Juno News - Are all lockdown restrictions ＂science-based？＂

00:00:00.000 All of these restrictions on our daily lives, they're based on the science, right? That's what

00:00:10.640 they keep telling us. All of these very particular rules about how many people can be in which

00:00:15.940 location at a particular time and which activities can be allowed and which ones can't. I mean,

00:00:20.420 there's a very granular science behind this. I don't know what it is. I think it's like

00:00:24.320 calculations, intense math or something like that. Or maybe they put on the white lab coats

00:00:29.000 because, you know, when you're wearing that, it gives greater authenticity. You put on the white

00:00:32.120 lab coats and you bring out those Bunsen burners and you're sort of putting chemicals together,

00:00:36.180 something like that. Something totally above my pay grade is what determines all of this. That is

00:00:40.040 what I've been led to assume. Am I correct? Well, I don't know because there's an interesting little

00:00:45.120 situation that unfolded in Ontario that's leading me to actually doubt that all of this is 100%

00:00:51.200 science-based. Cardinal Collins, he is the Archbishop for the Diocese of Toronto, and he started this

00:00:58.080 petition calling on the Ford government in Ontario to change the rules around religious service

00:01:04.440 attendance, how many people can go into places of worship. It was set at 10. He said, this makes no

00:01:10.740 sense. It's an arbitrary number. And he recommended it be placed at a percentage of allowable capacity.

00:01:17.280 And I guess he referenced one place of worship that he had that had 1,500 seating capacity. So he said

00:01:23.700 only 10 people in a place of 1,500, but then there's another place that can only fit 100 people,

00:01:28.760 but they can still have 10 people. He said, it makes no sense. And he got this petition going and

00:01:33.820 he sent it out to his own religious community, but also encouraged other faiths, synagogues,

00:01:38.780 mosques, and so forth to get involved. And this is a person who's really well respected in his community.

00:01:43.640 He has a voice. And guess what? The rules changed. And they moved to exactly what Cardinal Collins

00:01:50.700 was calling for away from that arbitrary, that was his word, arbitrary rules about 10 persons only to

00:01:57.340 a percentage of capacity, 15%. So he got a victory there. He accomplished something. Is Cardinal Collins

00:02:03.940 on the side? Is he also an epidemiologist? Is he like a part-time public health official? Did he put

00:02:10.080 on the lab coat and did he, you know, do all the fancy science experiments? No, he's a man who has been

00:02:15.660 thinking logically about all of this and he cares passionately about his community and what he does.

00:02:19.740 And he made his voice heard and he rallied other voices. And guess what? I assume that there was

00:02:26.700 quite a lot of people who took him up on that petition offer and the government felt the pressure

00:02:31.200 and then they changed this policy that Cardinal Collins was correct, made no sense. A bit of a teachable

00:02:38.040 moment there for everyone in Ontario who's frustrated this restriction or that restriction. And they do go,

00:02:43.640 what's ever going to make these people change their minds? Maybe they just need a different Bunsen burner.

00:02:48.420 Maybe something is off with the science calculations and so forth. Or maybe, just maybe, it is a lesson

00:02:55.000 that make your voice heard, get like-minded people to join you, get those petitions going, whatever it

00:03:00.920 is, lobby the government. I know it can seem futile, but this is an example. Cardinal Collins did it.

00:03:06.380 It works. Some of these decisions? Arbitrary? I think so. And in this case, there was a victory

00:03:12.180 for common sense.

Juno News - March 17, 2021