In the past couple of years, many industries have been hit particularly hard because of Covid, None more than the restaurant industry. Many of them have had to close their doors permanently because of this situation. Others are struggling with many other Covid related issues that affect their day to day operations like having to deal with a labour shortage. Many restaurant owners are having to work all their open hours 7 days a week just to stay in business. For a city like Montreal who supposedly cherishes it’s restaurants, It sure doesn’t make it easy for them to continue to make it the best city in North America to eat. If all this adversity didn’t make it hard enough to survive in this already brutal industry, Restaurant owners now find themselves in the strenuous position of having to police their own customers, many of them long time clients who have supported them as best they could during this long “pandemic”. 

Well now, a growing number of restaurant owners are reacting by closing their dining rooms to ALL and offering only take-out instead as a show of solidarity against these latest government measures imposed on them with the Vaccine Passport. Many believe these measures are against their core values and as such won’t support these discriminatory measures. It is important to note that these restaurant owners are absolutely NOT Anti-Vaccine and they themselves are vaccinated. They are against the dangerous precedent these measures set in our society. 

“We are places open to all without distinction. Mutual respect and discussion are fundamental concepts to us and part of our core values. We refuse to play the role of health police and thus to control, sort and remove our clients from of our places of business” 

We know this heavy handed restriction imposed by the government on these small businesses will do little to contain the spread of the virus. Several other industries & workplaces aren’t being subjected to these measures so why restaurants? Is it because these small hard working entrepreneurs are an easy target used to to bend the will of society to that of the government? What other strong-arm tactics are in store for us as a society? Independently of whether you are for or against mandatory vaccination of the population, (remember these owners are they themselves vaccinated) Do you feel it is up the already fragile restaurant industry to enforce this divisive measure?

Politics aside, these folks are our fellow citizens and they make amazing food in one of the toughest markets in the world and we at Extramedia encourage you to support them if you can !

Here are just a few righteous & courageous restaurant owners who deserve our support.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Le Jerk Spot (@jerkspotmontreal)

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Cantine (@trancantine)