Here's how Toronto spent its first weekend in Step 3 of Ontario's reopening
This weekend, the sidewalks in Toronto are a little busier, the patios are full, and, as resident Lucie Malbeteau describes it, there’s a sense of “freedom” in the air.
As she sits in a Queen Street West cafe having brunch on Sunday, Malbeteau is experiencing the city for the first time, having moved here from France nine months ago.
"It's an amazing day, an amazing weekend," Malbeteau said.
She says the simple act of having brunch indoors feels both normal and wonderful at the same time.
"It's like, I don't know, like freedom," she explained.
The cafe, called Marvellous by Fred, is busy with a lot of walk-in traffic, and people wanting to sit down.
"It's just like something that we used to have, and now we just discover how good it is to have it back," store supervisor Melanie Ven Der Horst said.
Ontario entered Step 3 of its reopening plan on Friday, which once again allows for indoor dining and a host of other loosened public health restrictions. There’s no limit on the number of people per table, but restaurants must allow for social distancing between groups.
Gyms and movie theatres also reopened their doors Friday with capacity limits in place.
Outside Scotiabank Theatre, Davin Lengyel is about to go see the newest installment in the “Fast and Furious” franchise, “F9.”
Lengyel said he can't wait to share in the experience with other people in the audience.
"Movies are always a communal experience in the first place. That's what they're for," he said.
And as moviegoers trickle in on a hot July afternoon, Lengyel says watching movies and TV at home during the pandemic just can't compete with the theatre.
"It’s the large screen," he says. "It's the experience of seeing it with a group of other people you can hear them appreciate it, you can hear the ‘oohs’ and the ‘awes.’"
At an F45 gym in Etobicoke, owner Adam Meghji was cleaning up, after a weekend of nearly full classes.
He says the feeling inside was “jovial."
"The mood is just so excited. I think people are not only excited to come back into the studio to work out but also just to see other people,” Meghji explained.
After being closed for nearly nine months, gym staff said they were prepared to reopen and pick up where they left off.
"I feel like there's more optimism this time around the reopening that we're going to stay open," Meghji said.
A little more freedom, a little more optimism, and a lot of hope that there will be no looking back.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.