Words to remember: Canadian newsmakers have their say on COVID-19

A look at some of the top quotes from across Canada on Thursday in relation to COVID-19:

“One should not be embarrassed to go in a food bank. It is not your fault that you have lost your job in the past few days, in the past few weeks.”

— Quebec Premier Francois Legault.

“It’s OK to go for a walk, but go for a walk by yourself. … That’s obviously not what we saw in the pictures (from Vancouver last weekend).”

— Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist based at Toronto General Hospital.

“Canada and the U.S. have the longest unmilitarized border in the world, and it is very much in both of our interests for it to remain that way.”

— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on a White House proposal to send soldiers to the Canada-U.S. border.

“This is not a drill, it’s a pandemic.”

— B.C. Premier John Horgan in announcing new emergency measures being taken by the provincial government.

“A message to anyone who price gouges: We’re coming after you. We’re coming after you hard. I’m going to protect the people of this province and the price gouging, we’re going to put this order through cabinet and they’re done. They’re going to be gone.”

— Ontario Premier Doug Ford.

“Pay part of it, pay all of it, do what you can.”

— Don Morgan, Saskatchewan’s minister of labour relations and workplace safety, on the April 1 rent deadline.

“It’s a very, very significant challenge, I would say on a magnitude perhaps without precedent — maybe wartime, maybe the Spanish flu earlier in the last century.”

— Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2020.

The Canadian Press