Roundup: Ontario is on fire, and Ford offers performance art

Posted on by

I will admit that I am currently vacillating between rage and despair right now, as Doug Ford and his band of murderclowns looked at the new modelling data that shows us still on a course for disaster, and decide to do the barest minimum effort to merely prolong the state of affairs, rather than to take meaningful action.

It’s not just half-measures – it’s theatre. Closing parks and playgrounds will do nothing to halt the spread of the virus, but workplaces deemed “essential” continue to operate with few protections for workers – which is where much of the new infections are happening, and then spreading when those “essential” workers return home, often to crowded, inter-generational households – and most of all, Ford is still not budging on paid sick leave. On top of that, he’s giving police the power to randomly stop people to ask why they’re not at home, and essentially reintroduced carding (which is unconstitutional), and will inevitably target Black, Indigenous and other minorities because that’s what police do. (Several police forces have pledged not to use these powers, but we’ll see if that holds). And then Ford lies and says that Ontario has had the toughest measures anywhere, and pats himself on the back while he blames ordinary people for not following rules – rules which change on a daily basis and are never clear to begin with – and blames the federal government for not magically providing vaccines fast enough when it is mathematically impossible to vaccinate our way out of this.

None of this needed to happen. That’s what is just so gods damned enraging about this whole thing. They were warned repeatedly back in February not to re-open until the reproduction rate of the virus was lower, and they didn’t listen. They rushed to re-open just as variants were starting to spread in the community, confident that they could let a little bit of COVID circulate and everything would be find (when it grows exponentially), because they needed to “protect the economy,” and lo, things got worse like everyone knew that they would, and we had to restrict again, and it will keep happening like this until they can finally squash the curve of transmission.

If there is one silver lining, it’s that we know that Doug Ford can be swayed, because Uncle Doug doesn’t like being the bad guy. He wants to be the fun uncle. And maybe now, people in Ontario will finally be outraged enough to stop being guiled by his folksy bullshit, and finally start demanding action in a consistent and coherent manner. That may be what finally spurs action, months and thousands of unnecessary later, assuming the anger is directed in the right way. That may, however, be easier said than done, but the possibility exists, and perhaps we as a province should seize it.

Good reads:

  • While Moderna has been forced to reduce the number of doses shipped because of their quality assurance backlog, Pfizer allocated an additional 8 million doses.
  • The chief science advisor has released a report on what vaccine passports could look like, and warns that if governments don’t step up the private sector likely will.
  • As opposition parties call on the government to extend the tax filing deadline, CRA is warning that not filing on time could mean delays in receiving COVID benefits.
  • Canada’s training mission in Ukraine has been suspended because of a surge in COVID cases among troops.
  • After contentiously agreeing to end the study on the General Vance allegations at defence committee, they’re back to fighting about re-opening it yet again.
  • Conservatives are playing more procedural games in order to delay and potentially block the government’s climate accountability legislation.
  • During debate on the conversion therapy ban bill, Conservative MP Tarmara Jansen quoted a biblical passage about people being “unclean,” and it caused a stir.
  • Justin Ling enumerates the failures of certain premiers that got us to this low point in the pandemic.
  • My weekend column looks at how Erin O’Toole must both swallow himself whole and lie, lie, lie to sell his climate plan to both his own party and the country.

Odds and ends:

Here is what we can expect for Prince Philip’s funeral.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

One thought on “Roundup: Ontario is on fire, and Ford offers performance art”

  1. He TURNED DOWN an offer — initiated by *someone* in his office, apparently — by the feds to send in the Red Cross, then went back to his usual BS complaints about vaccine supply. Yet he went ahead and begged “The Resistance” for help as though they don’t have their own fires to put out. He also rebuffed aid from Newfoundland and Labrador. Pure partisan ugliness. People are DYING so this moron can continue to “own the Libs.” And the so-called “progressive” party in Ottawa gives him a free pass to do so, by ignoring jurisdictional responsibilities! Singh even *said as much verbatim* in a tweet last night, “It’s time to stop talking about jurisdiction.” The constitution isn’t just a *suggestion* FFS! They want Trudeau to just override Queen’s Park and send in the cavalry anyway. Someone please ask Singh how the answer to Doug making a ham-handed declaration of martial law is for Trudeau to “out-martial” him?

Comments are closed.