Ineptitude Writ Large

 H/t Patrick Corrigan

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. 

On Magical Thinking And Misdirection

I don't feel particularly inspired to write these days, but I am always on the lookout for aptly expressed sentiments by others. In the print edition of today's Toronto Star, there are two letters of note pertaining to the Doug Ford government's mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Ontario, or as I like to call it, Contagion Central, has never been in worse hands:

Beating the virus while staying open was magical thinking

• Toronto Star
• 20 Apr 2021

It is easier to reject the unfathomable and proceed with our lives as we know it. Politicians have been exploiting this human response. They have nurtured our belief in magical thinking. It is about to bring us to our knees.

We can pay low taxes and still get all the services. We can keep drilling for oil and drive cars and somehow climate change can still be averted.

We can enjoy endless growth in the face of finite resources on this planet.

During the acceleration of a pandemic, we can reopen everything to give business and customers what they want, and still somehow beat COVID-19 and maintain access to hospital care if we come down with appendicitis.

Experts warned us in February that April was going to be a pandemic disaster in Ontario without stringent new measures. Instead, we opened things up.

True leadership grasps the situation and takes ownership of the task of convincing people that choosing the responsible approach to overcome the crisis is key.

Ford is a master when it comes to deflecting blame

• Toronto Star
• 20 Apr 2021

Premier Doug Ford heard two months ago of a third wave disaster approaching, rolled the dice and lost.

We’re in a dire situation with hospital ICU beds filling up and potentially under-staffed.

With the introduction of a tougher set of rules, there was no acknowledgment that there were errors in judgment by the provincial government.

Instead, Ford is deflecting all blame from his own government by pointing the finger at the federal government for a lack of vaccines and implementing steps that give the appearance that he’s acting tough, but not taking the measures he should have to be effective.

Ford claims if more vaccines were available this third wave could have been avoided when the science always indicated that the virus would win the race against vaccines.

Ontario has only demonstrated the capacity to inject just over 100,000 vaccines per day while hundreds of thousands of vaccines are somewhere in Ontario not getting into the arms of Ontarians.

Ford gives us the appearance of taking control of the situation by implementing border controls; eliminating outdoor activities like golfing and other meaningless measures, instead of providing paid sick leave; improving the vaccine rollout plan to get more needles quicker into the arms of Ontarians in the hot spots, imposing a curfew that other jurisdictions and countries have used successfully and increasing the use of rapid testing in essential workplaces.

I can only hope that by some miracle we don’t see the frightful triage scenes we’ve seen in other countries in Ontario.

Donald Wong, Toronto

Unmasked, Undaunted, And Unhinged

Such is the state of things in Ontario. Huf Gym, in Mississauga, refuses to close despite the law. Indeed, as the following video report makes clear, the law seems to be abetting this illegal operation:

The Peel police sergeant in the report has now been suspended.

Peel police have confirmed the officer’s badge number as 1889 but didn’t identify his name or what he was doing at the scene.

“Upon learning of the incident, I immediately directed that the Sergeant be suspended and commenced an Internal Affairs investigation,” Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said in his statement.

“Our officers will enforce municipal and provincial regulations as required,” he added.

Good to know the authorities are on the job, eh? 

A Stinging Indictment

The Covid numbers in Ontario today are grim: 4,812 new cases and 25 more deaths.

The following report by the CBC's Ellen Mauro places the blame precisely where it belongs: the massive incompetence/ideological intransigence of the Ford government in dealing with our ongoing Covid disaster.

UPDATED: State Of The Union

I found the following on Facebook, written by a Black man named David Gray. For those interested in going deeper into his post, I have provided links to all the victims of police and/or white violence/racism he cites in his post.

I need to drive my two-year-old to daycare tomorrow morning. To ensure we arrive alive, we won't take public transit (Oscar Grant). I removed all air fresheners from the vehicle and double-checked my registration status (Daunte Wright), and ensured my license plates were visible (Lt. Caron Nazario). I will be careful to follow all traffic rules (Philando Castille), signal every turn (Sandra Bland), keep the radio volume low (Jordan Davis), and won't stop at a fast food chain for a meal (Rayshard Brooks). I'm too afraid to pray (Rev. Clementa C. Pickney) so I just hope the car won't break down (Corey Jones).

When my wife picks him up at the end of the day, I'll remind her not to dance (Elijah McClain), stop to play in a park (Tamir Rice), patronize the local convenience store for snacks (Trayvon Martin), or walk around the neighborhood (Mike Brown). Once they are home, we won't stand in our backyard (Stephon Clark), eat ice cream on the couch (Botham Jean), or play any video games (Atatiana Jefferson).

After my wife and I tuck him into bed around 7:30pm, neither of us will leave the house to go to Walmart (John Crawford) or to the gym (Tshyrad Oates) or on a jog (Ahmaud Arbery). We won't even walk to see the birds (Christian Cooper). We'll just sit and try not to breathe (George Floyd) and not to sleep (Breonna Taylor).

"These are things white people simply do not have to think about."

UPDATE: The perils of walking while Black:

The video, first uploaded to Shirell Johnson's Facebook page, shows a man identified by social media users as U.S. Army sergeant first class Jonathan Pentland walking alongside a young Black male only identified as Deandre, asking him what he's doing in the neighborhood and aggressively telling him to leave. At one point in the video, Pentland pushes Deandre.

 

As If The World Weren't Suffering Enough

Prepare to be tutored about the relationship between Covid swabs and zombies, thanks to the good offices of the most Reverend Jim Bakker:

Right-wing conspiracy theorist Steve Quayle warns Jim Bakker's audience that nasal tests for COVID-19 are part of a plan to obtain DNA samples to be used in the creation of targeted biological weapons that will turn everyone into flesh-eating zombies. https://bit.ly/2PwdRC9

H/t Right Wing Watch

Clearly, there is no hope.

UPDATED: Covidiot Roundup

I see that #COVIDIOTS is trending on Twitter. Here are a few nuggets I gleaned: 

    

H/t @alkorin

H/t DaddY

H/t Sass Chit

Amen, brethren.

UPDATE:  Since actions speak louder than words, I offer this as a further indictment of  covidiocy.