Juno News - March 29, 2020


Do Canadians like being controlled？


Episode Stats

Length

7 minutes

Words per Minute

155.12314

Word Count

1,140

Sentence Count

57

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 A woman in Newfoundland was arrested and jailed twice within two days this past week for not
00:00:10.340 self-isolating. This is because the province of Newfoundland and Labrador has instituted
00:00:15.300 special public health measures so that anyone entering the province from outside of it,
00:00:20.880 even if you're coming from another province in Canada, you must self-isolate for 14 days
00:00:26.860 whether or not you are displaying coronavirus symptoms because you can be a carrier of the
00:00:31.940 virus and not know it. People who violate this order could face fines between $500 to $2,500
00:00:38.640 or be sentenced to a six-month jail term. Now, if you scan the comment sections of articles and posts
00:00:46.000 about this woman in Newfoundland, you'll see a scary amount of people delighting in the fact that she
00:00:51.500 was arrested. You see people demanding she be publicly named and shamed. But if you look into
00:00:57.180 the details, this woman is of no fixed address, so that means she is homeless. She's 53 years old
00:01:04.500 and she's not displaying any coronavirus symptoms. And yes, you can be a carrier without knowing it,
00:01:10.340 but hopefully they have tested her. And she entered Newfoundland via a ferry from North Sydney, Nova
00:01:16.280 Scotia. So this is not a case of, you know, an international jet setter who was just in China
00:01:22.160 and now coming to Canada. This is a homeless woman who went from one province in Atlantic Canada
00:01:28.460 to another. So I think we need to ask, does the punishment really fit the crime? But she is due in
00:01:35.540 court on June 9th. There was another woman in Quebec who was arrested for being out in public as well,
00:01:41.280 but she actually tested positive for coronavirus. So it's a bit of a different scenario. So alongside
00:01:46.960 these arrests, we are simultaneously seeing municipalities and provinces establish snitch
00:01:53.360 lines. The CBC had a little interview with a woman in Revelstoke, BC who had witnessed a party in her
00:02:00.680 neighborhood. And so she called the RCMP non-emergency line to report it. We just heard a little bit more
00:02:07.180 of her music. And because my boyfriend and I are in the middle of a move, we happen to be outside.
00:02:12.480 In Revelstoke, BC, Zoe Purvis was shocked to see a party across the street and called the RCMP
00:02:18.220 non-emergency line to report it. Played a little bit on my heartstring just because
00:02:23.020 I'm being so cautious. They either don't know or they just really don't care.
00:02:28.620 London, Ontario has launched a snitch line. New Brunswick has one too. And Alberta is currently
00:02:34.980 setting one up because the provincial health minister said that Alberta is getting 1,600
00:02:40.680 complaints a day about people and businesses not complying with health orders. 1,600 a day
00:02:47.600 only in Alberta. So imagine how many we're getting across Canada every single day. So it seems like
00:02:54.600 people are really into this thing where, you know, you're snitching on your neighbor and you're acting
00:02:59.940 as a voluntary informant for the government. As I wrote about in my column earlier this week,
00:03:04.780 which was about the province of BC cracking down on outdoor recreation and closing parks and all that.
00:03:10.880 And by the way, now they've also closed dog parks in a lot of places in the Vancouver area.
00:03:16.220 Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry encouraged British Columbians to call people out on social media
00:03:23.240 who are not abiding by social distancing measures. So that call to kind of publicly name and shame
00:03:30.180 is coming from a top health authority. Then we have Anna Lee Yassie, who is a UBC professor and Canada
00:03:37.680 research chair in global health, telling the star that we should consider being a little bit more imposing,
00:03:44.360 even if it means challenging social liberty for social good. And maybe it's time for Canada to be a little
00:03:50.700 more authoritarian. When I find quotes like that, and when I just kind of witness everything going on
00:03:57.500 that I just mentioned, I find it very alarming. And I find it very strange how people want to be
00:04:03.640 controlled. They're asking to be controlled. I worry about an atmosphere where everyone is snitching on
00:04:09.780 each other, and they're praising draconianism, you know, they're praising the idea that people who go to
00:04:15.940 parties amid the pandemic need to be thrown in jail, or get huge fines, and they need to be publicly
00:04:21.360 named and shamed. So Canadians appear to be getting quite a bit of pleasure out of this and getting
00:04:26.720 pleasure out of being told what to do, being controlled, having authorities telling them what
00:04:32.120 to do. And we have this recent op-ed in the Financial Post where the author Diane Francis is saying,
00:04:39.520 to beat this coronavirus, we must sacrifice our freedoms. The author says we must unleash the big
00:04:47.560 brother bazooka by deploying technology. Smartphones and other devices can help authorities monitor people's
00:04:57.300 movements in order to enforce social distancing and prevent them from gathering. She mentions how in
00:05:03.860 Korea, phone and credit card data is used by health authorities to trace people's movements and
00:05:11.100 contacts. And also how the Chinese require anyone who has tested positive, is isolated, or has been
00:05:17.900 exposed to victims to download software on their smartphones that allows police to access a color code
00:05:24.420 that defines their health status and whether or not they should be in quarantine or free to use
00:05:29.100 public spaces. These measures are not overkill. And she mentions what I talked about at the start of
00:05:36.480 my video, how one woman in Quebec and another in Newfoundland were arrested and put into jail or
00:05:43.620 isolation for violating public health orders, and both were turned in by neighbors or concerned
00:05:49.040 members of the public. Police have received hundreds of such tips but are unable to follow up on them all.
00:05:55.140 Yeah, so I'm not a fan of all of this. And the main concern is that we may institute these surveillance
00:06:02.700 measures and snitch lines in a time where many people or even most people might perceive them to
00:06:09.140 be valid and legitimate measures. But then they might become normalized and these measures might just
00:06:15.680 kind of sneak their way into being a part of our daily lives. You know, we just kind of got used to
00:06:20.960 governments tracking our cell phones and collecting our credit card data. So, you know, we won't bother
00:06:26.280 changing it because that's just the way it is now and that's how we live life in Canada.
00:06:30.920 I'm just saying, although the health impacts of the coronavirus are at the top of everyone's minds,
00:06:37.520 let's not get to the point where we're praising and delighting in the idea of freedoms and privacy
00:06:43.820 being taken away. I'm Lindsay Shepard with True North. Thanks so much for watching and I will see you next week.
00:06:50.960 I'll see you next week.