Sad, But Not So Surprising

As I have written before, the evasion of responsibility on the part of the Ford government and its chief medical flunky, Dr. Kieran Moore, is deeply disappointing but not really unexpected. Ideology and political culture almost guarantee that his official stance (get your shots and masks in crowds) will be largely ignored.

However, now Dr. Moore has taken it to a whole new level. Despite his advice to mask up in situations that warrant it, he did this:

Charlie Pinkerton

@CharliePinkerto

On Monday, Ontario’s CMOH Dr. Kieran Moore “strongly recommended” Ontarians wear masks indoors. Last night, 3 days later, he was partying maskless at Toronto Life’s celebration for its 50 most influential Torontonians of 2022, videos show.

It's Easy To Pierce Thin Skins

Not to mention, it also looks like fun. To quote Mr. T: I pity the fool! (But not really.)

Mrs. F

@ms_frazzled

Your tan looks so good up there, friend! Let’s go play something else for a while. #TrumpAnnouncement

Adam Parkhomenko

@AdamParkhomenko

Our Inability to Behave Humanely Or Reasonably

 

H/t Moudakis

Many years ago, I would periodically buy The National Lampoon, the era's  pre-eminent journal of satire. One of its covers has always remained in memory:

Presumably a spoof on the tendency of fund-raising organizations to use emotional ploys to encourage donations, it was also a devastatingly effective reminder of how emotion often strongly affects our decision-making, both for good and ill.

Years of observation and experience suggest to me that the role of emotion or reason in positive decision-making has passed. The only problem is that here in Ontario, our Chief Medical Officer of Health, Kieran Moore, has not gotten the memo.

In his press briefing yesterday, the good doctor appeared to take two tacks: an appeal to reason, based on the rising number of pediatric cases overwhelming hospitals, and an appeal to emotion, as he urged all of us to mask up "for the kids". Indeed, if one cares to look, one can readily find pictures and videos of kids struggling to breathe.

But will that be effective? In his column today, Edward Keenan suggests it will not, arguing that while Canadians are a rule-following people, they are less amenable to suggestions, even when strongly argued:

... in the past, I’ve found myself ignoring warning signs and wandering dangerously close to the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs and then, suddenly realizing I might fall off a cliff, wondering why there wasn’t a high fence to force people to stay away. Maybe a clear warning and an obvious danger — a sheer cliff drop-off, masses of hospitalized children — aren’t warning enough for us, because we’re somehow conditioned to think if something is really important, we won’t be given a choice.

Conducting a social experiment, Keenan donned a mask and went into the Toronto subway system.

In my subway cars, I counted about a quarter to a third of people wearing masks. In the Eaton Centre around lunch time, the number of people masked was more like 15 per cent. Inside City Hall, my observation was closer to 5-10 per cent of people masked.

Most of us say we’d wear a mask if officials say we have to, and a majority of us even say we think they should tell us we have to. But man, it appears most of us won’t do it unless we have to.

What seems reasonable to me is that mask wearing is a measure most of us could easily toggle on and off as needed to head off more severe measures and more severe consequences. What also seems reasonable to me is that if top doctors and public health officials are begging me to consider wearing one because hospitals are getting overwhelmed, then maybe that ought to be persuasive.

The goal, here, obviously, is for as many of us as possible to make it happy and healthy and alive to a time when there’s no real reason to wear masks when we go out. Maybe at some later point, it will make sense to wear masks again, for a while, to again ensure more of us can survive and thrive. Is that too big a burden to accept? And do we need a law to force us to co-operate every time?

Keenan uses reason and reasonable several times in the above. However, as we have seen in the past few years, so many seem to have abandoned that faculty, instead embracing negative emotional reactions to the problems confronting us, up to and including our present medical crises.

Do the right thing, urges Dr. Moore. Are enough of us even capable of that anymore?

Time For Some Truth

 

In Doug Ford's Ontario, the answer is, "Plenty of people." 

Yesterday I attended a rally to protest the provincial government's plans to override local democracy and extend urban boundaries into the valuable Greenbelt and farmlands (a.k.a The Doug Ford Discharging His Debt To Developers Act). By the robust turnout, it was clear that the premier is fooling few with his claim that such is needed to create affordable housing. Indeed, affordable housing today is something of an oxymoron, isn't it?

While much more needs to be said, an unanticipated visit to the dentist this morning forces me to keep this post brief. Just who are these developers? Clicking on this CBC link affords some answers, as will this one to the Hamilton Spectator. Draw your own conclusions.

As well, these letters from readers show that Ford's veneer of concern and rectitude is quite thin:

Ontario backtracks on Greenbelt pledge with plan to allow housing on 7,400 acres, Nov. 4

It’s no wonder people don’t vote. Why bother, when too often it seems that promises made aren’t promises kept.

Why pay attention to a politician’s platform when we suspect it is nothing but lies in order to get votes? Premier Doug Ford said he wouldn’t touch Ontario’s Greenbelt, and many believed him. I would wager there isn’t a single person in this province who doesn’t believe that his housing plan is simply a way to appease his developer buddies. We all know, there is no need to carve portions out of the Greenbelt for the building of homes. In his usual way, Ford acts without thinking things through, ignoring the experts and public opinion.

Bob Coupland, Oakville

Greenbelt is for nature, not housing, Nov. 9

After reading the above editorial and realizing Ontario’s own housing affordability task force found there was no need to intrude on our Greenbelt for new housing, I now understand what Premier Doug Ford is up to.

The only reason he wants the Greenbelt properties is to appease his developer buddies who have bought up lands in anticipation of Ford’s takeover of huge sections for them to build on. This would destroy precious watersheds, wetlands, farmlands and animal habitats which should be preserved in perpetuity. Discussions are going on right now to determine the fate of the Greenbelt, and the answer to its destruction should be an emphatic NO.

Jane White, Scarborough 

It has been said that sunlight is one of the best disinfectants. Clearly, there is the need for some heavy-duty sanitization of the Doug Ford regime.

The Biggest Danger To America Today?

Single women. That's right, single women. According to Jesse Watters, the only way to combat such an insidious threat is for those ladies to get married, where, presumably, they will fall into line with the natural (or God-ordained) hierarchy.

'We need these ladies to get married' — Fox News' Jesse Watters is BIG MAD that single women made waves voting for Democrats during the midterms.

Or, put another way, there's this:

Strange Times Indeed

Having taught for 30 years, I had my fair share of classroom experiences, both good and bad, as is the norm in a long career. Fortunately, most of the students I interacted with over those years were good and earnest, eager enough to benefit from educational opportunities as they anticipated their futures. 

Invariably, however, there were those classes that housed one or two students whose purpose for attendance was somewhat opaque; clearly, educational achievement was not their priority; disruption took precedence, resulting in severe compromise to the atmosphere and quality of learning. They were, to use the colloquialism, bad apples.

Similarly, today one is confronted with many examples of the minority trying to dictate the terms under which society operates. The 'Freedom' Convoy against Covid masking and restrictions readily comes to mind, its participants so passionate about protecting our freedoms that they held Ottawa hostage for three weeks. Perhaps their boundless energy came from the fact that they had been marshaling their reserves for just that moment, their prior efforts in fighting for freedom apparently non-existent. No doubt, they believed themselves agents of history.

Although the Ottawa occupation is long over, the disordered thinking that led to it is not. Consider, for example, the question of returning to mask mandates. The evidence is compelling that such a mandate is needed. Children's hospitals are being overwhelmed, and the all the signs point to a complete collapse as the flu and RSV cases mount, this in addition to the ongoing Covid cases our medical facilities have to contend with.

Despite all of the evidence supporting the use of masks to limit the spread of disease, no public official expresses any willingness to reintroduce mandates. Indeed, that reluctance flies in the face of polling results indicating that the majority of Canadians would support a return to mandates.

The poll conducted for CTV News found seven in 10 Canadians said they would support the return of face masks mandates to some extent. Fifty-two per cent said they would support the return of such mandates, 17 per cent said they would "somewhat support" them, while 22 per cent would be against them. Eight per cent would be "somewhat" opposed to the idea.

Here in Ontario, such a result does not sway Dr. Kieran Moore, our mislabelled chief medical officer of health, nor his political master, the often-hapless premier, Doug Ford.

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Ontarians are welcome to wear masks, but there is no recommendation for widespread mandatory masking at this time from Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health.

 Moore told the Star in a recent interview that he is “strongly recommending” those at risk of severe illness from the three viruses to mask indoors but says he is reluctant to install a mandate.

 Instead, he wants people to remember the “basic layers of protection” of staying home when sick, masking in indoor settings, wearing a mask while recovering from a respiratory illness. and good hand hygiene.

Once again, our overlords seem quite willing to cede to the wishes of the minority. In my classroom days, I, too, tried to reason with the disruptive elements I faced, with predictable lack of results. The stakes, a positive classroom environment in which learning took precedence over disruption by the minority, were high enough then, but they are so much higher now.

People's lives are at stake, but those whose job it is to protect all of us quail before the minority. That is not leadership. That is capitulation.

Readers React

I'm on a bit of a tight schedule today, so I cede to newspaper letter-writers their thoughts on Doug Ford's tactics and values before his province-wide blink yesterday.

Premier Ford’s decision to withdraw Bill 28, and go back to the bargaining table shows the kind of things that can happen when you stand up to a bully.

Joe Virio, Bowmanville, Ont.

 “I pity that man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth shall starve in the process.” This quotation, by former U.S. president Benjamin Harrison, was posted on the wall of the union office where I once worked.

It makes me wonder: how cheap does the Ford government want to make our educational system?

Trampling the rights of the lowest paid is not only deplorable, but devastating to our society.

Who wants to live, work and do business in a province that disrespects and under values its education and health care professionals?

Ontarians want and deserve better.

Paul Templin, Newmarket, Ont.

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 Nobody loves a bully.

The development lobby gets approval to build Highway 413, at a cost of $8.2 billion amid disagreement about its utility.

More than $1 billion a year in annual licence fees is given away as an election goody.

Ongoing green energy projects were scrapped mid-development at a cost of $230 million, amid a growing climate-crisis. The lowest paid education workers (70 per cent women), earning less than $40,000 a year, get offered a salary increase of 1.5 per cent, or, in some cases, 2.5 per cent..

Any trained nurse (more than 90 per cent women), with a salary capped at one per cent, could have easily and far more effectively triaged these competing priorities, so that the educational chaos spread across the Star’s recent front pages could have been avoided.

Paul Visschedyk, Burlington, Ont.