January 3, 2022 – As we watch numbers shooting up here in Canada it’s easy to blame politicians. Lord knows they deserve it, from Prime Minister Trudeau, to most of the premiers, to even local municipal officials.
We have as a society failed. To clarify. It’s one thing to believe something, even if wrong, like the US response to Covid, and lose nearly a million lives, but quite another to know better, espouse better, and simply allow mayhem to happen as has occurred in most of the provinces in Canada.
Our failures at the top include a Trudeau government that from day one didn’t follow it’s own pandemic plan co authored by Dr. Tam. As well as really bad messaging at the beginning of the pandemic and the odd choice to bet heavy on a Chinese vaccine.
Playing catch up cost taxpayers billions as the government went on a shopping spree having to fly in PPE, some of it already having been “donated” to China, and literally being financially raped by Pfizer. Remember when our supply was cut off until Canada agreed to pay for more doses per bottle than before?
No, it was badly handled. Botched, and ugly, but again difficult times so we give some benefit of the doubt, but that was wave one. What about the next wave? Was it handled much better? Did we not see the same game of hot potato with the provinces that we see now during Omicron?
We all knew about Omicron. At the very least we saw cases spikes in the UK, and when the numbers spike there they are only a few months ahead of arriving in Canada.
And the final failure was the abandoning of nearly one million Canadians on CRB just before Christmas and the explosion of Omicron. Did we really need to put that much pressure on those that can least afford it and put everyone in more jeopardy by scrambling when the meagre $300 per week handed out actually was helping prop up the economy as those dollars cycled through the coffers many times more than most of the other supports?
Premier Ford in Ontario really seems to be an anti vaxxer who simply gave lip service to Ottawa and his centralized voter base in Ontario many of whom only voted for him after the corrupt failure that was the Wynne government. Essentially he didn’t win, but was elected by people who simply would not vote for Wynne or her team and saw no hope in Andrea Horwath as Premier.
Why isn’t Randy Hillier in Jail? Where were any real rules across the board or proper enforcement. This biggest failure by Ford spurned forward anti vaxxers and simply people who had fears and questions. When you don’t see people like Hillier in jail for violating emergency orders, in fact posting photos gloating about it, that creates weaker adherence and causes more spread. Even now in Cornwall you can see people in stores without a mask and cashiers wearing just a face shield. Yet our $400K health officer is on tv & radio in spite of some of the lowest vax rates and highest infection rates in the province instead of being dumped.
Ford had all Summer to prepare for schools, but his team failed, firstly by not admitting that Corona is airborne, and then by not making bloody sure that teachers and students had proper PPE. KN 95 masks really aren’t that expensive. Trimming class size temporarily and encouraging online learning more isn’t that hard. Not having kids from different schools on the same busses or having some by law officers or police patrolling schools and nearby areas to encourage less coagulating isn’t rocket science. Is it no wonder how hard community spread hit after the return to school?
This writer won’t even write about how Christine Elliott’s impotent and utterly dangerous approach to the pandemic was including many times making announcements for services and products that simply weren’t ready to be distributed yet and led to line ups of people putting them in vulnerable positions for naught. She looks frightened in most of her pressers and should’ve been long gone.
Ontario also refused to step up and provide proper sick day legislation also creating pressures that led many to simply find other jobs or quit in important supply chain industries. Who can afford to be home sick without pay? How many hid their infections and went to work infecting others?
These are not the acts of a friend as Premier Ford likes to portray himself.
Add to that buying more social media ads than supporting local media meant weaker communication. For example, this newspaper, which has larger viewership than most in our market, and reaches many key cities in Ontario has not had a single ad or notice from the Province of Ontario with guidance for Covid even though we have been a leader in getting proper information out and literally blocking and silencing the false anti vaxxer claims on our social media channels.
As for Quebec, the Legault government reminds one of former baseball player Lonnie Smith who was nicknamed Skates for his ability to make spectacular plays on occasion while making up for spectacular blunders except in Legault’s case those errors lead to illness and death. While the province overall has done a better job than Ontario, it too has failed.
Why look in the mirror? Since 2009 for example this newspaper has tried to champion healthcare and the myriad of problems in our Medicare system which was dysfunctional before Covid-19, which has clearly shown us how dysfunctional the system is. The greatest failure being Ontario and Quebec backing down and letting unvaxxed healthcare workers like the one that gave Covid to my mother who is a resident in a Montreal LTC home. We were lucky in that mom only ended up on IV and oxygen, but those resources should never have had to be used and she and others should never have been endangered by their caregivers.
Weak leadership ends up in weak government. Why do we have such a hard time embracing real leaders and why are they so reticent about running for office? Mostly it’s corruption from the top down including many media outlets including the CBC. Media are now utterly dependent on either government support or large corporate support which are usually hand in hand.
This newspaper for example gets zero support from either simply because we have written truths about some of the surface corruption in the system. We don’t get enough support, like most other Independent media to survive so eventually we will either close or be sold to bigger media that will sanitize these pages. That’s Independent media in 2022 across the board. That’s your fault if you’re reading this and have never sent us or other media a viewer donation via interac to info@cornwallfreenews.com because without resources we can’t do our jobs.
And that’s how we end up with runaway inflation, higher taxes, more waves of pandemics and worse outcomes because of systemic failure to do the simple things we know work from years of experience with pandemics going back to the Spanish flu (which really wasn’t Spanish, but Spain’s media weren’t controlled during WW1).
What happens if the next Omicron becomes deadly? The way we behave in society now will lead to huge amounts of truly ill and deaths.
This writer knew a gentleman during WWII who as a child was forced to live in a potato cellar for months in silence, and people complain about wearing a mask in public?
So it’s time first for people to step up, no matter how many times and limit their exposure to others.
Get the recommended vaccines period. Frankly for Covid they should be mandated. Those that refuse should be fine for the healthcare costs they incur and if they cause spread should be charged as they refused to vax up.
Wear a mask when in public spaces, indoors or out. If you are within close contact of people you are reachable by Omicron.
Isolate if you have symptoms. Take a rapid test if you can find one. (Another failure across the board by governments).
Truly learn about what we’re dealing with and what you can do to protect yourself, family, and community.
Put pressure on governments to be accountable; not only for Covid Protocols, but healthcare in general. People have to stop only thinking about healthcare when they need it.
We need alternatives to incumbents. We need options. It’s easy to say one politician failed, but if the opposition don’t really mount any opposition who do we support for change? Right now we have no real option to Prime Minister Trudeau. Just look at the Quebec vote and you see that. If there’s a real choice you will see Bloc support wither.
In Ontario and Quebec it’s no different as none of the opposition have a leader in place that has any chance of winning which means more of the same by default.
They say that the difference between Winners and Losers is how they deal with adversity.
After several years of Covid we clearly can see where we stand. It’s time to do better.
jamie@cornwallfreenews.com