Hot Takes – Feb 25, 2021
Every Thursday, I join NEWSTALK 1010's Moore in the Morning to take on the issues of the day with a panel of pundits. Here's my take on some of today's topics + others.
1. Federal quarantine regime creates ready-made victims for sex predators. It probably had to happen and now, apparently, it has. A man is charged with sexual assault after a federally-designated quarantine screening officer is alleged to have gone to the home of a woman isolating alone at home, attempted to extort money from her, then assaulted her sexually. Nothing has been proven in court and the man arrested is innocent until proven guilty.
But think about the circumstances. Everyone entering Canada is required to enter into isolation at a location approved by (and therefore known to) government agents. These agents are expected to make random spot-checks to ensure compliance with quarantine regulations. To do this, they know where you are living, they know when you’ll be there (always) and what you look like (so they know it’s actually you answering the door.) It’s a veritable menu of potential victims for a sexual predator.
To extend its reach, the government has contracted with private security companies to do compliance checks – designating their employees as screening and quarantine officers under the law. These employees, of course, are minimum-wage workers who’ve passed a basic criminal records check and the provincial training required for a security guard license. They’re not necessarily secret service material.
The government created this system and is responsible for the safety and security of the victims it has created. The information about these vulnerable victims is in a database somewhere – maybe by now everywhere. Who else has access to this list of targets. Who else is scrolling through photos of potential victims, looking for someone who whets their appetite for sexual violence?
This assault is a red flag. The federal government needs to act right now to fix this security lapse and protect these people it has forced into a vulnerable corner.
2. Mandatory Hotel Jail for travellers? Yeah… you don’t need to do that. A number of travellers arriving at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport are saying “No, thanks” to Justin Trudeau’s demand they lock themselves inside a government-designated airport hotel – at their own expense – for at least three days. The consequence? Apparently, just an $880 fine.
For the math-challenged, that’s about $1,120 cheaper than the government’s you-pay jail stay. Advantage: scofflaw. No wonder many Canadians are doing the math and deciding to disobey a questionable law.
Remember, these are innocent travellers – often Canadian citizens who have an inalienable right of entry – who have already tested negative for #COVID-19 in a pre-boarding test – and again in an arrival rapid test.
I’m OK with the government ordering them to complete quarantine in a government-designated facility. I think it’s wrong. But, I think the government has the authority to order it in an emergency. And, whether you’re isolated at home or in a reasonably equivalent hotel shouldn’t really make much difference.
But, there is no doubt the government has no authority, at any time, in any place, to order any detainee to pay for his or her own detention. That is clearly unconstitutional – and completely unreasonable in a free and democratic society.
Where government feels empowered to pass unreasonable restrictions of rights and freedoms, I would argue private citizens have a civic responsibility to refuse to comply.
3. Who could possibly think the 2021 Olympics will go ahead? Toronto just announced it is cancelling all large public events in the city through to July 1 – at the very least. This seems a reasonable and prudent measure even if lockdowns are partially or wholly lifted in the city before then – as I truly hope they will be. These events take a long time and a lot of money to plan. They rely on international visitors to succeed – visitors from places which may or may not be as far along as we are in beating the bug. Better to cancel them now.
If that’s the case, who in their right mind thinks that hosting a global athletic event in Japan in July is a good idea? The once-already-postponed 2020 Summer Olympic Games is scheduled to begin on July 23. In Tokyo – one of the densest cities on the planet, and one currently reeling from a Third Wave of the COVID-19 virus.
The summer games are expected to gather 11,000 athletes together for two weeks of intense sporting events – interspersed with even more intense partying. Consider the budget for a typical Olympic Games includes spending for 100,000+ condoms to be distributed amongst the athletes who are not normally big fans of “social distancing.”
Add in thousands of coaches, officials, support personnel, national officials, media, and 4,400 Paralympic athletes, and you have a delightfully juicy Petri dish of cross-pollination on a good day. Can we really expect July 23 to be a good day?
4. White Wokers ditch Ryerson name from journal. A group of self-idolizing student journalists, still naïve enough to believe there are jobs waiting for them in the real world, have stripped the “Ryerson” from their class project publication – the “Ryerson Review of Journalism.”
Fifteen students work on the publication. At least 12 of them seem very White (or is it still just “white?) No doubt all of them are very Woke. White Wokers if you will allow the indulgence. I’m sure they believe they’re making an important statement to the world. I’m sure they believe they’re making a passionate stand for the rights of the aggrieved.
No one in the real world has noticed. Because, no one in the real world cares.
Perhaps, they can have the name “Ryerson” removed from their diplomas as well. I’m sure a No Name Degree will serve them just as well.
5. When police break the rules we all suffer. Charges against an Ontario branch of the mafia have been stayed because York Region Police, apparently, broke the law when gathering evidence. Faced with the allegations from defence counsel, the Crown prosecutor investigated and stayed the charges rather than proceeding. Police know the rules. It appears they broke them. As a result, organized crime takes a win and a criminal network goes free to continue victimizing Canadians as before.
The question now is, was this police incompetence? Or, did someone in a police uniform willfully sabotage the case against the mafiosos? This isn’t just a procedural stumble. The public suffers when the police fail to do their jobs the right way. An independent investigation must follow immediately and charges should be laid under the Police Act or Criminal Code against the officers involved – whether they were incompetent or malicious.
The public deserves to know what happened and who has been held accountable. York Police Chief Jim MacSween, York Region Police Services Board members and Solicitor General Sylvia Jones – this is on you.
6. “Racist” conduct by police against police was a leadership failure. When on-duty plainclothes officers are mistaken for perps – regardless of their skin colour – there has been a leadership failure. Watch commanders in the uniformed division should be aware of undercover operations happening in their area of operations. Clearly, this did not happen. Clearing up the confusion should have been a matter of three or four minutes at most – not the 25 it took in this case. The officer’s skin-colour may well have exacerbated the tension and fears and that may be the product of systemic racism, or specific racism on the part of responding officers. Once again, this incident highlights a failure of communication and operational leadership within the York Regional Police.
7. Ontario shortens PSW college program, waives tuition. Some have called it too little, too late, but it’s something now, and that’s better than nothing, for sure. Why do Personal Support Workers require six months of college classes when so much of their job seems the stuff that is best learned on the job?
I mean, how much science or medicine can they be learning if half of them refused to take a COVID-19 vaccine when offered?
Why does everyone now need a degree or diploma to do anything? It’s a bit ridiculous. I’m sure there are many subjects that PSW’s need to know that are best learned in a classroom. But, I can’t think they are too many. After all, they are near minimum-wage employees. If they’re expected to be college-educated experts, they should be paid higher. Most people argue they should be. But, I can’t help the sneaking feeling that as much as the job they perform is essential – maybe we start with people who have a natural empathy for others and teach them what they need to know on the job.
Shortening the formal training time by ¼ and eliminating the cost of education is, at least, a step towards getting them into the workplace faster and cheaper so their wages can be used to pay the costs of living rather than the costs of an education they may never have needed.
8. Ontario to start taking vaccination bookings. What could possibly go wrong with the Ontario government’s plan to set up a new contact centre to take requests for COVID-19 vaccinations and make appointments? The federal government’s attempt to do the same for hotel reservations (for which there were already perfectly functional and efficient existing alternatives in the private sector) was a total disaster. How many hours will you have to wait on hold to book a vaccination appointment at your local pharmacy or with your own family doctor? Ten to 15 hour waits have been commonplace for travellers trying to book COVID hotels. Will Ontario do any better?
What may be complicating matters is the fact there is no effective vaccination tracking system in general use in Ontario. The state of the art in immunization record keeping is a tattered little yellow booklet that parents get when their children are infants – and are supposed to keep safe for the rest of their lives. In Toronto, the Public Health Unit was in the process of trying to migrate these paper records – the definitive copy of which was held by parents not the public health agency – to an electronic record. It’s entirely possible every one of Ontario’s 34 local public health units has a different system. Trying to design a “COVID-19 vaccination portal” that interfaces with 34+ different systems would be a major challenge. If this is the case, it’s just one more example of the complete and utter failure of public health officials in Ontario (and across Canada) to do the work they should have been doing for decades before this pandemic began.
9. Today in “Well obviously!” Of course we should track foreign agents. C’mon. This is a no-brainer. When the government of China – or any other foreign government – pays people in Canada to lobby Canadian governments or activate local populations in the best interest of that foreign government – of course we should be tracking these people! That this hasn’t already been done is an outrage. That there are some within the government – and the broader “establishment” who oppose this is highly suspicious.
Get on with it!
10. Toronto students feel safe in class. Teachers, not so much. Students and parents surveyed by the Toronto District School Board are overwhelmingly comfortable with the COVID-19 safety measures in place in their schools. Just one in five teachers and other school staff, however, feel safe at school. This is likely the result of the virulent campaigning of their union leaders bent fear mongering in order to keep schools closed unless their long-time contract demand for smaller classrooms (i.e. more teachers) are met by government. The union bosses have never been right on this and they’re not right to be using a public health crisis to advance their labour negotiations. It’s wrong. They’re wrong. Period.
11. Mississauga, Brampton gang up on Caledon – again. The proposed GTA West Highway (413) extension will open up Caledon for development and growth within the scope of its provincially-approved Official Plan and the province’s own Places to Grow strategy. Mississauga and Brampton have no interest in seeing Caledon grow as that would upset their control of Peel Region planning – and budgeting – which they routinely use to their own advantage, at the expense of Caledon’s development and independence. This is not about the environment. It’s about regional politics.
12. Dream Unlimited hires dreamers to get something done. If there is anyone who can make sure Toronto developer Dream Unlimited will never get anything off the drawing board or beyond the realm of speculative theory, its two new hires are just the guys. When you want something done, you hire somebody who gets things done. When you want to spend decades marveling at what collects in your navel, you hire academics and Sidewalk Labs alumni. Good luck with that.