Face masks may no longer be mandatory in certain places next month in Quebec, but one father is hoping to make the experience a little less confrontational for some of those who choose to still wear them.
Louis Sansfaçon, who lost his 31-year-old daughter to cancer, is spearheading a campaign to make clips with the letter "i" on them to attach them to masks specifically for immunocompromised people. The idea is to signal to others to keep their distance and that the person wearing it or their loved one is medically vulnerable.
The Quebec City resident credits the original idea to his late daughter, Emilie. The pair was at the Hôtel Dieu Hospital for her 35th round of chemo when they noticed a man who didn't have his mask on.
"She told me, 'Dad, I'm going to chemo and that guy doesn't know that I'm fighting for my life, I'm fighting for my health so we must do something about this,'" he recalled in an interview with CTV News.
She suggested at the time to use the mask as a form of communication for people with weakened immune systems.
"And then she said, 'Dad, do something. Create something about it.' So I came up with this idea."
The red "i" clips easily onto the side of a face mask. The "immunoclip" costs $6.50 and all proceeds go to the Association des Patients Immunodéficients du Québec, a non-profit organization that supports people who are immunocompromised and their families.
Emilie was a mother of two who lost her life after an 18-month battle with stage 4 colorectal cancer.
Sansfaçon wanted to start this project in honour of his daughter, whom he described as "a leader" who was "very active" and "always smiling."
"I made her a promise to go as far as I can with this little 'i'. This little letter can give quality of life for those people like Emilie around the world," he said.
So far, the idea seems to be resonating. He said he received more than 3,000 requests for the clips on Monday following recent media coverage from people all over Canada and even from people as far away as France.
Sansfaçon said he's not worried about people facing criticism for keeping their masks on as more public health measures are being lifted, but he realizes there will always be a select few who will give others a hard time about it.
He said he already received at least one email from a naysayer about the initiative. Sansfaçon said he wrote back and said he wished that person never gets diagnosed with a disease that weakens their immune system.
Quebec said it is taking a "weigh your own risk" approach in lifting the face mask mandate in "mid-April" if the epidemiological situation continues to improve. No specific date has been announced.
Interim public health director Dr. Luc Boileau told a news conference in March that it would be "impossible to ask a population of 8.5 million" to continue to mask indefinitely for a small minority who might still be at risk.
He said at the time the province has a slew of other tools that will help the medically vulnerable, including the roll-out of a fourth dose of the vaccine and that everyone in medical settings will still wear masks.
