Juno News - Ontario's ridiculous Halloween restrictions

00:00:00.000 The Ontario government's recommendations against trick-or-treating have got to be the

00:00:10.320 most ridiculous coronavirus precaution rules to date. And it's left a lot of people poking holes

00:00:16.560 at these ideas and outright laughing at them, making fun of them, as they should do. So Dr.

00:00:22.560 David Williams, he's the Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province, he said in hotspot zones

00:00:27.760 Toronto, Ottawa, Kiel Region, York Region, those are other sort of broader parts of the GTA. No

00:00:34.080 trick-or-treating. Why? Well Doug Ford said it's just not safe. Really. Small children who don't

00:00:42.320 really get coronavirus do not get it all that aggressively if they do, don't seem to be passing

00:00:47.440 it on to others. It is not safe for them to go outdoors on an evening when it's probably going

00:00:53.760 to be windy and go door to door, not going in the houses, and a lot of them wearing masks. And that

00:00:59.920 is just not safe. It is absurd. And when you also think about it, Halloween is not a thing that

00:01:07.520 government regulates. It's not a government creation. People may be upset that indoor dining

00:01:12.640 has been shut down. Restaurants do though. They get municipal licenses. They answer to local public

00:01:17.520 health boards. They go in, inspect the kitchens and so forth. So okay, restaurants is a thing that

00:01:21.680 is regulated. Halloween is not a government creation. It's a community-led activity. Give

00:01:27.920 me a break. I will say there is one positive to all of this. This may be the straw that breaks the

00:01:35.120 camel's back when it comes to urging for evidence-based pandemic policies. Because a whole lot of mainstream

00:01:42.320 people, a whole lot of people, and a whole bunch of media outlets saying, come on guys, this is

00:01:47.040 ridiculous. This has taken it too far. And it's funny, on the same day Doug Ford tried to ban Halloween,

00:01:53.520 his government also said, okay, we've decided that the restrictions on dance class, those, they're over.

00:02:00.320 So long as you have so ever many number of people, and they keep this far apart, and they have to

00:02:04.240 pre-register. Can't have walk-ins. Okay, dance class can continue. And that's the same day you banned

00:02:10.800 Halloween. Give me a break. But more people are now stepping forward. Small businesses are saying,

00:02:16.160 well, what about my class where I do this or that? What about this activity that we're doing?

00:02:20.240 Why can't this be applied? And people are stepping forward and saying, hold on a second. We can follow

00:02:25.280 precautions. We can still do stuff and do it wisely, maturely, responsibly. The Alberta government, they

00:02:32.000 issued a whole bunch of recommendations for how to make Halloween safer with coronavirus. They say

00:02:36.880 things like, well, don't go with a whole bunch of kids. Just stick with your siblings or like the one

00:02:40.720 kid next door, whatever it is. Basically, ideas on how to mitigate any perceived risk out there,

00:02:46.480 but to still go out and about and do the things that we love, the things that make life worth living.

00:02:52.880 It is so great to see Alberta take that direction. Oh boy, Ontario Premier Doug Ford in Ontario,

00:02:58.640 they have a lot to learn. And more and more now, people are pushing them to learn those lessons

00:03:03.440 and head in a better, smarter direction.

Juno News - October 21, 2020