Thursday, September 30, 2021

Defiance Comes With A Cost


One of the things that riles me more than most is the absolute zeal with which the anti-vaxxers embrace their cause. Call it truculence, call it misplaced zeal, call it whatever you will, their willfully ignorant stance ignores the facts of Covid-19 and its very effective Kryptonite, the vaccines themselves. Unfortunately, the collateral damage caused by their desperate and pitiable effort to define themselves by their defiance is the rest of us.

Public health and any sense of community beyond their own benighted cadre seems non-existent.

Now added to the fray are restaurants and other businesses that are openly advertising that they do not 'discriminate' and will not be asking for proof of status as a condition of entry.

Propelled by a mixture of vaccine skepticism, business decisions and fear of government overreach, these proprietors — ranging from burger joints in Toronto to a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class in Thornhill — have formed an extensive and well-documented network of restaurants, gyms, cafes and more where clientele can enter regardless of jab status.

 In a Facebook group called “Ontario Businesses Against Health Pass,” which boasts more than 139,000 members, small business owners and entrepreneurs across the province have been promoting their products and decrying the Reopening Ontario Act.

“At King Jiu Jitsu, we do NOT discriminate,” wrote Gregg King, operator of a martial arts class in Thornhill, in the Facebook group. “Vaxxed or not vaxxed you are all welcome to train in a safe and friendly environment ... No BS. No politics. No Drama!”

 The posts receive scores of supportive messages from like-minded people. The businesses are added to an online directory, called Ontario BAD (Businesses Against Discrimination), where they can advertise their work and submit job postings to fill vacancies.

Apparently there are close to 700 enterprises listed on the site. If you are curious,  you can check out some of them on this Google Maps compilation.

Arguments for their stance are disingenuous at best. Jenna Barnes, owner of a very small restaurant in Hamilton called The Harbour Diner, 

thinks the province is disadvantaging small businesses by implementing rules that don’t apply to big corporations.

“You can walk into a Canadian Tire, or a Walmart, or a Costco and nobody will ask you a damn question about your medical history. Why is it all on us?”

The obvious answer, of course, is that those enterprises require masks at all times, something that is impossible when one is eating.

The Star's Emma Teitel has a solution to the problems posed by these scofflaws. 

What if, you, a fully vaccinated person, dine at a restaurant you assumed to be safe, only to discover later on that not only did you contract COVID-19 from an outbreak at the restaurant, but its owner failed to check diners’ vaccination statuses and boasted about this failure online?

According to Alex Colangelo, a lawyer and professor of paralegal studies at Humber College, you might have recourse to sue the restaurant for negligence.

 Consider this passage from Ontario’s Occupiers’ Liability Act, the “occupier” for our purposes being a business owner: “An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.”

Consider this passage from Ontario’s Occupiers’ Liability Act, the “occupier” for our purposes being a business owner: “An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.”

It is time that those who proudly trumpet their truculence accept responsibility for their irresponsibility. Lawsuits, fines for non-compliance and even closure of businesses seem a good place to start imparting a much-needed lesson. 


8 comments:

  1. So these businesses are going to embrace 20% of the population at the expense of the other 80%? That's sound business decision-making.

    UU

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    1. The older I get, UU, the less I understand my fellow human beings. Responses to the pandemic have shaken my confidence.

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  2. You can't operate a business without some municipal licence. Restaurants are regularly inspected and their licences pulled for health infractions. Those who defy the law should be shut down.

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    1. I totally agree, Mound, but somehow I think the politics of today precludes such swift justice.

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  3. Last years heros are todays zeros. Quebec plans to remove thousands of unvaccinated healthcare workers.

    Perhaps you could help explain something to me, Lorne.

    We know that unvaccinated nurses can be infected with Covid and spread it. We also know that vaccinated nurses can be infected and spread it.

    To quote failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, "what difference does it make"?

    -MC

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    1. Your concerns are certainly valid ones, MC. While it is true that both the unvaccinated and the vaccinated can be infected and spread the disease, the fact is that vaccinated people have a far less likelihood of infection, and hence are less likely to spread the disease. My understanding is that when infected, even an initial high viral load tends to wane quickly if you have had the jab. As well, if everyone in an indoor space such as a restaurant, gym or bar have been vaccinated, the likelihood of contracting it from a fellow patron is much lower than if mingling with the unprotected.

      The very contagious Delta variant is the new wild card in all of this, of course, and so it is crucial that we use all of the tools at our disposal to reduce its spread.

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  4. Jesus, Lorne, I don't know how to break this to you. I know how fond you were of him but your graven idol, Pat Robertson, is hanging up his ecclesiastical spurs. Don't worry though. He's handing "the firm" to his kid. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/10/01/pat-robertson-cbn-700-club-retires-evangelical-gop-republican-presidential-candidate/

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    1. Oh, this is indeed a heavy blow, Mound. My only solace is that a dynasty will continue in what I am sure will be his son's capable hands, which will be undoubtedly capable of reaping the tithes that come to the ministry.

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