vaccinated . since the poor could not

afford to bribe, they were overlooked, leading to discrimination based on social class through

the government vaccination program.

Generally, covid 19 affected human life negatively, leading to government

intervention. Trying to cushion the citizens from the advanced effects of covid -19, the

government enacted different policies and things for the citizens. Some f the things that the

government of Canada did were, giving funds, providing free immunization, restricting

movements while enforcing social distancing, and providing public education on covid 19.

the things the government did to its people affected people differently in terms of gender,
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race, and social class. The funds made to the poor were allocated to people of high social

class, leading to the widening social group gap. the funds also affected race and gender,

where ladies were favored in receiving the government benefit funds together with the white

population. Public education contained language that increased racial segregation through

discriminating words . the education was accessible through social media that is accessible to

high-class people neglecting low-class people in the society. The punishment offered to

people who broke contact rules affected the blacks and the poor more since they were given

more harsh punishments. O the other hand, the immunization program contained

prioritization affected people of the non-Canadian race since the Canadians were the first to

be vaccinated. Men were overlooked in favor of women, who are termed weak in immunity.

The corrupt nature of the country ensured that the rich were the first to get vaccinated since

they could offer bribes for the favor. Therefore, the things the government did to Canadians

in the wake of covid 19 increased discrimination based on race, gender, and social class.
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References

Crowe, S., Howard, A. F., Vanderspank-Wright, B., Gillis, P., McLeod, F., Penner, C., &

Harijan, G. (2021). The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of

Canadian critical care nurses providing patient care during the early phase pandemic:

A mixed method study: Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 63, 102999.

Desson, Z., Weller, E., McMeekin, P., & Ammi, M. (2020). An analysis of the policy

responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, Belgium, and Canada. Health Policy

and Technology, 9(4), 430–446.

Gadermann, A. C., Thomson, K. C., Richardson, C. G., Gagné, M., McAuliffe, C., Hirani, S.,

& Jenkins, E. (2021). Examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on family

mental health in Canada: findings from a national cross-sectional study. BMJ

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Krausz, M., Westenberg, J. N., Vigo, D., Spence, R. T., & Ramsey, D. (2020). Emergency

response to COVID-19 in Canada: platform development and implementation for

eHealth in crisis management. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 6(2), e18995.

Petersen, J. A., Naish, C., Ghoneim, D., Cabaj, J. L., Doyle-Baker, P. K., & McCormack, G.

R. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and sedentary

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Schreiber, K., Soubry, B., Dove-McFalls, C., & MacDonald, G. K. (2022). Diverse

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Covid-19 pandemic: Lessons from Québec, Canada. Journal of rural studies, 90, 124-

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Stuart, C., Nowlan Stuart, T., Graham, K., & Truant, R. (2021). When the labs closed:

graduate students and postdoctoral fellows' experiences of disrupted research during

the COVID-19 pandemic. Facets, 6(1), 966–997.

Ye, Q., Zhou, J., & Wu, H. (2020). Using information technology to manage the COVID-19

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JMIR medical informatics, 8(6), e19515.