Roundup: Stay-at-home again, complete with feigned surprise

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Ontario is now back under a “stay-at-home” order, issued its third state of emergency, and lo, there has been movement on vaccinations in that they are now going to start targeting high-risk neighbourhoods and essential workers, like they should have started weeks ago, so that’s positive. Oh, but still no paid sick leave because Ford and company continue to mislead people by claiming the federal sickness benefit is the same thing, which it absolutely is not. What most assuredly is not positive is the fact that the provincial government knew this was coming. They have been warned for weeks that this was going to happen, and they were explicitly told that loosening restrictions in the face of the new variants would be a disaster. There was that press conference on February 11th that said just that – and they didn’t listen, and now they have the gall to pretend to be surprised that the numbers are exceeding their worst-case scenarios? Sorry, but no. Get out of here with that bullshit.

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1379884476054966272

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1379962777566085120

And here’s Supriya Dwivedi which lays out why Ford has completely ballsed this up and created this Third Wave and all of the illnesses and resulting deaths as a result.

Meanwhile, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization has decided to stick with their advice that second doses can be delayed for up to four months – and the “up to” is key – but given increasing vaccine supplies, that interval is likely to be less. And the reason why they’re saying this is because they are looking at the balance of ensuring that as many people get a first dose as soon as possible in order to have at least some level of protection. The problem is that this isn’t being effectively communicated by most media outlets (the Star piece linked here is actually doing a decent job) and even on Power & Politics last night, after the head of NACI patiently explained all of this, Vassy Kapelos still characterised it as NACI recommending a four-month delay, omitting the “up to” and creating a false impression of the advice, and it makes it easy for certain parties like the Conservatives to deliberately misconstrue NACI’s advice for partisan point-scoring. I do not understand what CBC thinks they are doing by reporting this way. It defies sense.

Good reads:

  • Marc Miller is praising Indigenous leadership for the decline in COVID cases on reserves.
  • The head of CSIS has come down with COVID, leading to questions about workplace safety at CSIS’ headquarters.
  • Here’s a depressing look into how Canada went from a digital health leader into a complete omnishambles of 13 disparate systems that won’t talk to one another.
  • Maclean’s has a longread about  the notion of domestic vaccine passports, and some of the challenges – logistical, and ethical – associated with them.
  • The Parliamentary Budget Officer put out a somewhat garbage report full of dubious methodology that says basic income could halve poverty. (Takedown thread here).
  • Conservative MPs from Alberta are defending the province’s “war room” under the usual woe-is-us rubric, and I can’t even.
  • Jagmeet Singh is giving yays and nays to the party’s policy proposals for their convention this weekend, including panning the proposal to phase out the military.
  • Apparently there is some serious discontent in the Green ranks, and accusations that some party figures are trying to undermine Annamie Paul as leader.
  • Nova Scotia premier Iain Rankin has appointed former minister Scott Brison to head his economic growth council.
  • Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column looks at the possible coming showdown between the government and the opposition on ordering staffers to committees.
  • Kevin Carmichael takes a deep dive into places where our economy was weak pre-pandemic, which means needing structural change as we make our recovery.
  • Carmichael also delves into the latest trade data to see where our exports have been doing the heavy lifting, and what needs to happen to keep it going.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Stay-at-home again, complete with feigned surprise”

  1. I thought Harper had replaced most of the CBC board with Con cronies back in the day. Not sure if their contracts eventually expired, but I’m sure their hiring decisions and company culture permeated the institution, and rotted it with civic ignorance, sensationalism and CNN-grade bothsiderism. I find P&P improved somewhat when Catherine or David host it, but Vassy clearly wants to be a Fox News VJ. She should have sent her CV to News Corp a long time ago, along with Evan the jock journo on CTV. Honestly, there’s better Canadian journalism on Twitter than the increasingly unsalvageable fourth estate.

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