In effect, the Premier of Ontario is selling the same salad. The decree has 29 exceptions. Any Ontarians stopped on the street can pretend they are an essential worker or are going to the grocery store. Even the police chiefs warn that there will be no random checks.
Highways and sidewalks are therefore not emptied. The differences between confinement and this new decree are aesthetic: we still rely on the goodwill of Ontarians. Admittedly, the police are given some new powers, such as that of fining citizens if they refuse to wear the mask indoors.
But law enforcement cannot order people to stay in their homes. Unlike Quebec, they do not have the right, under the decree, to enter homes, intercept vehicles or require pedestrians to provide a letter from their employer. It’s a safe bet that I will not use the one provided to me in case my boss at Radio-Canada.
Doug Ford’s strategy is more like a rebranding, a way to improve the brand image of confinement that a large part of the population no longer took seriously. Scare Ontarians enough to stop socializing so they can let the economy go.
from right to left: Dr Barbara Yaffe, Dr David Williams and Dr Eileen de Villa (on file)
Photo: The Canadian Press / Chris Young
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Meanwhile, experts advising the government are giving mixed signals. Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, warned Monday that the health restrictions put in place since December 26 have been woefully inadequate.
His colleague (and boss) the Chief Medical Officer of Health seems to be on another wavelength, which is Doug Ford’s. When asked by reporters on Thursday whether tougher sanitation measures were needed, Dr David Williams instead chose to repeatedly blame citizens.
The good judgment
Provincial data shows that after retirement homes, workplaces are the main outbreak sites in Ontario.
Much more than schools. Yet Ontario has since chosen to close them until February 10 in some areas. Public health experts are rightly concerned about the new variant from the United Kingdom, which is more common in Ontario and potentially more easily transmitted to children.
But the decision contrasts with the decision not to touch workplaces, apart from an increase in inspections. The decree requires that telework be privileged except when this is not possible, but relies entirely on the judgment of employers.
Ontario government can’t review tens of millions of job descriptions to determine who can work from home
, writes Doug Ford’s office. Yet this is precisely what has been done with construction sites, although this measure has also caused confusion.
Relying on employers is a slippery slope, University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine assistant professor Yoni Freedhoff noted this week in a revealing sideboard (New window) on Twitter, which was shared widely by members of the medical community, Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath and MP Chris Glover, among others.
Ontario has been in lockdown since December 26.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Frank Gunn
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Dr. Freedhoff asked Ontario internet users who do not consider themselves essential workers to come forward if their employer requires them to come to work.
He has published dozens of answers that raise eyebrows: employees in the medical sector whose company refuses to make the switch from paper to digital. Office workers of private and public companies whose colleagues do not wear masks, or whose bosses refuse to allow teleworking for no valid reason: a trailer seller, an accountant, a graphic designer.
Doug Ford should have ordered more industries to shut down and ban the sale of non-essential products, the mayor and chairman of the Toronto Public Health Commission said this week. But the pressure from the private sector is strong.
This is without counting internal tensions. Discussions were long and heated around Doug Ford’s cabinet table on the need to re-declare a state of emergency. Some Progressive Conservative MPs don’t mind criticizing the lockdown out loud, enough to be shown the door.
Doug Ford could always readjust if the situation continues to escalate, as he did in November. But for now, he’s hoping the majority of Ontarians who gathered over the holidays have heard his message.
A risky bet. Cellular data shows they don’t shy away from defying the rules. Doug Ford said on January 8 that new projections were going to make us fall down from our chair
, but in the end, although they are very disturbing, they do not differ greatly from those presented before Christmas. And despite the urgency of the moment, the order to stay at home only came into effect a week later.
The state of emergency is a strong message that resonated in the spring. Ten months later, will the same message have the same effect? We hope so. Otherwise, the next few weeks may be the most difficult Ontarians have seen since the start of the pandemic.
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