Juno News - When will Canada drop all COVID-19 restrictions？

00:00:00.000 I'm finding it increasingly difficult to have discussions about particular COVID-19

00:00:10.360 restrictions, rules, and mandates here in Canada. Whether just chatting with people or via

00:00:16.300 correspondence, going on the talk radio programs I go on, there's a whole bunch of things that we

00:00:20.940 can discuss. The mask mandates, the trucker vaccine mandate, very controversial, different

00:00:25.700 rules that are out there. And I find it difficult because I'm no longer really interested in getting

00:00:32.160 lost in the weeds on all of these particular issues. Because when you stand back and look at

00:00:37.760 the big picture, it's kind of clear right now that they all have to go. All of the broad-based rules,

00:00:45.260 all of the rigid overbearing restrictions. Maybe people are going to choose to wear masks when the

00:00:50.580 mask mandate ends. In jurisdictions where there are no mask mandates, a lot of people choose

00:00:54.860 to wear masks. That's fine. But increasingly, we're moving towards a direction where jurisdictions

00:01:00.020 all across the world are dropping all of their COVID-19 rigid rules. People are doing personal

00:01:06.500 choice. They are choosing to still follow certain precautions. But the rules are dropping away.

00:01:12.700 You're still allowed to wear a mask in these places. Of course, it's not illegal to wear a mask.

00:01:16.720 But it's no longer legal to not wear a mask. And here's the thing. This perspective that we've got

00:01:22.840 to do away with pretty much all of these rules, that is increasingly becoming the mainstream

00:01:28.240 position. It is the mainstream position. Prominent public health officials have basically been saying

00:01:34.020 this. Dr. Bonnie Henry saying the other day, we now have to treat COVID-19 like we would influenza

00:01:40.880 or other seasonal viruses. Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer, saying we got to learn to live

00:01:47.160 with this, saying we've had two years of fear that have led to sometimes excessive rules that maybe

00:01:52.960 we didn't need. These are the chief medical officers saying these very things. Now, part of the challenge,

00:01:57.880 and I've heard people's frustrations and reaction to what these medical officers have said, it's not

00:02:02.620 like they said these things and then immediately got rid of all of the rules. Dr. Bonnie Henry said that,

00:02:07.180 and yet vaccine passport is still in place. People are very frustrated with that. I think part of what's

00:02:12.620 going on right now is public health officials are now kind of working to walk people back a bit,

00:02:17.940 to de-radicalize them. Because we know in parts of Canada, particularly where I am at in Ontario,

00:02:23.580 we have such a regressive, restrictive response compared to so many other jurisdictions. It is

00:02:29.940 just flat out embarrassing. But people are deeply fixated on it. I mean, I think for some people,

00:02:35.280 the idea of the mask mandate ending, they're going to have a problem dealing with that. And I kind of

00:02:40.460 feel for them because the trauma for some people is very real, but that's no excuse to not do it.

00:02:46.720 We have to do it. We have to proceed. We have to move forward. So it's interesting to see where the

00:02:52.580 conversation is at right now. And as I said at the beginning, when someone wants to talk about the

00:02:57.600 particulars of the trucker vaccine mandate and the percentage of truckers that are and aren't

00:03:01.620 vaccinated, and maybe we can revise this rule and maybe revise that rule. Okay, fine. I guess we can

00:03:06.680 talk about the particulars and tweak this and tweak that, or we can just do what so many other

00:03:12.100 jurisdictions are doing and do away with the whole thing entirely.

Juno News - January 29, 2022