Influencers marooned? Let them influence their way out.

The pandemic has been hard on everyone, especially the young folks. 

One thing for us old geezers to have to hunker down and stare out the window, play solitaire, and download books that we'll never read to our Kindles. (Too busy staring out the window and playing solitaire.) Quite another for those with some wild oats to sow, who want to get out there and par-tay, or whatever it is wild-oat-sowers and par-tay kids like to do. So I do have some sympathy for those who've been cooped up for a couple of years. Except maybe when they're a bunch of Canadian nimrods - or, as PM Justin Trudeau termed them, idiots and barbarians - who partied (maskless, natch) their way down to Mexico on a chartered flight. 

Of course, it doesn't make me feel more benevolently that the crowd was composed of influencers. Or influencer wannabes. Or those easily influenced by a "true" influencer. Talk about vapid vapers. 

So who was on board for the onboard funfest?

[Trip organizer, influencer James William] Awad, who operates 111 Private Club, organized the trip including a group of social media “influencers” and reality TV stars, such as Karl Sabourin from the popular Quebec show “Occupation Double” and Sandrine Seguin and Anna-Maelle Laprise, who both appeared on the province’s version of “Love Island.” (Source: Boston Globe)

Good to know, I guess, that Canadian youth are as caught up in the same stupefying stupidity as our kids. But cold Northern comfort for those of us who fantasize fleeing to the sanity of Canada if and when the U.S. becomes untenable. 

It goes without saying that the merry travelers shared their good time on social media. Which had an unintended consequence. 

Sunwing Airlines cancelled the return charter flight from Cancun that had been scheduled for Wednesday and Air Transat and Air Canada also both said they will refuse to carry the passengers. 

The reason for the refusal to carry this wretched refuse was the overarching "obligation to ensure passenger and crew safety."

Then there's the superspreader angle.

Rebecca St-Pierre is a 19-year old Quebec student who won a free trip on Instagram, so of course wanted to escape the frozen north for some fun in the sun. Alas, on the day she was supposed to fly home, she tested positive and is isolating in a hotel she doesn't know how she'll pay for. She thinks that there may be another 30 from the trip who have contracted covid. 

“The organizer just left everybody. I don’t know who’s still here. All the flights have been cancelled,” an emotional St-Pierre told The Canadian Press.

Just 19? Okay. I do have sympathy for Rebecca. I hope she gets home safely. And I hope she gets James William Awad to pay for whatever her extended stay in Mexico ends up costing.

"I was expecting a relaxing week, where I was going to be careful," she said. "But this turns out to be an expensive trip for something that was supposed to be free."

And while I do think the organizer/bad influencer should pay up, I hope Rebecca learns something here. Maybe she should have read the fine print, which I'm thinking may have included a disclaimer or two. And maybe she'll grow to appreciate the distinction between "going to be careful" and actually being careful.

The bad behavior is rumored to have accompanied the partiers once they landed and headed to the hotel, where many of them continued to act like out of control a-holes. And where some of them, prior to attempting to find flights back, put "Vaseline up their noses in an attempt to thwart COVID-19 testing."

Some of the marooned influencers - not the ones who've tested positive, but perhaps including the Vaseline brigade (does that really work?) - are now making their way back to Canada, where they're being met with a welcoming committee of Canadian authorities (Ministry of Health AND Quebec PD). If someone's found to have "violated Transport Department regulations, [they] could face fines of up to $5,000 Canadian per infraction (US $3,930)." Which is  fair amount of scratch for someone to come up with. 

Meanwhile, organizer/bad influencer Awad is coming out swinging. On Sunday, he tweeted:

Reality of the story, sheeps are mad because people partied on a private chartered plane where partying was allowed. Wake up!!

I have no idea whether this bit about partying being allowed is true or not. I mean, it was put out on Twitter, but who knows?

Anyway, this attitude probably doesn't bode well for the prospect of Rebecca St-Pierre getting her unanticipated costs paid off. Sometimes you just have to pick up the tab for your own bad choices, and influence your own way out.