Juno News - Canada has failed the children

00:00:00.000 I want to talk about COVID-19 rules and our kids here in Canada and how we have so clearly failed

00:00:12.140 them almost every step of the way and we're continuing to fail them although it is interesting

00:00:18.240 to know I'll get to this part in a moment that parents are fighting back and parents are actually

00:00:22.920 bringing about positive change. It has been so disheartening throughout to look at a lot of

00:00:28.260 these protocols that kids are facing particularly when it comes to school rules and here in Ontario

00:00:33.380 where I am based a while ago a number of months ago I wrote some stories on how public health was

00:00:38.860 actually sending home notifications to parents saying that if your kid has been exposed to COVID-19

00:00:44.680 not even a confirmed case just an exposure they have to isolate at home that thing's not new and

00:00:49.720 at home alone in their own room for as much as 14 days and this was being sent home to parents

00:00:58.340 of young children it was just remarkable there was a large public outcry a number of public health

00:01:03.800 units they revised their policies and said okay well we're not really saying do that or okay it's

00:01:08.620 not necessary anymore but it was quite something that for a while they were sending that out and

00:01:12.600 I think a lot of parents had the good sense to say I'm not doing this I'm not separating my eight

00:01:17.840 year old or six year old putting them in a separate room all alone for a week but I imagine

00:01:22.560 there are some people who they always follow the letter of the rules from the government and they

00:01:25.700 actually did it and that is really tragic. Now one thing that's so tragic about the Ontario government

00:01:30.820 is that not only do other jurisdictions not do what I just described to you but other jurisdictions

00:01:36.000 they weren't even sending an entire classroom home if one kid in the class had tested positive for

00:01:41.820 COVID-19. Many jurisdictions throughout Europe the United States not doing that at all in British

00:01:47.100 Columbia again they didn't send the whole class home one kid test positive for COVID-19

00:01:51.260 and they they did a little bit of an analysis in the classroom public health okay did they have

00:01:56.060 one sort of best buddy that they're always palling around with playing games with and building Lego

00:02:01.080 with maybe that kid should get a test to see if they have COVID and that was the extent of it

00:02:04.820 that was generally how things worked in BC and Ontario no they always sent everybody home the

00:02:10.380 things should be better now you would think right now that we're in coming up to the end of

00:02:14.920 January 2022 and that you've got teachers who have booster shots adults are vaccinated triple

00:02:20.740 vaccinated many kids are getting their first dose a couple kids are getting the second dose as well

00:02:25.440 and everybody tells us Omicron is significantly milder they still have some challenges in the

00:02:30.540 hospitals but for the individual Omicron is multiple times milder this is public health Ontario data

00:02:35.720 I'm talking about than than the previous incarnations iterations of COVID-19. So what's going on how are the

00:02:42.840 rules now when you break it down the way I just did you would assume there's probably practically no

00:02:46.620 rules for kids in Ontario because the situation is that much better no the rules are actually getting

00:02:52.620 stricter not because of government protocol government is no longer saying entire classroom

00:02:57.600 home anymore which is which is great news but individual classrooms teachers principals they have

00:03:03.360 gone rogue attempting to implement their own policies and there's been a lot of controversy I've heard

00:03:07.920 from a lot of parents about this I wrote a news article in the Toronto Sun about a school in Scarborough

00:03:12.740 Birchcliffe Public School where they were attempting to have kids or at least one class was to have small

00:03:17.000 children eat outdoors on a week when the temperatures were slayed to be minus 15 on those days what on earth

00:03:23.420 is going on here but parents were upset they they made their voices heard and then those protocols were

00:03:29.260 revised I heard another example of how preschool and preschools do not mask kids that is not the rule it never

00:03:35.220 has been in Ontario a preschool just randomly decided we're gonna mask three-year-olds now we're just

00:03:41.060 gonna do it for two weeks because whatever hashtag science I heard from parents they were very upset

00:03:46.160 about this and they made their voices known they made their thoughts known and the rule was repealed

00:03:50.980 so it's interesting to see that that yes we do have a lot of positive indicators when it comes to the

00:03:57.260 Omicron variant right now people though are bizarrely overreacting they're pushing for more restrictions

00:04:02.220 on our kids but a lot of parents are saying no they're getting those restrictions reversed so

00:04:07.720 really frustrating situation that we're in right now but it was interesting to see that finally there

00:04:14.100 has been parental pushback and no people are saying that's a step too far because when all is said and

00:04:19.080 done well not even when all is said and done even now we know there are many reports out there that say

00:04:23.760 when it comes to lockdowns and closures is it benefiting people over 65 or seniors and yes there are some

00:04:29.760 benefits to it but basically acknowledging that in younger in younger age cohorts particularly the

00:04:35.160 children the harms of the lockdowns are greater than than the harms of the virus that is pretty much

00:04:41.880 an established fact right now so it's frustrating that we still have the level of rules that our kids

00:04:47.400 face right now but it's interesting to see that we're stepping away from some of them and parents

00:04:51.940 are also saying no we want these gone and they're pushing back and they're succeeding

00:04:59.760 children the terms that they're dumb but there are some who want these people already

00:05:15.320 for the conditions that we probably want the pandemic of didn't stop too far and it's way easier than

00:05:20.940 if it's just the condition that has changed in the pandemic of the virus that people conced yeah

Juno News - January 22, 2022

Canada has failed the children

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