Canadians are more anxious than ever about COVID-19, but who can blame them? The facts about COVID-19 are not being discussed enough.
The reality is we’ve been dealing with the virus since March and we’ve learned so much about it – we know who the most vulnerable are, how it spreads and what precautions to take.
Anthony Furey says more Canadians will calm down if the facts are discussed more frequently.
Gander International Airport in Newfoundland is among several airports essentially shut down after a slew of service cuts from Air Canada.
Citing reduced loads due to the coronavirus pandemic and government travel restrictions, Air Canada announced it will end service to Gander, St. John’s and Goose Bay in Newfoundland, Sydney, N.S., as well as Saint John and Fredericton, N.B. effective January 23. The move comes as the airline lays off 1,700 staff across Canada.
“The new year continues to hold bad news for our sector,” Gander International Airport Authority CEO Reg Wright said. “Tightened federal and provincial travel restrictions are choking off the little bit of travel demand there is.”
The move leaves few options for the thousands of Newfoundlanders working in essential jobs in western Canada to travel between home and work.
A small regional carrier is running routes between Gander and Goose Bay and Halifax, but service reductions are affecting these airports as well, posing challenges for anyone wishing to connect to the mainland.
“There’s one thing you need as an airport in Newfoundland and Labrador, and that is you need daily service to mainland Canada. That is absolutely fundamental for an airport to have any prospect of success,” Wright said.
Gander’s airport has a long history. Its location made it crucial to the Allied war effort in WWII.
When American airspace was closed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 38 flights and over 6,500 people were redirected to Gander and taken in by the small town, whose residents opened their homes to diverted travellers.
The community’s hospitality was celebrated in the hit Broadway musical Come From Away.
Many airports in Canada are operating at as little as 15% of their total capacity due to travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders across Canada.
Yellowknife, N.W.T. and British Columbia’s Prince Rupert and Kamloops have also been dropped from Air Canada’s service offerings.
As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, the number of health experts and medical professionals speaking out against the use of lockdowns is growing.
To date, thousands of doctors and specialists have taken a stand against the use of lockdowns. However, governments across Canada have continued to plunge Canadians into further lockdowns.
Five experts sign response arguing against “indefensible” lockdowns
Earlier this month, five medical professionals published a response in the Canadian Medical Association Journal urging for an end to sweeping lockdowns.
The experts included two respirologists, a medical microbiologist and two infectious diseases specialists.
“It is impossible to accurately describe the social and economic impact for all people,” they wrote.
“Places with heavy lockdowns and severe limitations of economic activity have still seen high case transmission continue despite these measures. Furthermore, having moderate rates of transmission correlates with little, if any excess mortality.”
20 Ontario doctors sign open letter arguing against a return to lockdowns
In October 2020, 20 doctors and professors of medicine urged Ontario Premier Doug Ford to not plunge the province into a second lockdown.
“We are writing this letter in support of the government’s plan to use a tactical localized approach, rather than sweeping new lockdown measures, to deal with the increasing COVID case numbers in Ontario,” claimed the letter.
“Lockdowns have been shown not to eliminate the virus. While they slow the spread of the virus, this only lasts as long as the lockdown lasts. This creates a situation where there is no way to end the lockdown, and society cannot move forward in vitally important ways including in the health sector, the economy and other critically important instrumental goods including education, recreation, and healthy human social interactions.”
WHO official argues against the use of lockdowns as primary control method
In October 2020, the Special Envoy on COVID-19 for the World Health Organization, Dr. David Nabarro urged world governments to avoid using lockdowns as the “primary control method” against the coronavirus.
“We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,” said Dr. Nabarro.
“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”
Thousands of world scientists sign declaration denouncing harmful effects of coronavirus policies
To date, over 13,200 medical and public health scientists have signed the Great Barrington Declaration calling for an end to lockdowns.
Signatories include health experts from all around the world. Over two dozen Canadian doctors, professors and scientists have signed the document so far.
“Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice,” claims the declaration.
“Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.”
Ontario physician calls for an end to “harmful and illogical” lockdowns
In August 2020, Ontario doctor and President of Concerned Ontario Doctors, Kulvinder Gill Kaur, took to Twitter to call for an end to the province’s strict lockdowns.
“There is absolutely no medical or scientific reason for this prolonged, harmful and illogical lockdown. #FactsNotFear,” tweeted Kaur.
St. Michael’s Toronto doctor speaks out against additional lockdown
In October 2020, the head of Internal Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital, Dr. Robert Sargeant spoke out against additional lockdowns and claimed that the better solution was to focus on high-risk areas.
“I am not for additional broad lockdowns. We need to be looking at high-risk individuals in high-risk settings and focusing our energy on that,” said Dr. Sargeant.
Infectious disease and critical care expert raises the alarm about lockdown’s effects on the economy
Dr. Ari Joffe from the Stollery Children’s Hospital at the University of Alberta expressed his concern last year that the lockdown approach will have a negative effect on future generations economically.
“I’m truly worried the (lockdown) approach is going to devastate economies and the future for our children and our grandchildren,” said Dr. Joffe.
Queen’s University medical school professor and MD says lockdowns don’t work
Dr. Matt Strauss who is also a professor at Queen’s University medical school has been a strong advocate against lockdowns. According to Strauss, lockdowns have been proven to be ineffective and have caused great social harms.
“Lockdown is high-risk and of no proven benefit. Standard laws of medical evidence demand that we stop prescribing it,” tweeted Strauss.
Environmental activists have been lobbying universities and pension funds to divest from Canada’s energy sector, not for economic reasons, but ideological ones. Last month, former Toronto Stock Exchange market intelligence head Gina Pappano launched a new group, InvestNow, to dispel the myths and misinformation from the anti-oil activists and encourage investment rather than divestment.
She joined The Andrew Lawton Show to discuss InvestNow, and why it’s necessary.
York Centre MPP Roman Baber has been ejected from the PC caucus after he opposed the government’s latest lockdown measures.
On Friday morning, Premier Ford put out a statement saying that Baber’s opposition to lockdowns put Ontarians’ lives at stake.
“I will not jeopardize a single Ontarian’s life by ignoring public health advice,” Ford said.
“There is no room for political ideology in our fight against COVID-19. Rather, our response has been and will always be driven by evidence and data.
“Furthermore, Mr. Baber has put himself ahead of his PC caucus team, who have worked around the clock for months to support and protect the people of Ontario through this public health crisis.”
Just hours earlier, Baber wrote an open letter to Ford calling for an end to lockdowns. Baber claims the lockdowns have led to a spike in suicides, bankruptcies and divorces and he says ICU capacity is actually better than before the pandemic.
“The medicine is killing the patient,” Baber wrote.
Earlier this week, Ontario enacted a second state of emergency, requiring everyone to stay at home except for going to work and accessing essential services.
Baber is required to join another party or sit as an independent, Ford has barred him from running as a PC candidate in the next election.
Ford similarly removed MPP Belinda Karahalios after she voted against a bill which gave Ford unprecedented power to issue new emergency orders.
Human rights activist and former Liberal attorney general Irwin Cotler is calling on the Canadian government to take action to prevent government officials from working for China after leaving office.
Cotler made the remarks on Thursday during a panel discussion on Chinese human rights abuses hosted by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
“We’ve instituted in Canada certain restraints and regulations with respect to parliamentarians being able to lobby the Canadian government after their retirement from office. Since we have those kinds of initiatives which we have already instituted with respect to domestic lobbying, I think we can certainly explore, and at the very least have transparency, with regard to engagement with foreign countries, particularly, when we are dealing with countries that may be part of a pattern of gross human rights violations,” said Cotler.
Cotler, who has been a leading voice on confronting China, has also called for the government to punish those Chinese officials who played a role in covering up the extent of the coronavirus during the early stages of the pandemic.
Critics have slammed several former senior government officials who have gone to work for Chinese companies upon retiring from public service.
Among those implicated with having done work for Chinese organizations after leaving office is disgraced former Canadian ambassador to China John McCallum.
During a 2020 testimony before the Commons committee on Canada-China relations, McCallum denied ever receiving money from the Chinese government but did admit to taking a paid consulting job for various Chinese companies.
Last year it was revealed that former Quebec premier Jean Charest took a job advising the Chinese tech giant Huawei on the extradition trial of the company’s CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is wanted by US authorities for violating sanctions on Iran.
Cotler and others of a like mind have also proposed that Magnitsky-style sanctions should also be imposed on any individuals or businesses that have participated in China’s varying human rights abuses. Magnitsky sanctions refer to the Sergei Magnitsky Law adopted by Canada in 2017 to punish international human rights offenders by freezing assets or banning them from entering the country.
“You can’t on the one hand have Magnitsky sanctions seeking justice and accountability but at the same time say former parliamentarians and even worse government ministers can instantly begin to engage with those that are being targeted for Magnitsky sanctions. I think this is something that is worth exploring and in fact developing codes of conduct in that regard,” said Cotler.
The Trudeau government will introduce new regulations to combat “offensive content and hate speech” on social media in 2021.
According to a document from the Department of Canadian Heritage obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, the government promises new rules to scrub Facebook and Twitter of content it deems offensive.
“We intend a comprehensive approach with the tabling of a bill in early 2021 that will apply to the various platforms,” staff wrote in a briefing note.
“We are working to introduce regulations to reduce the spread of illegal content, including hate speech, in order to promote a safer and more inclusive online environment. We want to protect Canadians online.”
The Trudeau government has been promising some form of internet censorship since before the 2019 federal election. In 2020, the government began studying specific methods to combat hate speech online and proposed new restrictions for streaming services.
“Social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter are increasingly central to participation in democratic, cultural and public life,” Heritage Canada wrote.
“However, social media platforms can also be used to threaten, intimidate, bully and harass people, or used to promote racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, misogynist and homophobic views that target communities, put people’s safety and risk and undermine Canada’s social cohesion or democracy.”
In September, the Department of Justice was looking for “legal remedies” to fight offensive and unregulated speech online, which presumably includes punishments for offending individuals.
After the province of Ontario enacted a second state of emergency, businesses deemed non-essential are now forced to cease curb-side pickup and close by 8 p.m. However, the new rules continue to make exceptions for big-box stores and large retailers.
The Director of Provincial Affairs Ontario for the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) Julie Kwiecinski says that the root of the issue is the unfairness of the new rules.
“Small business owners just found out yesterday that big box retailers are permitted to stay open past 8 p.m. so long as they provide a full range of groceries,” said Kwiecinski told True North.
“Our members are incredibly disappointed.”
The CFIB received a letter from the provincial government confirming large retailers can stay open past the curfew, a privilege not afforded to entrepreneurs.
“This government says it defends small business. We don’t understand how they can tell us it’s safer to go to a giant Walmart with lots of people, instead of a small business with stringent protocols in place,” said Kwiecinski.
“The government has not been able to provide any evidence to substantiate that what it’s doing will make COVID numbers go down.”
Under the new order, businesses are also no longer permitted to make deliveries themselves. By being forced to use couriers, this adds to the mounting financial pressure independent businesses are facing through the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns.
In a press release, Minister at the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development Monte McNaughton thanked businesses for operating responsibly and promised to punish those who operate outside the guidelines.
“Where we find an employer who has been acting in bad faith, we won’t hesitate to take action by immediately slapping them with a ticket and a fine. There will be real consequences for those who break the rules,” said McNaughton
Individuals and businesses can be fined $750 for not following the rules and $1000 for preventing others from doing so.
The provincial government has set maximum fines at $100,000 for individuals and $10 million for corporations. The government has also warned of prosecution and a year in jail for non-compliance.
Despite Ontario’s new stay-at-home order and facing several coronavirus charges, Waterloo’s Trinity Bible Chapel intends to continue offering people hope through the pandemic.
“The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a vital place of hope in this world of despair. With the devastation that these new orders will bring, we see even more reason for the Church to be open so that we can offer eternal hope and love to a world in chaos,” Senior Pastor Jacob Reaume told True North.
“While we desire to honour our governing officials, the government’s actions against our church are perceived as a heavy-handed breach of trust. How the government can regain trust from otherwise peaceful and productive citizens I do not know.”
“Our government has trampled upon the sacred by forcibly severing us from divine worship and Christian fellowship.”
Reaume is among six pastors and church elders who have been repeatedly charged under the Reopening Ontario Act for holding church services contrary to provincial coronavirus health regulations.
The charges carry maximum fines of $100,000 and a one year prison term for individuals, while the church organization itself could face a maximum fine of $10,000,000 if found guilty of breaking the law.
According to Reaume, churchgoers have expressed concerns with how Ontario’s new orders have disrupted church education programs and have increased the struggle for young mothers facing postpartum depression.
“I am particularly concerned about the many young moms with little babies. Postpartum depression is real, and during the darkest and coldest time of the year even that much more of a concern, nevermind the additional burden of living under an oppressive government that tells people not to socialize or sing and pray together at church,” said Reaume.
Since the charges were handed down to the church, they have retained legal representation with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF). After considering a number of factors and obtaining legal advice from the JCCF, Trinity Bible Chapel will temporarily refrain from holding in-person gatherings and will offer drive-in services in the meantime. It will reassess the situation again over the next few weeks.
“The Justice Centre is acting for numerous churches and their leaders around southern Ontario, since our mandate is to defend Canadians’ fundamental freedoms even, and especially, during a crisis when civil liberties are drastically curtailed,” JCCF lawyer Lisa Bildy told True North.
“There is a balancing of harms that must be undertaken, particularly as the adverse impacts of the lockdown restrictions on mental and physical health continue to mount. So far, the Ford government has not been put to that test in court.”
According to Reaume, since the first charges were delivered to the homes of church members, bylaw officers have visited the church again on at least two different occasions.
“They visited the church the following Sunday with by-law officers. Since then, we have only had interaction with by-law,” said Reaume.
Under the new stay-at-home order, Bildy says that 29 exceptions are listed, including weddings, funerals or religious services.
Ontario has imposed a sweeping stay-at-home order, except businesses, individuals and law enforcement can’t figure out what’s expected of them while the order is in place. True North’s Andrew Lawton says the only thing worse than the province-wide house arrest is the lack of clarity surrounding it. Also, the Trudeau government wants to regulate social media speech.
Plus, InvestNow’s Gina Pappano joins the show to explain how anti-oil activists are targeting Canada’s energy sector – and how we can fight back.
