Federal COVID Response

Adrian O'Connell | Nov 25, 2020

Dear Mr. Trudeau, while aware of your justified hesitance and admirable restraint, with respect to the use of emergency powers, given your late father's invocation of the War Measures Act in Quebec during the October Crisis, it is now  long past time to invoke at least some emergency measures for the good of us all, in particular, our elderly, bearing in mind the disasters now unfolding in our society.

After largely wasting the opportunity of a summer respite to prepare for the predictable second wave, the Ford government in this province (along with several other provincial governments) has dithered and sat on billions of dollars of federal funds while at the same time pushing through rafts of nefarious legislation like Bill 218 in Ontario, designed to let negligent long term care operators off the hook by protecting them from lawsuits.

In the meantime, citizens of this province are being treated to a daily torrent of vacuous platitudes and crocodile tears from Ford about how "heartbroken" he is about business hardships and how the front line medics and health workers whom he continues to neglect are "heroes".

The health care system in Canada was already stretched thin long before this pandemic, as a result of constant cutbacks over the years, instituted by successive governments, including Liberal, at all levels and we can not wait until the system breaks down completely, which is what is happening now as hospitals become overloaded.

Your earlier declarations that your government would "do whatever it takes", at whatever cost was necessary, to support Canadians though this crisis, will ring hollow and reflect badly on your legacy, as evidenced by the thousands of lives which will be lost, should you fail to initiate corrective measures at this time, which many of our provincial leaders are either too timid or ideologically hidebound to implement.

And, as you are no doubt aware, Covid 19 will not wait long for your decision.

Adrian O'Connell