funeral queen

Everyone is complaining that Doug Ford didn't give Ontario the day off

The day of Queen Elizabeth II's funeral has officially arrived, with millions of people around the globe already avidly watching — unless you live in Ontario, where you are likely at work.

While Canada is marking September 19 as an official one-time holiday for residents to mourn the monarch, who passed away 11 days ago at the age of 96, only those in federal workplaces will actually get the day off, unless you live in a province that has decided to similarly recognize the occasion.

While the Maritime provinces are all observing that stat in some way by shuttering provincial offices, schools and more, others, such as Ontario and Quebec, are not.

Premier Doug Ford announced last week that while Monday is a provincial Day of Mourning during which he encourages residents to "honour Her Majesty and pay tribute to the extraordinary legacy she leaves behind" with a moment of silence, the majority of the population will be doing so from their desks (or wherever they do their job from).

Of course, social media has been rife with complaints since first thing this morning, with most of the ire tagging Ford directly.

People are clearly not happy to be at work today after it was teased that we may all be getting a day at home to watch the state funeral — which is being attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and a bevy of other prominent Canadian figures — or otherwise commemorate the day however we want.

While some appear to be very serious about the Queen's death and their right to properly mourn it and take in today's procession...

...others are just pissed off that some people are getting a paid day to do as they wish while they do not.

Those who are able appear to be watching the event regardless, though they would have had to be awake since the wee hours of the morning to catch it from the beginning: the Queen laid in state until 6:30 a.m. U.K. time (1:30 a.m. in Ontario) before her coffin was loaded onto a carriage for the procession two hours later.

Many were not all that surprised that Ontario isn't honouring the day given that the province also isn't doing much for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation later this month, but the public is still wondering why Ford chose this course, in the case of both days.

Some are going as far as saying Ford hates the Queen and is a "disgrace" for not acknowledging the federal holiday, while others feel that it was Trudeau's job to push premiers harder to do so.

Though the majority seem passionately against Ford's move, others are saying they don't much care about the holiday anyway, and are more concerned about other, more pressing governmental issues, like the province's floundering healthcare system.

Those who want to watch the once-in-a-lifetime event, whether while off at home or sneakily at work, can do so on any major news network's TV station or website.

Lead photo by

CBC


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