“Ford made a mistake! He picked the wrong sport to cancel,” states Bradford resident Dwayne Cardoso.
Cardoso has been a Bradford resident for 25 years and an active skier and snowboarder for even longer. He and his family of five (his girlfriend and three young kids) were all taught how to ski and snowboard at an early age by Cardoso himself.
It is a pastime they all look forward to every winter… except this year when Premier Doug Ford made the announcement that ski hills were part of the list of lockdown closures.
Popular ski resorts like Snow Valley and Blue Mountain were open just two days before Ford’s announcement about the lockdown closures, shocking many avid skiers and snowboarders who were waiting for the hills to open so they could regain some kind of normalcy during the ongoing pandemic.
As COVID-19 cases continue to climb, residents are starting to feel like sardines squeezed into a tin can as the government continues to place restrictions on what you can, and cannot do.
Currently, Ontario remains the only province in North America to shut down ski hills during the pandemic.
“As soon as Doug Ford shut (the ski hills) down, I said ‘no’ and talked to a friend about what we could do to change this,” says Cardoso.
Cardoso immediately began researching rates of transmission, number of cases at local hospitals and ski resorts outside of Ontario, and reached out to professionals to properly understand how COVID-19 works and the impact it would have on the ski and snowboard community.
“I reached out to anyone and everyone and got great support,” says Cardoso.
Cardoso then visited change.org, a platform that allows people to start online petitions. Cardoso gathered his facts and tried to be as "diplomatic" as possible before launching his first petition.
“I didn’t know how to start one," Cardoso admits. “But within the first 25 seconds of posting the petition, I had my first signature.”
Cardoso’s petition 'snowballed’ from there and after the first few hours, he had hundreds of signatures. In just a week, the petition now had more than 76,000 signatures, 34,000 shares, and has been viewed more than 600,000 times.
“It’s the only sport you’re completely covered head to toe,” says Cardoso, mentioning that many people wear balaclavas among many other forms of facial protection from frigid winds.
Cardoso argues that if Nathan Phillips Square is open and people are being encouraged to ‘pleasure skate’ then why can’t ski hills be open, too?
His reasons for wanting the ski hills reopened go beyond the pleasures of the winter sport; he adds that snowboarding provides his family with an experience of calm, especially for his 11-year-old son Eli, who has autism spectrum disorder.
“Snowboarding is a stress reliever for him,” says Cardoso. “It’s a very peaceful sport where he can look at nature and board down the hill – it’s huge and beneficial! But only in the winter.”
Cardoso’s son is not the only one with a health issue that is benefitted by exercise and outdoor activities. Cardoso himself is ‘twice-immuno’ compromised and was at Mount Sinai Hospital this past summer battling sarcoidosis, a condition that left him with tumours in his lungs and lymph nodes. Cardoso also suffers from Type 1 diabetes.
“I spent most of my summer at Mount Sinai where they basically shut my immune system off to help fight the disease,” says Cardoso. “I was encouraged to start getting active again and that’s what I intend to do.”
Cardoso and his family own a condo in Mont Tremblant, Que., where they were snowboarding at the Mont-Tremblant Ski Resort for the holidays. During their stay, Cardoso took images with his camera to show the safety protocols in place at the ski resort and the extra measures put into action to ensure skiers and snowboarders were safe.
“I’ve had overwhelming support since the petition launched,” says Cardoso, noting that he has had 10 times as many ‘thank-you’ messages as he has had private messages from those in opposition. “It’s funny, when someone opposes something that is great for physical and mental health, it’s usually because it’s something that’s affecting them personally, like ‘how dare you try to snowboard when I can’t go to the gym or visit my grandmother!’ It’s no longer a good argument in my opinion.”
Cardoso notes that, to date, there are zero COVID cases in connection to the Mont Tremblant ski resort, and argues that the lines at the ski lifts are more than adequately spaced out between each skier with their skis and boards ensuring even more distance.
“Is Doug Ford ready to bail out these hills after he made them spend millions to upgrade the resorts to be COVID safe and gave them the green light?”
“For me, this is all-around mental health," Cardoso adds. "My son (who is autistic) can ride his board and… is calm and relaxed and finally in his happy place. It’s only four months a year and for the rest of the year, I have no safe, happy place… Fingers crossed for some positive results.”
Cardoso worries that if the lockdown goes beyond the 28 days, ski resorts will not be able to stay afloat.
In a recent update, officials with Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture say they plan to meet with downhill ski operators from the Ontario Snow Resorts Association (OSRA).
