Mayors get haircuts to protest counties being held back from Stage 2

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The mayors of Norfolk and Haldimand got haircuts on the steps of Governor Simcoe Square on June 9 to protest the province’s decision to hold the two counties back from moving to Stage 2 of the economic reopening process.

Premier Doug Ford announced that many parts of the province will move to Stage 2 starting June 12. Haldimand and Norfolk are among those jurisdictions to remain in Stage 1 due to recent COVID-19 outbreaks among migrant farm workers. Niagara, Windsor-Essex and Sarnia Lambton have also been held back due to outbreaks among farm workers.

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Mayors get haircuts to protest counties being held back from Stage 2 Back to video

Emily Hall from Small Town Beauty in Simcoe and Cher Horton of Cher & Ko. Salon in Port Dover teamed up to give Norfolk Mayor Kristal Chopp and Haldimand Mayor Ken Hewitt haircuts during the lunch hour on Tuesday.

Chopp said a group of hair salon owners reached out to her on June 8 to express their concerns about not being able to reopen.

“I received a phone call yesterday while the premier’s announcement was still ongoing from a gentleman that owns several salons in Norfolk County. He was practically in tears, it was passed a critical point for him,” said Chopp. “I don’t just sympathize, I agree that there’s a fundamental injustice there.”

Hall said it was frustrating to her that a large portion of the Haldimand Norfolk case numbers are currently residing in Brantford, yet Brant hairdressers would be able to open up shop. Migrant workers from Scotlynn Group, the site of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, are self-isolating at hotels in Brantford.

“We’re left hanging,” said Hall. “We drive to Brantford to buy our supplies, all of our clients will drive to Brantford to get their haircut, which leaves us financially in a bad place.”

“We’re a big part of the community, we have a lot of business around here and (Mayor Chopp) doesn’t want to see us have to lose our businesses over this,” said Horton.

“When we’re allowed to open up we won’t have any clients because they’ll have already gone to Brantford and Tillsonburg to get their hair cut,” said Hall.

When asked about dealing with any possible fines that may come to the mayors or the hair stylists that participated on Tuesday afternoon, Chopp said they would deal with it as it comes.

Jim Millson, interim field co-ordinator for Norfolk’s bylaw enforcement, declined an opportunity to comment to the Simcoe Reformer about this situation.

Chopp and Hewitt said they both recalled seeing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at an anti-racism protest earlier in the month, and the mayor of Toronto at a crowded park with thousands of people.

“This goes back to the inconsistencies that continue to be applied,” said Hewitt. “My issue isn’t whether we should open or not, it’s that as a province we should operate inclusively, and everybody is either in one phase or not.

“The majority of the community have done everything they can to protect themselves and to achieve a successful reopening,” said Hewitt. “For that success to be prevented because of two controlled outbreaks is unfortunate, unfair, and ludicrous in my opinion.”

The mayors were also irked by a lack of consultation prior to the June 8 announcement.

“Today we learned – along with all of you – that the provincial government will not be allowing Haldimand and Norfolk counties to proceed to the second stage of Ontario’s COVID-19 re-opening plan,” said a news release on Monday. “This decision was made by the provincial government after absolutely no consultation with our Medical Officer of Health, and for reasons that remain unclear.”

Ford weighed in on the mayors’ protest during his daily press conference on June 9. He drew attention to the fact Chopp and Hewitt were “shouting and screaming” a few weeks ago that cottagers with permanent residences outside of Haldimand Norfolk would be fined if they visited their seasonal properties in the counties.

“You can’t have it both ways, and they had a massive spike,” Ford said referring to the Scotlynn Group outbreak.

“You can’t be telling everyone to ‘stay away,’ and, ‘we’re going to fine you if you (visit) the cottage that you pay taxes for,’ and (be) the most outspoken in the entire province, and a couple weeks later sitting there getting a haircut and going against the protocols. Give me a break, really,” he said.

“They’re the last two mayors in the whole province out of 444 mayors that I would think would be doing this but you know, this pandemic does strange things for people.”

Hewitt said he had finally caved and given himself a quarantine haircut a week earlier.

“I didn’t do a very good job, I’m grateful she was able to clean up some of my mistakes, and I’m hopeful that very soon everybody else in both counties can get their haircuts as well.”

Norfolk Coun. Kim Huffman, meanwhile, said her phone “has been ringing off the hook” about the protest.

She described Hewitt’s and Chopp’s actions as “petulant and childish.”

“I’ll give it to you straight,” Huffman said. “I was appalled and embarrassed. I equate it to when my children, when they were little, throwing a tantrum. I would try to ignore it. Unfortunately, I now have responsibilities to my constituents. I was further dismayed to see the mayor draw a parallel between participating in a world-wide protest movement over a serious social issue being equivalent to getting a haircut.”

Huffman said the staged re-opening of Ontario’s economy “is not a competition.”

“No one is winning and no one is losing,” Huffman said, pointing out that a Norfolk and Haldimand board of health meeting scheduled for June 2 was cancelled, presumably because of the serious COVID-19 outbreak at Scotlynn Group creating “an all boots on the ground” situation regarding local health officials.

Huffman also pointed out that Norfolk and Haldimand have gone “above and beyond” with two contentious Section 22 orders seen no where else in Ontario, measures that obviously have attracted the attention of the Ford government, which has responded accordingly.

— With files from Monte Sonnenberg