Look, we understand the frustration, we really do. The government restrictions are wreaking havoc on local businesses, on the mental health of many, and forced a huge adjustment to our everyday lives.
But gathering in protest of the lockdowns, in close proximity without masks on, just asks for such measures to be extended.
Yes, Monday’s protest in Tecumseh Park, where upwards of 300 people gathered, took place outdoors, but people certainly did not exercise social distancing. Maverick MPP Randy Hillier was spotted putting his arm around people for selfies.
By ignoring social distancing and eschewing masks, as well as coming into close contact with others, some of the protesters may have very well spread the virus. Considering a number of individuals travelled from out of our municipality, possibly from spots of higher per capita active case counts, it wasn’t a wise move.
Plus, it was illegal.
If you don’t want a vaccine, fine. That’s your choice. If you don’t agree with the lockdown measures, you have exercised your rights to protest on Monday. Bylaw enforcement may very well exercise its rights this week to charge people for attending.
In a perfect world, because we are not a hotspot for COVID-19, we’d be able to have a much more open economy at the moment. But we don’t live in a perfect world.
If we opened up as if COVID-19 didn’t exist, or even with minimal restrictions, the selfish types from hotspots still in lockdown would pile into their cars and head here, with some bringing the virus with them.
People acting selfishly is what has this pandemic dragging on. Every time the province loosens restrictions, people go from accepting the proverbial inch to taking the proverbial mile. Too many behave as if there is no reason for a lockdown in the first place, and gather in large numbers, or travel unnecessarily.
How do variants of the virus make it here? People travel internationally. Why? For selfish reasons. Look no further than the mass exodus of India’s upper classes by air while that country is seeing hundreds of thousands of new cases each day, and thousands of deaths every 24 hours.
Behaving as a bunch of individuals is not the fast track for emerging from this pandemic.
“Look, we understand the frustration, we really do.”
Actually, unless you’ve lost a loved one due to a postponed surgery, or, God forbid, a suicide due to someone losing their business or just from sheer isolation, I don’t think you really do understand.
Rather than blame the masses for dragging things out, why don’t you blame the gov’t for failing to protect the elderly and those with comorbidities which were known to cause the vast majority of cases since Italy last year? Why not demand the gov’t immediate double the number of sick days available to workers to reduce the cases spreading in warehouses and meat packing plants because people feel compelled to work? And why not redirect law enforcement to those business challenging their workers’ sick day claims, rather than focus on people exercising their democratic rights *outside*, where the risk of transmission is negligible?
Your complaint about people ‘taking the proverbial mile’ by exercising the most modest rights or assembly, travel or visiting loved ones begs the question: what level of risk are you will to accept to live in a free society?
Plus; Hillier and Hildbrandt are political demagogues, using these people for their own nefarious ends. Don’t give them any oxygen.