No Such Thing as Common Sense

Last Friday, November 13, marked the eighth month since the COVID-19 lockdown in Ottawa. Two Friday the Thirteenths, one global pandemic.

Remember when we were young and naive, when we thought we'd lock ourselves away for three or four weeks—six at the most—and then life would go back to normal? We'd keep our distance from one another, wash our hands, and use hand sanitizer? As more evidence of the situation came to light, we learned that we should wear masks when indoors or when a two-metre distance from strangers was hard to maintain?

Good times.

The federal government told us that it had our backs, that they would help us through the rough patch were we couldn't go to work, and billions were spent in relief initiatives.

Whew.

But the provincial government grew wary of the lockdown, was eager to help struggling businesses get back on their feet, and so restaurants, pubs, gyms, and other social gathering spots opened up. And the summer was nice, so people went out and had a good time.

And the number of cases of infected people went up and up.

Crap.

The federal government, at the start of relief measures, gave the Ontario provincial government a lot of money to help with relief. And since June, Doug Ford has been sitting on $9.3B of that relief. All the while, letting restaurants and gyms stay open.

Fuck.

When the number infected rises and people are not following the recommendations of the health experts, Ford has simply said that he's disappointed, and that those people should stop this irresponsible behaviour.

Essentially, wagging his finger.

We took stronger measures eight months ago when the total number of cases for the country was lower than the daily cases for a single city. Meanwhile, I haven't been able to hug my mother. Only my immediate family and I had dinner together on Thanksgiving. I haven't been able to get together with friends. I've kept away from pubs and restaurants.

Because I want the pandemic to end.

We're not flattening the curve.

We need a mandatory lockdown of all non-essential services. The Ontario government needs to spend that relief money to help businesses forced to close their doors. We need to implement a curfew, where people need to stay home unless they need groceries.

Tough fines need to be issued to those who break curfew.

Let's do this for six weeks.

If we had these strict measures at the beginning, we would likely be in a much better situation than we are now. But the government has taken inaction, opting to rely on people's common sense for being out in public. The problem is, there's no such thing as common sense.

If there are no firm regulations, if there are only guidelines, people will try to get away with as much as they can.

I'm tired of this pandemic. I want it to end. But unless the provincial government cracks down, we can kiss Christmas and New Year's Eve goodbye.

You're supposed to be a leader, Doug Ford. Lead.

Your number-one priority is to work toward the end of COVID. Businesses and the economy come second. Because without the first priority, the rest just won't matter.

I've been a good boy.