Juno News - Canadians don't want another lockdown

00:00:00.000 On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced some new pandemic restrictions to the province,

00:00:11.100 rolling back some previous reopenings. They basically amounted to telling bars, restaurants,

00:00:16.520 nightclubs, and so forth that they must stop selling alcohol at 11 p.m., and that strip clubs,

00:00:22.080 which are believed to have caused a few outbreaks in the province, they are to be shut down fully.

00:00:27.060 Now, I don't have major problems with these issuances. I think it's more or less consistent

00:00:32.580 with what we've heard and the facts. It seems to make sense, and it's not that big of a deal. But

00:00:36.940 I'm a little worried about how easily and how readily our politicians have gotten comfortable

00:00:44.860 with the idea of just sitting around and talking about, well, what should we be allowed to have

00:00:49.640 open today? What should we shut down next week? And so forth. A very authoritarian impulse that

00:00:55.240 many people would argue, and I would agree with them to a large degree, is needed right now as

00:01:00.380 we manage the pandemic. But it's not something that they should be doing easily. It's not something

00:01:05.740 that they should be comfortable about. In fact, we should only be closing things down with the

00:01:11.400 absolute highest threshold of evidence. It's not incumbent upon the people, upon business owners,

00:01:17.260 upon sectors to plead their case with the politician. Please, sir, please allow me to reopen.

00:01:22.400 Let us have these liberties. No, the default position actually has to be keep things open

00:01:28.420 unless you have a very, very good reason to do otherwise. Now, there's a lot of people out there

00:01:34.700 who are calling for more. You see these voices online, people saying, we got to shut this down

00:01:39.840 and shut that down just because, because of their concerns, their fears of the unknown, of variables that

00:01:46.460 are just kind of out of our control. But we're at a point right now in the pandemic, yes, we're facing

00:01:51.020 a second wave. But hey, we could face a third wave, we could face a fourth wave, and so on.

00:01:57.040 We're at the point where we have to, I think, learn to live with coronavirus in a way that

00:02:01.520 protects our public health, follows the rules, and certainly protects the most vulnerable. So

00:02:06.860 should people be protesting these new decisions by Doug Ford, other decisions in BC? They shut down

00:02:12.380 nightclubs and banquet halls earlier this month. No, I don't think so. They are within reason.

00:02:17.320 But it's important that the people, that business communities, various different business associations,

00:02:23.900 that they feel empowered to step forward and really make their case heard to the government

00:02:28.520 and to not let the government and politicians get so comfortable with the idea of proclaiming

00:02:33.760 these edicts day after day from on high. Who will I allow to have open this time? Who

00:02:38.120 shall I shut down tomorrow? Because that is a direction that we do not want to see ourselves headed in.

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Juno News - September 25, 2020