‘Essential for the soul’?: leisure as a flashpoint during COVID-19 lockdowns in Ontario, Canada

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in Canada, leisure activities and spaces became major sites of public debate and emotional expression about the efficacy, ethics, and social impacts of restrictive public health measures, as well as sites for the support or defiance of pandemic-related restrictions. In this paper, we analyze the ways that news media understood and represented public health measures and their relation to recreation, and participation therein. We focus on: 1) how media contributed to public understandings of social control and diffusion of surveillance; 2) how recreation became something of a ‘flashpoint’ as restrictions were imposed and, conversely, a symbol of freedom, liberty from governmental control, and return to so-called ‘normalcy’ as public health measures were lifted; and 3) how leisure was constructed in ways that privilege affluent consumers and citizens, with relatively little concern expressed for the implications of the pandemic on marginalized or vulnerable populations.