The word phobia generally connotes an irrational fear of something. A definition of the term from a mental health perspective tells us it is
a type of anxiety disorder that is characterized by extreme and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, or creature (usually insects) which is usually not dangerous. A person does not need to have direct contact with the thing they’re afraid of to experience symptoms. Even thinking about it can bring on anxiety or panic symptoms.
Phobias run the gamut from agoraphobia (fear of open spaces or crowds) to xenophobia (fear of strangers or foreigners) to zoophobia (fear of animals). All of these definitions have one thing in common: fear or social anxiety, a form of mental illness.
And that is why the term islamophobia, even though it goes beyond fear of Muslims or Islam to include hatred of, and prejudice against, them, seems wholly inadequate, especially in light of the recent horrifying events that unfolded in London, Ontario. It is almost as if the word is a euphemism for something much darker.
It is time to confront the fact that Canadians are not exempt from the racism that has long afflicted the United States, racism reflected in the residential school system our country embraced for so long, racism that is sadly evident in the ongoing crimes against minorities, not the least of whom are Muslims.
In her searing column today, Susan Delacourt calls out federal leaders for refusing denounce the anti-Islamic nature of Quebec's Bill-21, which prohibits the wearing of religious garb for anyone who seeks to hold a public service job. This, while these same federal leaders offer expressions of sympathy and solidarity with the Muslim community. What credibility, for example, does Erin O'Toole have when his party during the 2015 election campaign promised the infamous snitch line for "barbaric cultural practices," a dog-whistle if there ever was one?
But the most damning indictment of Canadian racism comes in this story:
Jeff Bennett, who ran for the PCs in the 2014 election, recounted in a Facebook post how people in his riding were happy to see that he had replaced the former candidate, a man named Ali Chahbar. Loyal Conservatives in London told Bennett they were relieved that “his name was English and his skin was white.” Bennett remembered how Chahbar had been smeared on local talk radio with talk of sharia law and other nonsense.
Bennett wrote that he was tired of people saying London was better than what happened on Sunday. “Bullshit. I knocked on thousands of doors in the very neighbourhood this atrocity occurred. This terrorist may have been alone in that truck on that day, but he was not acting alone. He was raised in a racist city that pretends it isn’t.”
Bennett came in second in London West in 2014 and has likely abandoned any aspirations to be elected again, given his willingness to tell voters what they don’t want to hear about themselves.
Being willing and able to confront unpalatable truths about ourselves will not rid us of those truths, But, in the long road toward a better society, it has to be the first step.
UPDATE: The following, by David Doel of The Rational National, offers a wider landscape upon which to view Canada's racism:
I know that I probably allot an inordinate amount of space on this blog to the United States. I wish it were otherwise, but the fact that they are the most powerful nation on earth and that we live next store to this dysfunctional giant means what happens there potentially affects not only us but the entire world.
And that giant is in real danger of becoming another failed democracy, with consequences we shudder to contemplate.
The New America organization this week published a “statement of concern” signed by more than 100 democratic scholars from universities across the country. They wrote: “Our entire democracy is now at risk.”
After “unproven and intentionally destructive” allegations about the 2020 election being stolen, they wrote, the Republican party governing many states is undertaking changes to core election procedures, a transformation that will mean they “no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections.”
The threats come from former Trump flunkies like Michael Flynn, who
had to walk back comments he made this week at a Trump-supporting conspiracy conference in Dallas, Texas, in which he appeared to agree with a suggestion that a Mynamar-style coup in the U.S. should return Trump to office.
Meanwhile, at an “America First” rally in Dalton, Georgia last week Rep. Matt Gaetz said the second amendment protects the right to bear arms specifically to allow citizens “the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary.”
At the state level, the inmates appear to be running the asylum. While not openly calling for insurrection, they are doing their utmost to ensure that democratic choice becomes just a sad joke, as they
have still embraced the lie of widespread fraud and are pushing legislation to ensure fewer Democratic supporters can vote next time around — and that Republican state legislatures can overturn the results if they do.
The most recent battle on this front is in Texas, where a bill from the Republican governor would limit forms of voting popular with Black and young voters. That measure was blocked when the Democratic minority refused to provide quorum at the end of a legislative session last week, but will return, the governor promises, in a special session later this year.Fourteen other Republican-controlled states have already passed lawsthis year to limit voting access, and more are proposed. Many such measures also make it easier for legislatures to overrule voters in assigning electoral college votes, as Trump urged them to do in 2020.
In short, Trump and his supporters are still fighting to overturn the last election, and Republican legislators appear to be fixing things to ensure he (or his successor) cannot lose the next one.
Democracy has always been a fragile construct. In their lust for power, Republicans now appear ready, willing and able to obliterate it.
Recent events here have served to amply remind all of us that, as Canadians, we do not walk on the side of the angels. However, events south of the border serve as yet another reminder that the United States is a toxic nation that all of us would do well to avoid.
Some will find the language in the following offensive, but I think you will agree that the courier doing the videoing had ample provocation.
John’ asks me to show I.D. while I’m delivering Narcan in Pacific Heights
For those who don’t know it’s reputation, pac heights is one of the most affluent, snobby, and white neighborhoods in San Francisco. It’s a neighborhood of old money, unlike the heavily gentrified neighborhoods where new tech money has displaced historically black and brown communities. Everyone who grew up here knows that There is an invisible line drawn on the corner of Fillmore and Sutter that separates pac heights from uptown Fillmore, a line which I rarely care to cross(because this type of thing is a common occurrence in my everyday life). On this particular day I found myself on the wrong side of the line. I was doing a Narcan delivery (for the @the.d.o.p.e.project ) to the 2200 block of Clay street when a man called out to me from a 3rd story window. He asked me what I was doing, and I replied my job. He asked me who I worked for and I told him to mind his business. He then followed me to the halfway house I was delivering to and stood in my way as I tried to leave. I’ve never seen this guy before in my life. I posed no threat to his safety or his property. He threatened to call the cops on me, and after I talked some shit to him he admitted that it was an empty threat. He explained that things have come up missing in the neighborhood, so it must have been me who stole his shit. I’m guessing that in his mind I had no right to be walking down his street, and I must be looking for something to steal. I have a strong feeling that he wouldn’t have harassed me of I was of a lighter complexion, but this is an everyday thing when you’re a man of color living in America. #alwayscarrynarcan#narcansaveslives#harmreductionsaveslives#narcan@harmreductioncoalition
Lake Highlands High School valedictorian Paxton Smith is going viral for a commencement speech she gave to her graduating class. She ditched her initial, pre-approved speech for one that discusses her feelings about abortion rights in Texas.
Although we are fast-approaching the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, I am almost ashamed to admit that I knew absolutely nothing about it until I watched HBO's Watchmen series last year. That it took a fictional show to apprise me of it is perhaps not totally surprising, given that it was a tragedy many assiduously tried to scrub clean from history. As Charles Blow writes,
in 1921, white citizens of that city — aided by the National Guard, it should be noted — destroyed the Greenwood section of that city, a prosperous, self-sufficient community known as Black Wall Street, killing as many at 300 people and leaving 8,000 others homeless.
One of the most remarkable things about that massacre was the concerted effort by the city to erase it from history, and just how effective that campaign was.
They were fully aware of what they were doing:
“After the massacre, officials set about erasing it from the city’s historical record. Victims were buried in unmarked graves. Police records vanished. The inflammatory Tulsa Tribune articles were cut out before the newspapers were transferred to microfilm.”
The Times continued, “City officials cleansed the history books so thoroughly that when Nancy Feldman, a lawyer from Illinois, started teaching her students at the University of Tulsa about the massacre in the late 1940s, they didn’t believe her.”
If you are a NYT subscriber, the paper did a masterful job, including the use of 3D modelling, to show the full breadth of the tragedy. Failing that, the following report offers some insight into this atrocious event:
Continuing with a theme, I found these videos of more stupid people, this group enjoying yesterday's fine weather in Toronto. While thousands of parents were lined up with their kids (12 years and older) to get their first Pfizer shot at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, handfuls of anti-vaxxers took it upon themselves to educate them about the perils of listening to their parents and the science that guides them.
As is obvious here, some people have too much time on their hands. A pity they can't find something constructive to do with it, but with such apparent cognitive shortcomings, not really surprising, eh?
As odious as it is to stereotype people based on their geography or any other criteria, (actually, I do it all the time when talking about Americans) the following certainly serves to reinforce notions about Albertans.
As you will see, the sense of entitlement of this doofus is breathtaking. His comeuppance is gratifying to watch.
WARNING: because of the driver's imbecilic nature, the language in both videos is crude and offensive.
As you will see in the next video, even after his arrest, he is unrepentant and wholly convinced of the righteousness of his cause. You will likely have to go directly to YouTube to watch it, as the language and defamatory comments make it age-restricted.
If you have the chance, read the comments arising from both videos. They reveal this clown's abject failure in garnering any sympathy whatsoever.
There is little doubt today that the vast majority of us are feeling very kindly-disposed toward the big pharmaceuticals. After all, they brought us quite efficacious vaccines against Covidc-19 in record time, vaccines that will in the near-future allow Western nations to return to relative normalcy.
We wait with bated breath for that time to arrive in Canada.
While we wait, it might be good to remember a couple of things: the speed with which these miracles of medicine were developed was facilitated tremendously by the infusion of billions of tax dollars by an array of governments; the resulting profits have gone almost solely to the companies who hold the patents to these vaccines. In other words, governments assumed much of the risk while reaping none of the rewards.
But, we are told that the huge profits of big pharma wrought by its pricing regimes are necessary to fund research. After all, many promising therapies are pursued that ultimately don't pan out. To restrict drug prices would inhibit research, the story goes.
No doubt there is some truth to such assertions, but the following puts into sharp relief some other aspects of pharma's expenditures that are wholly unrelated to research costs. Katie Porter, a California Democrat who sits in the House of Representatives, had a run at AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez over the rising drug prices at his company. What she uncovered isn't pretty.
If one were to judge by the fervour with which Canadians are availing themselves of vaccines to stop the spread of Covid-19, one would classify ours as a very mature response. Certainly, there will always be pockets of resistance among the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers and conspiracy buffs, but on the whole, we are eager for the protection offered by these modern-day miracles of medicine.
Alas, the same cannot be said for our neighbours to the south. While it is true they have a much larger proportion of both partially and fully-vaccinated citizens, the problem becomes apparent when looking at those who have not been vaccinated and apparently are not keen to get the jab.
And this is where the real story begins. How to convince the other 50% of eligible Americans to get the vaccine? Time for a couple of carrots.
The first carrot is the appeal to renewed freedom. As the new CDC guidelines state, if you are fully vaccinated, you can begin to live normally again.
You can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic.
You can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
If you travel in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.
Oh, sweet liberty.
But what to do about those for whom such promises do not move the resistance dial?
How about a bigger carrot? Unfortunately, it is this larger-sized vegetable that, in my view, represents an infantilization of the population. And its message is a simple one: if you are good boys and girls and get the vaccine, you will be eligible for some nice treats.
For example, West Virginiawill give $100 savings bonds to 16- to 35-year-olds who get a Covid-19 vaccine, Gov. Jim Justice said.
It would seem that money talks. Researchers found that
a third of the unvaccinated population said a cash payment would make them more likely to get a shot. The benefits were largest for those in the group getting $100, which increased willingness (34 percent said they would get vaccinated) by six points over the $25 group.
But there is much, much more on offer. Here is a sampling:
Illinois became the latest state to join the trend when it announced Thursday it will be doling out 50,000 free theme park tickets to anyone who has been vaccinated through a partnership with Six Flags Great America (the tickets are valued at a combinedcostof $4 million).
This comes after Ohio rolled out a similarly eye-popping incentive on Wednesday: A $1 million prize for five vaccinated residents chosen at random in a weekly lottery.
In New York, inoculated individuals can choose from a whole host of benefits, including free 7-day metro cards, tickets to sports games and some of the city’s key attractions (the Bronx Zoo, Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Lincoln Center) and, as of Thursday, free food from burger joint Shake Shack.
Indeed, even the mayor of New York is getting in on the act. If this is not childish, please tell me what it is:
Makes you want to go to New York for your second shot, eh? But wait, there's more!
While not ruling out cash prizes, New Jersey is currently offering a “shot and beer” program which rewards the newly inoculated with a free beer at participating breweries through the rest of this month, while Connecticut is also offering a free drink “on them” for residents who get vaccinated in May.
There are other states offering inducements as well, but I think you get the picture. Even the private sector is getting involved. Krispy Kreme, for example, is offering a free glazed doughnut, while Budweiser is offering debit cards for free beer.
Are any of these measures ill-advised? Of course not, if they get more needles into arms. They are, however, a rather sobering reminder to all of us that human evolution clearly has a long, long way to go before we can truly call ourselves an advanced species.
Having absolutely no patience with those who reflexively and shrilly denounce public health measures as attacks on their freedom (as if freedom were an absolute), I took real delight in reading this business owner's response to a bad review based on his insistence that all customers wear masks when entering his bakery:
This classy response, one hopes (but does not expect), will induce at least a modicum of shame in the reviewer. Should you be interested in how Twitter favorably responded to Etzinger's post, click here.
As well, Bob Coupland of Oakville expresses some timely sentiments:
Ford government’s planning entrenches sprawl at expense of environment
I just heard the term“The Big Sprawl,” and it alarmed me to hear that between now and July 1, 2022, the Doug Ford government is forcing every Greater Golden Horseshoe municipality to rush through planning decisions to lock in 30 more years of outdated and environmentally damaging residential, commercial and industrial sprawl.
It seems to me that this goes hand in hand with their attitude towards the building of Highway 413, the appointment of Norm Sterling as head of the Greenbelt Council, and the rampant use of MZOs (Ministerial Zoning Orders), decisions that are designed tomake developers and land speculators even wealthier.
Policies of this sort are heavy-handed and dictatorial, blatantly harmful, unnecessary, and not what the people of Ontario want.
It’s time to stop urban boundary expansions, and firmly and forever protect farmland and natural areas.
It appears that Doug Ford's attempt to use the Covid crisis as an opportunity for misdirection while he enriches his developer cronies is not wholly successful, eh?
To paraphrase a character from the play Hamlet, something is rotten in the state of Ontario.
And one needn't be a master detective to trace its source. Indeed, it is perhaps to state the obvious to conclude that Doug Ford is in the thrall of, and debt to, the developers.
Let's consider the evidence. First, of course, is the infamous video that emerged during Ontario's last election campaign.
Despite Ford's later walking back those comments somewhat, the image of an ideologue bent on development at all costs has stuck. And as I pointed out in a recent post, his appointment of Norm Sterling, the failed environment minister under Mike Harris, to head the Greenbelt Council solidified that image.
But there is much more to Ford's entanglement with those who would blithely pave over environmentally-sensitive areas of the province, and thanks to steadfast journalism, the arrows pointing to the premier's indebtedness to those interests (not to mention conflict of interest and possible corruption) are becoming increasingly obvious.
The Toronto Star has brought its usual investigative rigour to all of this, and I will excerpt just a small part to get to the pertinent elements.
The RCMP is investigating a group that launched an ad campaign attacking Ontario teachers last year.
Vaughan Working Families took out full-page ads in the Star and other major newspapers in February 2020 in advance of province-wide teachers’ strikes.
The ads were an apparent contravention of the Election Finances Act, according to Elections Ontario, because Vaughan Working Families had failed to register as a third party.
Of particular note is the fact that these ads appeared while Ford's government was in contract talks, led by education minister Stephen Lecce, with Ontario teachers. And just who is associated with the group behind the ads?
Vaughan Working Families is associated with developer Michael DeGasperis, founder of Vaughan-based Arista Homes and CEO of TACC Construction.
That would be the same DeGasperis who owns land along the proposed corridor and stands to greatly benefit from the Highway 413 development, an environmental disaster-in-waiting that Ford and his cronies have been vigorously pushing.
If built, the road will raze 2,000 acres of farmland, cut across 85 waterways and pave nearly 400 acres of protected Greenbelt land in Vaughan. It would also disrupt 220 wetlands and the habitats of 10 species-at-risk, according to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.
The full extent of the government's ties with DeGasperis and others is probably not knowable at this point, but it is noteworthy that shortly after the 413 proposal was resurrected (the previous Liberal government had shelved it),
DeGasperis hosted Ford and Lecce, before he was education minister, in a private luxury suite at an NHL game in Florida in Dec. 2018.
Spokespeople for Ford and Lecce have said both politicians paid for their own tickets to the game and no government business was discussed.
No word on who paid for the transportation to Florida.
Obviously, there is much more to be uncovered, but for now, the stench from Queens Park is becoming intolerable. Unfortunately, the opportunity for a through airing-out has to wait until June of 2022, when Ontario's next election is scheduled.
.... is the metaphor NDP environment critic Sandy Shaw uses to describe Doug Ford's appointment of Norm Sterling to head the Greenbelt Council in Ontario.
Sterling, whose reputation as environment under Mike Harris was anything but, would seem to be an odd choice to head the Council only if one were unaware of the contempt Ford has shown for any obstacles impeding the enrichment of his many developer friends.
Sterling replaces David Crombie, who resigned in November over the province’s controversial limiting of local conservation authorities’ ability to deny development permits for sensitive lands. Crombie called the moves by Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government “high-level bombing” that “needs to be resisted.”
Sterling’s appointment set off a new wave of criticism for the Ford government, which has frequently used ministerial zoning orders to force particular development approvals and is pushing to build Highway 413 through parts of the Greenbelt, a band of protected farmland, forests, rivers and lakes.
In 1995, Sterling faced criticism for slashing the Environment Ministry’s budget by 40 per cent while arguing that “implementing stronger environmental policies” would counter the funding loss.
Later, theWalkerton tainted water inquiry concluded that Harris-era cuts led to the end of lab testing for municipalities in 1996 and helped set the stage for the 2000 disaster that killed seven people and sickened thousands of others.
As public attention remains fixed on the Covid crisis, it is likely the Ford braintrust believes now is the ideal time to slip one past us; however, people are paying attention. Says Toronto Councilor Gord Perks:
“I have no hesitation saying that I’ve been watching environment ministers going way back and will say without hesitation that Norm was the most anti-environmental of them all”.
“The step down from (former Toronto mayor) David Crombie to Norm Sterling is to step down from somebody who cares to somebody who will actively wreck things.”
But Sterling rejects such criticism with a "nothing-to-see-here" dismissal:
“My motives are to give future generations the freedom to make decisions about where our province is going with regard to resources,” Sterling said.
And with obvious contempt for the public's intelligence, he asserts that we can have our cake and eat it too:
In terms of his plans for protecting the Greenbelt, given the pressure from housing developers, Sterling said it’s a difficult problem, but he believes he’ll find solutions.
“We can do it … we can retain the best parts of our natural resources, but we also have to be concerned about how we’re going to provide people with places to live. We’re going to have to listen to a lot of people to advise us on how we might do this,” Sterling said.
Given both Sterling's past record and the ideological bent of the current government, there is little doubt as to who he will be listening to most.
Ontario, as has become the norm under Doug Ford and the gang, continues to be in deep, deep trouble.
I love it when there is even an iota of accountability at Fox.
If you would like to read further about this political madness, check out Edward Keenan, who also sets the record straight:
Joe Biden is not cancelling burgers. Or any other kind of meat. Despite what you may have heard, there’s no U.S. government plan to limit red meat consumption. There’s no reason to think Americans will be asked to carry a beef ration card in their wallet on future trips to the supermarket.
Perhaps to the surprise of no one, the American right, led by that red-meat party, the Republicans, has gone into a frenzy over a fabricated 'crisis.'
Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, Tweeted Saturday, “Joe Biden’s climate plan includes cutting 90 per cent of red meat from our diets by 2030. They want to limit us to about four pounds a year. Why doesn’t Joe stay out of my kitchen?” Fellow congressional Trump acolytes Madison Cawthorn and Marjorie Taylor Greene piled on. Fox News, the most-watched cable news network, did several segments over the weekend warning of the plan.
Facts don't seem to matter in this feeding frenzy, but here they are:
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale did a good job of retracing how this fear campaign emerged: The British Daily Mail, reacting to Biden’s proposal to cut carbon emissions in half from 2005 levels by 2030, found an old, pre-Biden administration academic paper that suggested if people cut their red meat consumption by 90 per cent it would cut emissions from dietary sources by 50 per cent. As Dale points out, that paper didn’t suggest mandating this dietary change, and it didn’t mention Biden, and Biden’s plan doesn’t refer to — or have anything to do with — the paper. But the Daily Mail story was picked up by Fox News, which led to repetition by influential Republicans, and soon barbecues across the land were being fired up in protest.
As usual, the unhinged right has given its base something to chew on, while the rest of us just sigh over the insanity to the south.
And for the reasonably sane in Wisconsin, that cross would be Father James Altman.
The fiery, unhinged priest, as you will see, is clearly giving my usual target, crazed evangelicals, a run for their money:
A local priest whose public condemnation of Democrats as “Godless hypocrites” sparked both outcry and defense last fall has now drawn new attention for his anti-vaccine rhetoric and largely maskless services.
Altman
A community member last week shared with the Tribune a photo from Easter Services at St. James the Less Catholic Church where Father James Altman presides, showing a crowded church, and a page from a church bulletin calling vaccines “an experimental use of a genetic altering substance that modifies your body — your temple of the Holy Spirit.”
The flyer, which was posted to the church’s website as of press time and reviewed by the Tribune, states it is “diabolical for anyone to virtue-signal/shame/compel you to take such an experimental drug, making you nothing other than a guinea pig,” and also says those recommending inoculation are “lying to your face.”
“God is still the best doctor and prayer is still the best medicine,” the missive closes.
During his Palm Sunday mass, which was apparently attended by a large number of parishioners in contravention of Covid regulations, Father Altman railed against the public health measures designed to protect the public:
“You’ve all heard the horror stories, all because godless vermin fed us fear and instituted godless, Nazi-esque controls on all of us and on those we love,” Altman said.
“Let us be clear, God damns every single one of those godless moves, whether it be in civil government or worse, in the complicity of many in the church. In fact, if hell itself has many levels,” Altman said. “The lowest, hottest levels are the final burning place for those shepherds who were complicit in the godless restrictions.”
Later in the sermon, Altman said, “The godlessness of what has happened over the past year, the godlessness of what Fauci is now promoting in double masking, is damnable in the hottest fires of hell, and I’m not joking.”
Altman condemns those in the church adhering to COVID-19 precautions, including leaders, calling it “damning,” and encourages the audience to “do all that we must” to make sure the government never “restricts our life of faith again.”
“Their authority ends at our door,” Altman said.
You can see the good father in full rhetorical high dudgeon in the following video. I suggest you only watch about four or five minutes of it. More than that may see you feeling the fires of hell licking at your soles and souls:
Sometimes I feel embarrassed to be living in a province as benighted as Ontario. But then I realize that it is neither me nor my fellow citizens (for the most part) who are the clueless and the incompetent. That distinction is one the Doug Ford-led provincial government has the dubious honour of bearing.
I have chosen but three of a wealth of letters in today's Star attesting to that fact:
I cannot tell you how safe I felt waking up to know that all those essential workers would not be able to take the day off and go to a golf course. How brilliant to close the courses!
Great job, Doug! You sure know how to hold your ground in the face of the hordes of doctors and scientists and experts who implored you to do the one thing you could to save this province: institute paid sick days. You sure know how to take a position and stick to it (beyond any reasonable amount of time).
And how to sort out the meaningless measures and make them look as though you are doing something. I mean, moving, initially, to close down those swamps of infection, children’s playgrounds.
A brilliant move! Imagine, we thought you weren’t up to the job!
Yes, I certainly feel safe.
Elizabeth Young, Georgetown
If warehouses and factories are the primary sources of COVID-19 transmissions, why were they not targeted initially to be closed for the next few weeks?
Why are all vaccines not being immediately redeployed to their essential workers?
Why has the provincial government not yet introduced paid sick leave benefits?
If playgrounds have been proven to not be a source of COVID-19 transmission, then why were children facing increased restrictions that would further jeopardize their mental health and well-being?
If Doug Ford is continually unwilling to follow the advice of health-care experts, then why will he not resign and let someone take over who is willing to make the choices that will best protect the health and safety of Ontarians?
David Tepper, Thornhill
Once again, Premier Doug Ford and his cabinet have failed us. They, together with Ontario’s chief medical officer, have proven themselves to be incompetent and morally bankrupt in their handling of the pandemic.
Once again, despite receiving consistent and persuasive advice from clinicians, epidemiologists and their own medical-scientific advisory panels, and, in the face of an unprecedented, unsustainable and extremely dangerous health care crisis, they have once again failed to take the actions required.
Ford resorts to bluff and bluster while playing fast and loose with the facts and tries to deflect the blame to others. He and the cabinet have caused and continue to cause so much avoidable sickness, suffering and death.
Our health-care system and the people who work in it have been perilously damaged, while at the same time the business community also has been seriously damaged.
The government has consistently failed to grasp that, in this pandemic, trying to balance the economy and public health ends up damaging both, whereas a strong focus on public health minimizes damage to the economy.
I am angry, outraged and deeply saddened.
Terry Donaghue, Toronto
There are times when ineptitude causes irritation or minor annoyance. Clearly, this is not one of those times.
