About 60 people, many representing area businesses, took to the the streets of Downtown Guelph Saturday to say they are being unfairly treated under the current stay-at-home orders because they are forced to keep their doors closed to the public.
The demonstration began at noon at the Baker Street Parking lot, directly behind the Quebec Street location of the Acqua hair salon.
Pina Marfisi, owner of Acqua, said her 30 employees all need to be able to pay the bills and can't afford to be off work once again.
“We just want to make our voices heard, that we are essential," said Marfisi. "We have to feed our families and we want to work. We don’t want to get government handouts, we want to work."
Marfisi said case numbers in Guelph are relatively low compared to the rest of the province and that the last 13 months of safety measures put in place in response to the pandemic has proven her salon is safe.
“If you want to take care of the hot spots then take care of the hot spots, but we need to work," said Marfisi.
Earlier this week the province identified the area between Paisley Road and Wellington Road 124, and Elmira Road to the Hanlon Expressway in Guelph as one of the hot spots in the province.
Demonstrators represented some other local businesses, like restaurants and other salons, said Marfisi.
Gail King is the head coach at Valhalla MMA in Cambridge. Her facility is closed once again after briefly being able to offer instruction for up to 10 people.
“We just want to be able to open and make a living because the way they are doing it doesn’t make sense. It’s a bit insane for small businesses, especially," said King.
While it was allowed to be open, members were required to complete contact tracing, maintain three metres distance from each other and the gym invested in personal protective equipment and enhanced cleaning measures.
“But we still can’t open," said King of the most recent stay-at-home order. "You can go to Costco, Walmart or wherever where there is no contact tracing or anything like that."
Demonstrators marched from the Baker Street parking lot to Market Square, where people took turns speaking through a single megaphone.
Speakers alternated between people personally affected by the stay-at-home order, like salon workers and those in the MMA community, with some anti-vaccine protesters.
