They said it: Our quotes of the year

Opinion

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This article was published 30/12/2020 (1746 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every year at this time, The Brandon Sun presents its top quotes of the year from the newsmakers, the pundits and our elected officials who have said something memorable, cynical, derisive, or just downright silly.

This year is especially poignant, given the tremendous upheaval that has been wrought upon our society by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And while most of us would rather forget the year that was 2020 — rather than “look back with pride,” as a certain Manitoba premier suggested — there can be no argument that the past year has been a uniquely memorable one. And for mostly all the wrong reasons. So for a brief trek down memory lane, I present our annual quotes of the year.

» Matt Goerzen, editor

 

“Almost every single industry is going to see consequences as a result of the pandemic.”

— Prescient words uttered by Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister in March, at the start of the pandemic.

 

“If you don’t think that COVID is real right now, you’re an idiot. You need to understand that we’re all in this together, you cannot fail to understand this. Stay apart. So I’m the guy who has to tell you to stay apart at Christmas and at the holiday season you celebrate with your faith or without your faith. I’m the guy who’s stealing Christmas to keep you safe because you need to do this now.”

— Premier Brian Pallister, on Dec. 4, in an emotional plea to Manitobans.

 

“COVID is really the first universal problem that most people of this generation, most people living, have faced.”

— Mayor Rick Chrest, Dec. 24 (year in review quote).

 

“The water came down so fast it had nowhere to go. It just created pools and pools and I believe right from 18th Street and Park Avenue down and I’m going to say even down to 10th Street, there was nothing but water.”

— Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson at the end of June following an historic rainfall that dumped about 155 millimetres on the city.

 

“Our members do not want to go to work. Obviously, they need to go to work — they need to get paid. They need to pay their bills and feed their family and all that stuff. But they absolutely are scared to go to work. They think they’re facing an unusual risk that they shouldn’t have to face.”

— UFCW local 832 president Jeff Traeger, Aug. 8, 2020, referring to Maple Leaf workers having to continue to work during outbreak.

 

“That we opened up our downtown and built a skate park so that kids could enjoy that and potentially witnessed a heinous crime is deplorable.”

— Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Rosser) last September, following a stabbing at the Kristopher Campbell Memorial Skate Plaza that left a Black man needing emergency surgery.

 

“What better reason to do something than it is the right thing to do?”

— John Simpson to city council on Sept. 9, 2020 about renaming Rosser Avenue.

 

“These events are ruining our lives. We can’t see a Weather Channel alert without getting heart palpitations.”

— A resident of First Street talking in October about how deficiencies in city infrastructure have led to frequently flooding basements in her neighbourhood.

 

“The event business is in the toilet.”

— Provincial Exhibition of Manitoba past-president Brent Miller in September, talking about the organization’s financial crisis.

 

“We couldn’t have imagined cancelling one of our events in the last year, let alone three of our major fairs. Starting off the year 2021 with a cancellation definitely isn’t the story we wanted to write.”

— Greg Crisanti on Nov. 25 talking about the Provincial Ex cancelling the 2021 Royal Manitoba Winter Fair.

 

“Being involved from a distance was different and a little bit challenging at times but then add COVID to this. With the challenges that are going to come for junior hockey with the worldwide pandemic, it did concern me to not be there to help the team through this period of time. That also brought this decision to a head.”

— Kelly McCrimmon explaining why it was the right time to sell the Wheat Kings in September.

 

“I wonder at the motivation to produce that letter, to generate it at a time when they knew it would have maximum effect in causing chaos in the system. I know many of them. I will talk to many of them. And I get it, they’re scared. They want the best for their patients, and I absolutely agree.”

— Manitoba Health Minister Cameron Friesen, after doctors in the province penned an open letter to Premier Brian Pallister in November calling for stronger action from the province, including emergency funding to deal with the spike in COVID-19 cases.

 

“It just makes me so angry. They’re right there, and they could have saved his life.”

— Donna Pirie, who blamed the lack of ambulance response to her residence from nearby CFB Shilo for her husband’s death. It was instead a Brandon-based ambulance that arrived a half-hour later in response to her call to 911, after her husband, who suffered from COPD, experienced trouble breathing and needed oxygen.

 

“We’ve lost touch with … the fundamentals, the things that got us to success early on. And it’s so easy to see why. It’s only human that we’ve been through a lot, challenging times and it’s a beautiful Manitoba summer and people want to get out and do things and see their friends and family.”

— Manitoba’s chief public health officer, Dr. Brent Roussin, when announcing that Prairie Mountain Health would enter code-orange restrictions in August.

 

“I don’t think there’s probably been a bigger issue, or a bigger emotional issue that we’ve had to deal with, yet, than the return to school.”

— Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen during a phone-in town hall meeting with Manitobans in August.

 

“We’re well-flooded. The sad part is we’ve got people whose homes are in rough shape — not a home you want to walk into. That’s the misfortune, what it’s doing to people’s homes. And your home is your palace.”

— Minnedosa Mayor Pat Skatch, after numerous, intense thunderstorms flooded many communities up and down Westman by a weather system that came out of North Dakota.

 

“(When workers were first sequestered) we had ever-increasing cases, all we were ever told was how many cases we have in the Prairie Mountain Health region, we never knew how many of those were in Brandon … In my mind, if I had to do it over again, I probably would do it.”

— Patrick Pulak, Brandon’s general manager of development services, on the city’s decision to sequester workers inside the water treatment plant. The decision to sequester city workers early in the pandemic cost taxpayers $224,451.10.

 

“After seeing a man grab a case of soup and load it into his cart, I contemplated grabbing one, too — until I realized I don’t even really like soup.”

— Brandon Sun reporter Erin DeBooy, who recounted her trip to buy groceries and toiletries at crowded grocery stores last March after the Manitoba government announced the presence of the province’s first case of COVID-19.

 

“I was kind of really quiet and people were ‘Why aren’t you pumped? I think I was just kind of in shock that it was actually the day. Now it’s exciting. I’m going to enjoy a nice dinner with my family and friends. Hopefully, we can have a good evening … It’s been a fun day.”

— CEO of Jacobson & Greiner Group, Jared Jacobson, talks about his reaction to buying the Brandon Wheat Kings.

 

“I think if there’s one thing we should’ve done differently, it was emphasize that we’re serious about mask-wearing, that we’re serious about the group size … We would’ve had better enforcement earlier, three or four weeks earlier, to send that clear message: don’t gather, don’t go mask-free in a group. We didn’t send it early enough. That’s my regret.”

— Comments made by Premier Brian Pallister during a year-end interview with Winnipeg media.

 

“Social contacts must be reduced to your household only and you must not have social gatherings … The message is stay home. The message is do not socialize outside of your household.”

— Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin in November while COVID-19 case numbers rose, though code red restrictions were in place for the entire province.

 

“We are looking at what the schools’ plans are, we’re looking at class sizes, we’re looking at how the kids are feeling about wearing masks. All my friends as parents are asking these same questions.”

— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who told reporters in August that he was on the fence about sending his own kids back to school during the pandemic.

 

“The numbers today will strike fear in many Manitobans. These numbers will have the most resonance with our health-care workers who have stepped forward at the same time that we’ve asked Manitobans to take a step back.”

— Lanette Siragusa, chief nursing officer for Manitoba Shared Health, after Dr. Brent Roussin announced 480 new cases on Oct. 30 that were an accumulation of backlogged numbers since Oct. 25.

 

“We should be able to bring our constituents’ concerns forward, yet there’s no platform to do that right now.”

— Manitoba Liberal MLA Cindy Lamoureux, who called upon the government to recall the legislature last August as the province brought forward plans for the return to school in the fall.

 

“A test message!!! When people are panicking already. Bad choice of a test message.”

“People are already on edge. Worried they may have to evacuate and you guys pull this not cool terrible timing.”

— Comments to The Brandon Sun Facebook page in July after the province sent an emergency alert from Manitoba Infrastructure advising that “a possible dam failure at the Rivers Reservoir Dam may occur within 24 hours.” That alert turned out to be a test message, though it was not labelled as such.

 

“There is strong evidence to corroborate the fact that the 71:250 Nursing Foundations II course (Fall term, test II, Final Exam) was compromised by a large number of students.”

— The text of a letter from the dean of the faculty of health studies at Brandon University in January to students facing disciplinary action.

“For the final exam, one of them found what they thought looked like a good study guide and shared it with his/her study group. It was just a study guide. They had no way of knowing that lazy prof would use an easily accessible study guide as his final exam.”

— One of several anonymous comments made to the Sun by students of the Nursing Foundations II course.

 

“What him and his lawyer are doing is stalling. In the meantime, they’re making a mockery of the justice system, really, and (the Canadian) Human Rights (Tribunal) because they’re not following the instructions they were given. They’re completely disregarding everything.”

— The late Gordon Ledoux, brother of Gambler First Nation Chief David LeDoux, and the complainant in a successful Human Rights challenge against the band, in October.

 

“We have an amazing team of such talented, smart and wonderful people that I have come to consider a family. The long nights and camaraderie will be missed dearly.”

— A message from Anna Dumas, owner of the Prairie Firehouse restaurant, on her Facebook page in May announcing the closure of her business due to “unprecedented times” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a failure to reach a lease agreement with the building’s owner.

 

“I have no intention of pulling a leaf off my poinsettia and rubbing it on my body.”

— Irene Armitage, 94, a resident of Birch Lodge Personal Care Home who successfully fought Prairie Mountain Health’s ban on poinsettias in December.

 

“My parents told me if any other person makes a mistake, they make a mistake. But if I make a mistake, I reflect the Black community. If I mess up, it looks bad on all of us. You can’t just be a kid and make a mistake while being Black. You have to be bigger.”

— Vincent Massey High School boys’ basketball player Kenyi Kubari sharing about personal experiences of racism and life as Black people in Canada.