Public Order or Public Health？
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Summary
Coming up, how public order is trumping public health in response to CoD19, the importance of releasing pandemic projections, and some good news and bad news from the research front. The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now, and we re almost a full month into lockdown.
Transcript
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This is The Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
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Coming up, how public order is trumping public health in response to COVID-19,
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the importance of releasing pandemic projections,
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and some good news and bad news from the research front.
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I just want all of you to know that you are champs so far for putting up with this,
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We're almost a month in, and I don't even know when we start official lockdown.
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and that's only because I was in Toronto until March 14th,
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and then came home and haven't really gone more than a few blocks away ever since then.
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Welcome to another episode of The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Hope you're watching this from home or listening in a car or on a walk alone,
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because it seems like anything else may get you stopped by police
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or by law enforcement officers, depending on where you live.
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Especially if you live in Ottawa, which makes sense because it's the seat of the nation's government
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and, of course, the biggest nanny state place imaginable when it comes to bylaw enforcement, apparently.
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You know, I warned a couple of weeks ago that the problem we were going to see here
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is that it was going to shift from a public health discussion into a public order discussion,
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and I'm afraid to say that's exactly what's happening.
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We're seeing it more in a few isolated pockets,
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but I'm pretty sure this is going to become the norm in the days and weeks to come.
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I'm going to talk about the enforcement aspects of this right now and also later on in the show.
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I want to talk about some of the medical things that have come up
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that we haven't really had time to get around to in previous episodes of the show.
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The problem is that, you know, you need to have buy-in.
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People need to believe that what they're doing makes sense.
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They need to believe that there is a scientific rationale behind it,
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and they need to feel like it is not a burden on them if they go along with it,
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and this is why the whole, you know, we hope people just go to the grocery store
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and only do essential things, we hope this, we hope that, only goes so far.
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And, you know, the public health issues here, and I don't mean public health issues.
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I mean, issues with capital P, capital H public health bureaucrats in Ottawa
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has been that they've surrendered their trustworthiness by all of the flip-flops
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that we've addressed on this show, whether it was the travel restrictions,
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whether there's a risk, whether you can have human-to-human transmission,
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more recently masks, which, by the way, they seem to have flipped even further back than they were before,
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because on Monday they had said, you know, we recommend now masks are fine for people,
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and then on Tuesday, Theresa Tam was saying, oh, I mean, we're not wearing masks.
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so I'm not even going to bother trying to decipher what the real answer is on masks right now.
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But the public health officials, the intelligentsia to which we are looking to find out what's right and what's wrong,
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has not really given a huge dose of confidence to people,
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which means that I think a lot of other people are souring on some of the social distancing advice
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Number one, social distancing was not a term anyone had heard of.
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I don't even know if it was a new term, but certainly it was not a widespread term.
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Like flattening the curve, it's one of those things that six weeks ago you didn't even know existed,
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and now it's like everyone says it and you want to blow your brains out any time you hear it again.
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So social distancing wasn't even the term that they stuck with.
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They then switched it to physical distancing because they didn't want to, I guess,
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create this idea that everyone was going to be isolated and lonely and all of this stuff.
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So right then and there, they can't even like stick to the one term that they had gotten people to use,
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So when you hear physical distancing, it's like, oh, wait, well, is that different from social distancing,
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or is it just the lipstick on a pig thing, a different name for the same phenomenon?
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So I think that's a big part of why there is some growing weariness in people and weariness,
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weariness and weariness about what the advice is.
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But then you look at law enforcement who, and it's hard to say whether this is from overzealous law enforcement
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or genuine confusion, you know, information that doesn't quite trickle down all the way to the front lines,
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which I can imagine is very common in situations like this.
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But either way, it's these situations where you have people's rights who end up being threatened
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and in many cases, absolutely trampled upon altogether.
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I want to talk about a few of these different stories because these are certainly exceptional examples,
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but in the grand scheme of things, they really aren't.
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I mean, this is forming a pattern very easily detected across Canada, across municipalities,
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where that letter of the law and the spirit of the law are not necessarily in alignment.
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They're enforcing the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law.
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But come on, we need to have some common sense here.
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I mean, the most, I say, egregious example was from the Ottawa citizen.
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And by the way, there was a Globe and Mail article that touched on this.
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Apparently, Ottawa is like ground zero for this overzealousness.
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The story in the Globe says that the city of Ottawa is accused of going too far with its ticketing blitz.
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The city defended itself by saying that, oh, I mean, we got 500 complaints last weekend.
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And of those complaints, we only ticketed, I think it was 43 people.
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First off, ticketing 43 people for using public parks and standing too close to one another isn't a point of pride.
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It's 43 more than it probably should be in an ideal society.
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But further to that, you know, that's 500 people that were harassed and questioned.
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Some of them might have been doing something wrong.
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I'd say a lot of them were probably just going about their day, going about their business.
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And I say that because of this story in the Ottawa citizen that I think reinforces exactly why you can't take your rights for granted in cases like this.
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It's about a man who decided to do what everyone else is trying to do, which is keep to himself, stay away from all of these problems around the world and stay away from anything viral.
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And he was harassed by a bylaw enforcement officer for playing in the park alone with his autistic son.
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His four-year-old autistic son was in an empty field kicking a soccer ball.
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So bylaw enforcement officer shows up, says this is a $700 fine, gives him a warning, not a ticket.
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The guy thought he was getting a ticket, but gives him a warning and then leaves.
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That this man and his son, who are socially distanced from absolutely everyone in the world but each other, are told and threatened they could have a $700 fine.
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Now, the city of Ottawa said, oh, we can't comment on the specific event without further information, they said initially.
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Then they later confirmed that it was actually a case where they were given a warning.
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So they had investigated it and figured it out.
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We know that a lot of parks are supposed to be closed.
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There is a lot of confusion about whether it's all green spaces or just specific things in parks like playgrounds, gazebos and stuff like that.
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But even then, if a park is empty, if a park is empty and people are allowed to go out for walks, and I never thought we'd be living in an era where you have to specify that you're allowed to leave your house, you're allowed to go for a walk, and you go to an empty park, why does anyone care?
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And, you know, their theory, I guess, is that, oh, well, if everyone's there, then it's not going to be social distancing.
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But the whole point of social distancing is, as I understand it, you adapt based on where the people are around you.
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You know, it's just like everyone has to now play Frogger when they're going through the grocery store.
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You just, like, you go and then you veer left and then you veer right and you go forward and you backtrack.
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I mean, so, you know, you adapt to the people around you.
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I'm waiting to see someone who creates this, like, pool noodle contraption where you've got, like, a six-foot pool noodle, like, spokes on a wheel just to make sure that no one comes in your zone.
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Actually, that can be perhaps a good invention on my part.
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It's better than a giant bubble because I feel like you might get claustrophobic on that.
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I'm giving you all my idea before I've done it.
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And I'm pretty sure pool noodles have not been deemed an essential service, so I might have a hard time trying to find a store that sells.
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But in any case, imagine going through the grocery store with that.
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No one's going to come near you, not because of the COVID, just because they think you're insane.
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It's all about how the ends are justifying the means in that case.
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But the point is that if you're in a park and there's no one else around you, or let's say there's someone else on the other side of the park,
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And, you know, remember, we've been hearing from the government for years about the importance of everyone being active and getting out.
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We know obesity is a big public health crisis, and a lot of that comes back to inactivity.
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Kids aren't having recess anymore because they're not in school, so it's not like kids are having the opportunity to run around.
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And I'm sorry, but not everyone lives in a suburban home that has a big backyard where everyone can go out and run,
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especially in urban areas like Toronto, like parts of Ottawa, other cities, when people don't have yards.
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You know, walking to that park across the street, going around the neighborhood might be the only way they can actually go out
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and prevent there from being serious mental health challenges because they're cooped up in a 500-square-foot apartment.
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So if someone is minding their own business, and I said this in a previous show about cops harassing someone on the beach,
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if someone is minding their own business, they're not near anyone, but, you know, the person they're there with,
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they are more threatened by the cop or the bylaw officer walking up to them
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than they are by anything that's happening in those circumstances.
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And, you know, is that really a way to help anyone?
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It is absolutely making things worse and undermining trust in the government,
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which is already wafer-thin at the best of times.
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I know I'm saying everyone is the worst, but they're all just making me pull my hair out here.
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Comes from La Presse, where a woman on her birthday had a bunch of friends line the street in their cars.
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They opened the car door to stand outside, and all of them, I think it was nine cars,
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now when i first saw that i assumed that they would have been ticketed just for singing it
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in english in quebec but no that wasn't the case of it in fact she was ticketed fifteen hundred
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dollars now by the way not even the people singing it it was the woman who was serenaded
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with the happy birthday she gets a one thousand five hundred dollar fine by police after her
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friends surprised her with a happy birthday ambush on her street again she's at her front door
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they are on the other side of the street they're separate from her and separate from each other
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singing happy birthday keeping the spirit of the law alive social distancing and she gets on her
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birthday which she's already spending cooped up she can't go anywhere she can't take a weekend trip
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away she can't go and buy the good cake she can't do any of these things on her birthday
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and to add insult to injury a one thousand five hundred forty six dollar fine now this is melissa
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leblanc and she says listen it's been four weeks since i've left home she says she even has her
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groceries delivered so she's going above and beyond what most people are asked to do what most people
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are doing and she's actually she's apologizing basically she this is the most terrifying part
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and this is that canadian thing she says oh my goodness police have their arm their their their arms
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full it was never my intention to go against the measures i mean i want to see more anger from these
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people so this woman gets serenaded gets a ticket and she still feels bad that you know the police had
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to spend their time on her like oh my goodness this is where and michael bryant who is the head of the
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canadian civil liberties association said something very apropos about this he said listen this is all
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supposed to be about public health not public order and whenever there can be an education
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approach instead of an enforcement approach it's going to make everyone better in the long run
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and ultimately it's going to be better for society itself and i wish that the rcmp had learned that
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lesson a little bit earlier than they did you know in halifax police are worried about rumors in fact
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police all over canada are worried about rumors of people saying oh my friend was pulled over and
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questioned where he was going the rumor in halifax is that any car with more than two people in it will
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be pulled over and they'll make sure that they're still appropriately following the emergency orders
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i heard i think going back a week and a half ago rumors that people were being pulled over and said you
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have to have a reason to be out and and a lot of this in a time of crisis you can't really trust too much
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anyway it's i heard from someone who heard from someone who heard from someone and and all that stuff
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but but but where there's smoke there's fire so halifax is saying no no we've not been ordered
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to stop vehicles although under the emergency act in nova scotia people have to maintain a distance of
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two meters or six feet and also gatherings of more than five like in other provinces are prohibited but the
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reason i i find this to be such an interesting dismissal of them saying oh no we're not doing that
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is that in calgary the rcmp fined two teens for not having social distance between them when they
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were in a car together now there is a bit of an upside to this in that the rcmp has canceled the
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ticket but i i think that's too little too late this was last thursday and it was sorry cochran not
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calgary uh cochran alberta a teenager was given a 1200 fine uh 16 years old because he was driving in a car
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with his friend after returning from a job interview so you know not keeping to the spirit of the law
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but they're 16 and police pulled them over asked the two of them for id saw that their addresses were
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different so the police officer being the astute detective he was determined that if the addresses
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were different they might not live together and hands out a one thousand six hundred dollar fine
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for not practicing social distancing and again so the father complained went to the media the public
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pressure led the rcmp to cancel the ticket but even their cancellation their cancellation bothers me here
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because fraser logan who's an rcmp spokesperson says well officers do have the discretion to lay that
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offense notice and the ticket was within the police officers right after further discussions a decision
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was made to cancel the ticket so they're saying listen we're canceling it but but we don't have
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to when we we could have ticketed you again and we will ticket you again and look there are cases where
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teens are being stupid and not just teens i don't want to single out teens there are cases where people
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of all ages are not adhering to what is expected of us right now and go for the people who are being
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reckless go for the people who are being reckless if someone's having a giant house party someone's
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having a barbecue fine go in there and break it up if you absolutely need to but if you get two teens
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that are in a car i mean from what i've read they weren't even pulled over for anything traffic
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related it wasn't like they were speeding a bit or one of them was using a cell phone it was a fishing
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expedition they could have been brothers they could have been roommates whatever but it was a fishing
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expedition police go and then oh you don't live together you're getting ticketed
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and one of the things certainly in ontario is that you need to provide identification now you
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typically don't need to under this you do so if my wife and i were minding our own business going for
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one of our i don't want to say daily walks but one of our regular walks and police uh stay stop us for
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whatever reason and say hey we need to see your id to make sure you live together normally i'd say go
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pound salt not because i disrespect police i have a lot of respect for police but because i disrespect the
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overzealousness uh that we see from some pockets of law enforcement and in this case i would actually
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be fined not for social distancing rules but i would be fined for not complying with a demand that
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i must identify myself and these are the things that there are so many people that would be like well
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if you have nothing to hide which are the most toxic words in a free society if you have nothing to
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hide then you have nothing to fear and if we could just completely throw those words out once we're
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done with covid like we are hopefully going to throw out social distance and flatten the curve
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i'll be very happy because for so many people they don't understand the bigger picture here which is
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that government will after this have license have license to do this for situations that are far less
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dire than the one in which we're living in now and this is not that i don't take covid 19 seriously i do
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it's not that i don't realize there is a need for added and enhanced measures i do
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it's that we've been seeing and we're seeing more often now this idea where the remedy
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doesn't really match the problem and the remedy is opening up worse things for us for society for canada
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then the problem itself is and these are the cases that we have to resist and and you know
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there are going to be a lot of people that say well once the virus is done these things will go away
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you better hope so you better hope so because if all of a sudden we have now in regular flu season
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say police going down this road saying okay well we've got to start enforcing some of these things
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that's a case where the imbalance will be very stark but officials will have justification because
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of what happened now so when halifax is saying oh don't be ridiculous we're not pulling over
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people for just driving in a car together well some of your colleagues are some of your brothers
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in blue are out in alberta so yes this is insane that we have to have some of these discussions
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but it's important that we do it's absolutely important that we do we got to take a break when
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we come back more of the andrew lawton show here on true north you're tuned in to the andrew lawton show
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as you know i've been doing a lot of the heavy lifting the work that most canadians don't want
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to do i've been watching the daily government briefings the daily government press conferences
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from pretty much everyone justin trudeau christia freeland doug ford sometimes the alberta officials
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as well and i've been just immersed in this and there was a bit of an odd moment in justin trudeau's
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briefing on tuesday of this week when he used terms that just you know i don't even think i can describe
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it adequately without just playing the clip for you uh my understanding of what dr tam explained yesterday
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is that if people want to wear a mask uh that is okay it protects others more than it protects
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you because it prevents you from breathing or or speaking uh moistly on them oh what a terrible image
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so for all of the things we've talked about with masks trudeau comes out with this one
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it can prevent you from breathing or speaking moistly on others now i do a lot of talking in my life
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i used to host a daily three hour show there were a couple of days where i was hosting my own three
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hour show in london guest hosting a three hour show in toronto and a two and a half hour show in calgary
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so there have been days where i have spoken for eight and a half hours in a row back to back
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and i have never spoken moistly in my life i have never spoken moistly so justin trudeau has now
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warned against breathing or speaking moistly and at the end of it says ugh what a terrible image which
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i think is pretty much the exact thing that anyone watching i've never had this hate on for the word
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moist but i understand that moist is one of the most detested words in the english language whether
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moist is spoken moistly or unmoistly moist is just one of those words people don't like
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so the reason that i i think it's important to mention this is that trudeau's usage of the word
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moist in any context in any context whether it was for you know illustrative purposes or a misspeak
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because it's the word moist people don't like hearing it so moist uh anyway so whether it's the
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least of your worries or the most of them i mean the most of them we will carry on with that i was
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actually fond of that because it was just a rare sort of human uh levity driven moment in the midst
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of something very serious but it did sound like a really icky thing it's funny though because i had a
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message from someone it might have been a commenter so you email or whatever it was and they had said
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you know why are you not angrier about xyz and it was an interest it's a valid question you know there
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are a lot of people that i think are only angry and they are too angry and there's no way to do
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anything about anything if you're always at a 10 on the anger level i get frustrated i get annoyed
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when things happen when governments try to trample on rights yeah i get worked up about it but the only
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way you can survive in my view is by laughing and that doesn't mean you're making light of things in
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the sense that you're diminishing or downplaying them what it means is that the only way to survive
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and work through and keep your sanity and keep your strength is to not immerse yourself in the
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negativity of the world and then start parroting that negativity and i don't want to sound like a
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motivational speaker because i'm not particularly motivational and i don't want to be but you know if
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i if just because i'm not yelling doesn't mean that i i don't realize there are grave things at stake
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here and i would hope that all of us through this can learn that yeah sometimes you need to just laugh
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at something and that's the way that you can delegitimize it and work through it you know the
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fact is most of what is passed as a serious solution to the world's problems is a punchline and that's the
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one thing we've seen from a lot of what government has pushed so yeah i'm going to take the bait i'm
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going to laugh at the punchline because that's the way that we prove to people how absurd a lot of
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these things are and can move forward as a result so that's my answer to that question and thank you
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for watching nonetheless speaking of again why we can't just be so consumed by negativity last week
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we saw projections from alberta and or from ontario rather and in that we heard that up to 15 000 people
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may die from covet 19 by the end of the crisis now we've heard numbers from alberta as well as from
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quebec so there seems to be a bit of a pact emerging from francois lago jason kenny doug ford all saying
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listen we need to have full disclosure we need to be transparent about this and alberta in a probable
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scenario jason kenny said the province will see between 400 and 3100 deaths now the interesting thing
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about this projection is that while it's lower than ontario it also seems to be a bit of a shorter
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time frame so he's saying that there's also an elevated scenario that would see 500 to 6600 people
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die in the province now this is based on alberta's modeling so again really giving people a sense of
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what the numbers are on which alberta is basing its decisions and its way forward and there is a lot
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there is a lot of desire from the public now to see these numbers and even though the numbers without
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context don't necessarily mean anything they reinforce i think a the fact that yes this is serious
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but also they they instill trust they instill trust how are we supposed to listen to you if you're
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not going to tell us how bad things are and doug ford last week in ontario and i know he's not the most
00:26:18.960
popular guy to the left but doug ford has been getting a lot of support from all parts of the
00:26:23.680
country all ideologies all regions and the reason is he has been an absolutely incredible force
00:26:30.320
throughout this entire thing and yes i ran as a candidate under doug ford you can say i'm biased
00:26:35.920
but this is not coming from any allegiance that is really rooted in a past thing that i did this is
00:26:41.680
coming from a place of genuine appreciation and respect for what he's doing right now
00:26:48.240
because what doug ford has done is not just been calm and cool and honest but he has been clear he has
00:26:55.600
been transparent he has not wavered in his approach and by sharing these numbers by sharing this modeling
00:27:03.600
he's saying look i'm not going to lie to you and there was one well there have been a couple of days
00:27:07.920
where he's come out and days where there's been bad news or a difficult announcement of some kind
00:27:13.360
and doug ford has come out and you can see torment for lack of a better term you can see a torment in
00:27:19.120
him and he had said yesterday or two days ago i can't remember which one that he's not sleeping at
00:27:24.240
night about some of these things and that was a very raw and human moment and there have been other
00:27:30.400
premiers that have done well as well and again i've given trudeau credit for some aspects of this
00:27:34.880
i am able to give credit where it's due and criticism where it's due regardless of ideology
00:27:39.920
and politics and all of that stuff but my goodness doug ford will emerge from this i i think is probably
00:27:46.320
one of the if not the most effective and capable politician throughout this crisis
00:27:52.400
and so far i think that's doug ford and i think will probably remain
00:27:56.640
doug ford but you had ontario's numbers you had alberta's numbers and also quebec's projections and
00:28:02.560
i'm going to go into the quebec numbers in a moment but the reason these are important is
00:28:06.960
because it's more pressure on justin trudeau i would hope to release the federal numbers and i
00:28:12.320
guess if all the provinces release theirs you can just add them up but again the thing with modeling
00:28:16.720
it's not an exact science and the numbers themselves may differ so the federal government
00:28:22.560
would have projections that may actually deviate from the provincial projections the reason the federal
00:28:27.840
numbers are important is because they are the basis of what justin trudeau is doing you need to be
00:28:34.640
able to know what their evidence is and what they are actually using as their basis to have an appreciation
00:28:43.760
for it so quebec's is similar to ontario ontario had 3 000 to 5 000 uh residents that could die of the
00:28:52.880
virus over the course of the pandemic which could be 18 months to 24 months quebec has a number of
00:29:01.040
charts as well but quebec didn't do what if scenarios generally so they have actually been very
00:29:08.560
constrained in what they have projected they've only done 30-day projections 30-day numbers and very
00:29:16.080
similar to ontario so very similar paths so it seems like at least there is a consensus there or what
00:29:24.080
looks like a growing consensus anyway about how this could look and you know as we tend to advance through
00:29:35.360
this you know if the models end up being overzealous or they end up being greater than what happens i
00:29:43.920
wouldn't blame them i wouldn't look and say all those numbers were crap i'd say okay wow we listened
00:29:48.800
and what we did worked and i don't think that is necessarily an unreasonable thing to do to say well
00:29:56.720
yes they were a little bit ambitious but i mean when you have to start getting worried is if the shape
00:30:03.200
doesn't match is if the shape of these projections are against you know the trajectory of the virus and
00:30:09.440
even then it's not about blame it's simply about understanding that hey this is not a perfect
00:30:14.400
science they did it based on what they thought was the best information available but regardless
00:30:19.840
this is what they had access to and that's what ford has stressed here in his talks in ontario is that
00:30:26.560
he wants people to know what he's seeing when he says yes you have to shut down your business when he
00:30:31.520
says no you're not allowed to construct that property when he tells people you are not allowed by force of
00:30:37.280
law to do this this is why and trudeau's consistent refusal to show this modeling is absurd and you
00:30:46.640
know what i think we all look pretty bad about it and speaking of justin trudeau looking bad this clip
00:30:52.960
i have to play for you here because he was asked by a hill times reporter at tuesday's briefing a very
00:30:58.240
simple question which is that you said that the experts back in march told you that we didn't need
00:31:03.760
to shut the border and then you said the experts said they did explain what happened explain your
00:31:09.040
path explain your trajectory and i'm going to play the full exchange here because he asked to follow
00:31:14.720
up and trudeau gave a bit more of an answer but there's something in that follow-up that reveals
00:31:20.080
problems as well let's roll that minister i want to go back uh quickly to ask you about your decision on
00:31:27.760
march 16th to close the border to foreign nationals the health minister had been saying
00:31:34.160
for more than a month by that point that there was no benefit really to doing that it wouldn't keep
00:31:39.440
canadians safe you explained your decision at the time by saying that the advice you've been receiving
00:31:45.360
from public health officials had been evolving can you tell us a little bit more about how exactly that
00:31:51.120
advice changed um i appreciate that your question is taking us back to march 16th uh but i'm focused
00:31:59.040
on today and i'm focused on tomorrow uh there have been a lot of reflections on what is done in the
00:32:04.080
past and we'll certainly keep reflecting on that but everything i'm focused on right now is how to make
00:32:10.400
sure that people are getting the help they need right now how to keep canadians safe how to get through
00:32:16.640
this particular time and that's what i'll stay focused on follow-up question we just yeah sure
00:32:24.320
we we're just looking for some clarity on how exactly the public health advice has been changing how you
00:32:32.320
know the information coming from these officials has been changing and where they're getting it from
00:32:37.200
this is a never before experienced pandemic that is presenting new challenges every single day new
00:32:47.200
facts new data every single day and throughout we're making decisions based on the best advice that those
00:32:54.880
health officials are giving us obviously this advice is best based on modeling on facts on what's
00:33:01.680
happening in other countries what uh predictions can be made around what might help what could make
00:33:08.160
a difference and as that evolves as the information evolves of course we're going to keep adjusting and
00:33:14.960
updating our approach we've done that from the beginning and we will continue to do so so when i said
00:33:20.080
earlier about finding the punchline in life this is the type of situation i was describing here because
00:33:24.560
you have to just roll your eyes when trudeau says oh you know i'm i'm interested i'm i see you want to
00:33:29.520
talk about this but i want to talk about today and i want to talk about moro if i were the reporter i'd
00:33:33.280
be like well i want to talk about march 16th myself but then trudeau said oh but we have all these things
00:33:38.960
in the models and okay so wait so you are saying that there are models and that the models are responsible
00:33:45.280
for these decisions you're making and you're still not showing those models so a the fact that he doesn't
00:33:52.240
want to explain his decision making process on a pretty big government flip-flop that's bad enough
00:33:57.760
but then when pushed he talks about the modeling and the experts relying on the models and still
00:34:02.640
doesn't want to show those still doesn't want the accountability that comes with people seeing it
00:34:08.560
and i think that what we would see is that the government was looking at data that didn't
00:34:12.880
necessarily reinforce the decisions they were making and they don't want people to know that
00:34:18.880
because i bet that they had access to data in march before they were putting travel restrictions in
00:34:25.520
place that showed them hey we should probably put travel restrictions in place and i know that
00:34:30.080
because every other country in the world was doing it so there must have been something there
00:34:34.080
telling them hey this is a good idea for countries right now because this is exclusively a
0.92
00:34:40.080
travel-borne virus for the time being the government has told us it's always a matter of buying
00:34:46.240
time you won't get down to zero cases but you'll buy time to prepare to get ppe and if you could have
00:34:52.880
bought an extra two weeks by closing the border earlier if you could have bought an extra two weeks
00:34:57.920
by banning flights from china if you could have bought an extra two weeks by doing this those charts
00:35:03.600
would be so drastically different the proverbial curve would have been flattened much more
00:35:10.160
but no we were getting lectured about racism we were getting lectured about the importance of not
00:35:15.840
taking out our coronavirus frustrations through racist and bigoted acts which obviously is a valid thing to do
00:35:22.240
but that isn't a public health priority and certainly shouldn't be a public health priority above
00:35:27.440
the actual virus itself talk about the social implications the social effects after write a blog
00:35:34.800
post on it make a little video and upload it to youtube to comment on how you think everyone's so
00:35:40.240
mean in canada but my goodness focus on the virus first then focus on all those social aspects and
00:35:46.560
this is where you get a government that i don't think was listening to the models you have either
00:35:53.040
advice that was being ignored or you just have downright bad advice either way it's something that
00:36:00.560
canadians need to have accountability for we've got to take a break when we come back more of the
00:36:05.360
andrew lawton show let's talk about those who have decided to make the best of a bad situation in
00:36:23.120
particular a dare i say couple who has probably one of the greatest how they met each other's stories
00:36:30.800
ever they went on a first date uh 23 year old nick crawford and his now a girlfriend they went on a
00:36:38.000
first date and they met online they went out and then they ended up in quarantine together because of
00:36:47.840
covet 19 so what happened was they had a night out on march 7th four days before the world health
00:36:55.120
organization declared the outbreak of the pandemic people were seeing it but again a lot of people
00:37:00.400
especially in north america weren't particularly worried about it so they go they exchanged messages
00:37:06.560
they went out for a date it didn't feel real they think everything's fine they have a great time well
00:37:12.800
as it turned out they both contracted covet 19 so his date had flu-like symptoms and was taken for a test
00:37:22.160
she was still awaiting results then her friend tested positive for the virus
00:37:26.880
virus and then they ended up uh once he had developed flu-like symptoms and uh was uh had gone
00:37:34.320
and you know tried to get tested and all that that uh it was i guess worthwhile to just wait it out
00:37:40.720
together so they had a really good time on their first date they ended up isolating together they've
00:37:45.840
spent uh you know 14 days and we don't know if they're still together i've been waiting for an update
00:37:50.320
uh but they decided that they would get quarantined together and you know if that's not like the
00:37:55.600
pressure cooker for a relationship that has at that point only had one date then i don't know what is
00:38:02.000
because not only is it two weeks with someone you barely know two weeks with illness of someone you
00:38:09.280
barely know so it's an interesting dynamic test of how people respond to adverse circumstances and i'm
00:38:17.040
wondering i mean i'm of two minds on this either a this is like the greatest love story ever or b it is
00:38:24.400
just an elaborate setup so that they can sell the movie rights and make a fortune because there was
00:38:29.120
that movie i want to say ashton kutcher and cameron diaz i might be mixing it up with another movie
00:38:35.440
i want to say it might have been called just married i could be making that up about a drunk couple
00:38:41.040
who gets married in vegas and they're going to get it annulled but then one of them wins like some
00:38:47.680
huge jackpot in vegas the next day and then the other one doesn't want to end the marriage so
1.00
00:38:53.120
something like that now this is admittedly less high stakes than that uh but no one would believe
00:38:58.160
it because if you were to see a movie about oh this couple that you know got quarantined together
00:39:02.160
after their first date by choice you're like well no one would do that but nick crawford and his uh
00:39:06.480
lovely uh paramore decided to and you know what we wish them uh many more not pandemics but many
00:39:12.240
more uh years together or weeks together such as the case may be uh this is i think fascinating though
00:39:20.560
you know talk about again spirit of law letter of law this is like the growing theme of the last
00:39:26.240
couple of weeks a new jersey nurse was able to go to gofundme and raise twelve thousand dollars to buy
00:39:33.360
personal protective equipment for her and her colleagues because there's a major shortage
0.75
00:39:37.920
especially in new jersey which is the overflow of new york and the nurse who is named olga matievskaya
00:39:45.360
whose name i did not pronounce correctly most likely was able to use her money to buy 500 masks
00:39:51.360
4 000 shoe covers and 150 jumpsuits for icu nurses she was able to order them from ebay but they were in
00:39:58.720
packaging uh the hospital said thank you very much we really appreciate this we needed this
00:40:04.880
no i'm just kidding the hospital suspended her because they said she was distributing unauthorized
0.65
00:40:10.160
medical supplies which was actually better than the hospital's non-existent medical supplies
00:40:15.680
but she's now been suspended so let no good deed go unpunished that is the message of the day
00:40:21.840
in new jersey apparently now of course nick crawford may have had good luck finding love in quarantine
00:40:29.520
there is a man who's trying to perhaps replicate that in new york city the epicenter of coronavirus
00:40:36.800
he's 30 something years old name unknown he has decided to dispense with online dating he's seeking a
00:40:43.680
quarantine partner and a life partner erecting flyers around new york seeking girlfriend for coronavirus
00:40:51.120
and something i gotta zoom in and see where that and something is uh corona oh coronavirus and
00:40:55.920
beyond he says he's healthy attractive well-employed early 30s seeking germ-free monogamy he would
00:41:04.480
like someone who's healthy fit and clean and all you lucky ladies who are champing at the bit for this
0.92
00:41:09.280
can email steady man for you at gmail.com and i i'm less offended by the fact that he's seeking
00:41:16.160
courtship by flyer than i am by the fact that he used the number four and the letter u
00:41:20.640
in his email address and i don't know what steady man is like is it going steady or is he just
00:41:26.560
really steady i don't know uh but perhaps if you are if that's your thing and you're in new york and
00:41:32.320
you're one of like the seven people left in new york that doesn't have coronavirus uh he is the the
00:41:36.960
man for you for coronavirus and beyond uh you know what i always like mocking socialist dictatorship so
00:41:43.680
let's do this one other fun story here a venezuela warship i'm gonna laugh through this just so you
00:41:50.240
know a venezuela warship was defending the venezuelan naval interests and decided to harass a cruise ship
00:41:58.640
a portuguese flagged cruise ship dubbed rcgs resolute and the warship called the naguata
00:42:07.760
intercepted the resolute off the coast of venezuela about a week and a half ago shortly after midnight
00:42:14.720
on march 30th and the naguata the venezuelan ship ordered the resolute to change its course and then
00:42:21.680
they had a standoff between the ship crews because there was confusion about whether they were in
00:42:26.560
international waters or venezuelan waters resolute was trying to inform its head office of the encounter
00:42:33.120
and figure out what to do and then the venezuelan ship started shooting on shooting at the resolute
00:42:39.840
now you may wonder why i'm sharing this as a fun story well just keep listening so the venezuela ship
00:42:45.040
is shooting at the cruise ship the unarmed cruise ship of a bunch of uh presumably like portuguese uh
00:42:50.480
you know octogenarians who are just on the cruise and haven't been able to dock anywhere yet
00:42:55.520
and then i don't know if the venezuelans just had bad aim or they ran out of ammo or what
00:43:00.080
but then the vessel decided to ram the resolute the navy vessel approached the starboard side
0.96
00:43:06.080
purposely collided with the resolute they continued to ram the starboard bow in an apparent attempt to
0.51
00:43:12.640
turn the ship's head towards venezuelan territorial waters and then the venezuelan warship sank yes the
00:43:22.640
venezuelan warship rammed the uh cruise ship without any weapons on it after firing on it
00:43:29.600
and then eventually just completely shot shot itself down uh and the cruise ship was built for
00:43:36.960
cruising through icy water so it was fine it suffered only minor damage in the collision so
00:43:41.440
this is like a prius trying to you know basically uh ram a bronco off the road and the bronco just has
00:43:47.680
a little dent and the prius is in the ditch this is what happened uh the naigawata started taking on
00:43:53.920
water after colliding uh with the larger ships haul and sank and then uh what happened was the resolute
00:44:01.120
offered to help people they they hung around they hung around said listen we'll help you and then
00:44:06.080
venezuela said no they waited an hour for someone else to uh to come and help them so uh you know
00:44:11.760
what uh you know just keep to the you know feeding people dogs and cats and tanking your economy and
00:44:17.360
depriving yourself of rights don't try to be ambitious like uh conquering you know naval interests even if it's
00:44:22.560
just a cruise ship in your view so that is today in venezuela uh just before we wrap up here i want
00:44:29.600
to mention one thing that i think should be concerning but i also want to couch this by saying that we
00:44:37.840
shouldn't take it at face value just yet south china post which if you're not from or south china
00:44:45.600
morning post which is a hong kong publication it's not a china publication so they're fairly reputable
00:44:51.280
has found that low antibody levels are raising question about the risk of reinfection so they're
00:44:58.160
citing scientists in china so in shanghai so take that with a grain of salt but they're saying that
00:45:03.520
some recovered patients are showing no signs of the neutralizing proteins meaning that their early
00:45:08.720
research is showing them that yeah you could get coronavirus twice you could get this thing a second or
00:45:14.640
potentially third time now why i say to take this with skepticism not even because it's china just
00:45:21.680
because we don't know a lot about this but there is opportunity and there is downside in that because
00:45:29.120
in some senses it means yeah we could learn that things are better or it also means we could learn
00:45:33.360
things are worse but when you hear about the story we had last week about animal transmission is now
00:45:39.680
happening human to animal to animal and now we have this about reinfection like this is proving
00:45:45.520
that we're in for a long haul because when there's this much uncertainty no one is want to go no one
00:45:50.480
is going to want to claim victory and say all right come on in everybody we got it beat so that's an
00:45:56.720
article it was interesting i won't get into the to the minute details of the medical aspects of that
00:46:02.240
except to say that there's still some uncertainty about this pretty key part which is whether you can get
00:46:06.880
it twice so it's not like herd immunity will necessarily be built up in all of these places
00:46:11.920
that have had an outbreak or that have become the epicenter of the virus so that's important another
00:46:17.200
one and i've had a lot of emails about this people asking about hydroxychloroquine and why no one's
00:46:24.000
talking about it look the fact is i i'm very interested in this we're starting to see now canadians
00:46:32.000
explore this mcgill university researchers are actually looking for patients to test hydroxychloroquine
00:46:38.080
as a treatment for covid19 you've had particular states like michigan for example that have wanted
00:46:43.840
to fast track approval it's a malaria drug that has had it seems like some limited success but it's also
00:46:51.520
in high doses very fatal so what's interesting is that this has become a culture war thing in the us
00:46:58.320
because trump has talked about it because donald trump has mentioned it and had it favorably viewed
00:47:03.520
the fda has now approved it for testing now it's like if you support hydroxychloroquine it's like you
00:47:08.560
support trump so this drug which could be a lifesaver we don't know has now become a part of a culture war
00:47:15.920
instead of something that everyone is getting excited about and it's not a conspiracy theory to say hey
00:47:22.640
try it out when people say why is no one talking about it i don't think that there's a conspiracy
00:47:28.160
to shut it down i i think that there's a lot of uncertainty and in canada people are very reticent
00:47:34.080
with drugs in general i mean everyone around the world waits for the fda to make the first call
00:47:39.040
before going anywhere near it so we are following it we're not ignoring it i'm going to be very interested
00:47:44.800
in seeing what happens in this mcgill study uh a clinical trial so i mean we could have some very good
00:47:49.600
news on the horizon in any case i want to wrap things up we will be back next week for a regular
00:47:55.040
edition of the show but we'll have a special edition of the show on the weekend the last of
00:48:00.560
our series for the time being of interviews with leadership candidates i'll explain why we're doing
00:48:05.360
it in a little preamble for next week's episode but that'll be with leslin lewis in the meantime
00:48:10.480
thank you god bless and stay healthy canada thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show
00:48:15.360
support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news