Mask wearing has become a topic of fierce debate.
Just last week, Quebec announced that wearing a face mask will soon become mandatory on public transit. Ever since the announcement, Quebecers have been asking if this is necessary and if so, where else should wearing a face-covering be mandatory.
As the debate rages on, it has now been reported that daycare educators across the province are asking that they no longer be forced to wear a mask while working.
As it stands, early childhood educators and home child care providers are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) at almost all times throughout the day.
In an interview Thursday, Valerie Grenon, president of a union for child-care workers affiliated with the CSQ, said she believes that using PPE should be recommended, but not mandatory.
According to Grenon, the equipment daycare workers are asked to wear such visors, goggles as well as masks interfere when communicating with young children and can often hinder their vision making it harder to keep track of the kids. She also claims that wearing the PPE at all times can cause workers to feel nauseous or dizzy and therefore the union is requesting that the rules be relaxed, both by Quebec's ministry of families and the province's workplace safety commission.
On the flip side of the coin is a national group of health-care professionals and epidemiologists called Masks4Canada who have written an open letter to federal health officials asking them to make masks mandatory in certain places such as schools, libraries, community centres, stores, restaurants, daycares and public transit.
The letter pointed to a recent poll that showed less than half of Canadians are wearing masks when they go out in public.
We can only assume this debate won’t be going away anytime soon.