Surprising nobody, we find that Doug Ford rejected advice from his public health officials in releasing his colour-coded guidelines, because it’s all about business over human lives. And while there have been calls for a while to try and determine just who is giving him advice, this reinforces the point that these remain political decisions, and that it is Ford and his Cabinet who are the ones to be held to account for what has been happening with infections in Ontario. The fact that Ford put his “red line” figure so far above public health advice, to a level where you are literally dealing with uncontrolled spread rather than trying to stamp it out early, should tell everyone that he is not taking this seriously.

https://twitter.com/jyangstar/status/1326702217051729920

https://twitter.com/jyangstar/status/1326703779232755712

We’ve also been finding out things like Ford refusing to spend COVID funds on things like schools and long-term care homes, and have instead been sitting on the funds to pad the books – and we have the province’s Financial Accountability Officer confirming this. This should be no surprise. I mean, look at the autism programme, where Ford promised more money and then spent none of it, and the wait lists continued to grow and parents and families continue to suffer, and the long-term consequences of not getting early intervention therapies are going to balloon for years. But Ford doesn’t care. He cares about looking like he’s fiscally prudent because every gods damned pundit in this country still thinks it’s 1995 and will always be 1995 – and Ford desperately seeks their validation.

I asked Peter Weltman, ON's Financial Accountability Officer, some pretty direct questions on #TheHerleBurly.

My words not his, but as parents & small businesses struggled, Peter confirmed the province was sitting on $9.3B in unallocated COVID funds.

🎧https://t.co/8IVXXUSl8l pic.twitter.com/wyHadDbe1i

— The Herle Burly (@TheHerleBurly) November 11, 2020

And this need for validation has been a big part of why we’re at the state we’re in here in Ontario. Because Ford didn’t go full-Trump early in the pandemic, or throw tantrums at Justin Trudeau, everyone suddenly started giving him praise. He sounded avuncular, and suddenly everyone assumed he was doing a good job when he wasn’t doing anything but sitting on the COVID money and delaying any meaningful action about, say, getting schools back up and running, or increasing lab capacity for testing, or the contact tracing abilities of public health units across the province. None of it. But people still showered him with praise for how well he was behaving, and for striking up an unlikely friendship with Chrystia Freeland. And yet here we are, where he and his Cabinet have repeatedly lied about what is going on with the pandemic, about their response, and even the direction of the case numbers. Hopefully this piece in the Star that clearly demonstrates that Ford rejected the advice in favour of waiting for uncontrolled spread (because gods forbid he close down businesses) will start to open people’s eyes, but my optimism for that is waning because of all of the other scandals and distractions that his government has created only serve to scatter the attention necessary to force his hand.

Good reads:

• Here’s a look at how the Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa was different this year than in previous ones because of the pandemic.
• Justin Trudeau expects that there will be a trade deal concluded with the UK by the end of the year, when Brexit pulls them out of CETA.
• Trudeau also says that people shouldn’t expect CERB-like income supports to be made permanent post-pandemic, like some are calling for.
• The Canadian government has condemned China’s removal of four pro-democracy legislators in Hong Kong.
• Marc Miller is planning to launch a third-party investigation into the contractors and consultants employed by Neskatanga and other First Nations regarding their water.
• The government named Nishika Jardine, a woman with 37 years military experiences, to the post of military ombudsman.
• Here’s a look at what possible options there are to force the government to comply with court rulings that found solitary confinement to be unconstitutional.
• Oh, look – methane emissions from the oil patch are twice as high as previously thought, which means that the climate problem is worse than expected.
• More petty squabbling between the ISG and the Conservatives in the Senate means that committees are being further delayed from getting up and running.
• Maclean’s has a lengthy read that tries to determine why the NDP aren’t connecting with people, but nobody mentions that playing well on social media isn’t real life.
• Kevin Carmichael has a few suggestions on how to convince Joe Biden to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, but they’re not going to sit well with Jason Kenney.
• Colby Cosh parses a recent report on “stimulus leakage,” and is dubious about just what exactly it’s trying to suggest.
• Susan Delacourt skewers the sanctimony of party leaders who preach freedom of expression and wearing poppies, but who refuse to stand up to Quebec’s Bill 21.

Odds and ends:

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