FUREY: Canada still needs inquiries, commissions, into our COVID response & More News Here

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It’s good to not have to consider COVID-19 on a regular basis as of late. People don’t actually speak about it a lot anymore.

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The anticipated hostility between the masked and unmasked by no means materialized. It was all a social media creation. People have been easygoing and respectful of one another’s decisions. As for the division of society into locations that do and don’t require voluntary vaccine passports, that by no means actually occurred both.

Nowadays, the information {that a} neighbour or buddy has come down with the as soon as feared virus elicits a shrug or some joke about “welcome to the club.” For most individuals, their household COVID story is an uneventful nothing-burger.

Given all of this, the concept of completely ghosting away from COVID is interesting. Whatever your perspective, no matter your expertise, the previous two years have been exhausting. For some, it’s even been traumatizing. It could be good to suppose we will simply be completed with all of it and put it behind us.

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But we will’t.

We can’t neglect that there have been some actually loopy issues that went down. Like how public well being officers informed mother and father that if their babies had been deemed shut contacts of somebody who later examined constructive for the virus the child wanted to be saved in a separate room away from household for 14 days. Or how there have been retirement house residents who opted for assisted suicide relatively than endure extra lockdowns. Absolute atrocities that ought to have by no means occurred. The listing goes on.

And these are simply the federal government edicts. There’s additionally the broader social results. The stress cooker mindset that, because of the frenzied information protection and social media tone, engulfed so many individuals led to tragic splits inside households and amongst buddies when views on COVID diverged. Hopefully time has begun to heal these wounds.

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Yes, the virus was and stays fairly critical for some high-risk classes. But did we actually must have safety take away the one man who simply didn’t wish to put on a masks on the grocery retailer? Was there actually an excellent motive to fireside an worker — who was working from house anyway! — as a result of, for no matter motive, the particular person didn’t wish to obtain a vaccine? Looking again on it now, absolutely many individuals have come round to see that a whole lot of what occurred was overkill.

Yet to this point there haven’t been any formal inquiries or investigations introduced by any degree of presidency in Canada to probe our virus response, although we routinely convene such issues for occasions of lesser significance.

It is sensible that there isn’t the political will for it. There haven’t been any main changeovers of presidency previously two years, so a politician would principally must announce that they’re investigating themselves.

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Don’t count on, say, Ontario Premier Doug Ford to analyze why it’s he did not fulfil his early pledge to create an “iron ring of protection” round long-term care amenities or why his authorities thought it was a good suggestion to ask the cops to conduct random stops of motorists within the spring of 2021.

We still must push for these investigations although. Why was it that, in Ontario, the complete province supposedly wanted to be shut down as soon as the COVID ICU occupancy quantity, together with incidental admissions, hit 300? What kind of Mickey Mouse jurisdiction operates that means? What precisely had been all of the very well-paid senior well being bureaucrats doing?

These are the types of issues that still must be aired out. A complete techniques failure shouldn’t be one thing you possibly can simply shrug off after the actual fact.

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We’re approaching the all too brief Canadian summer season and, then, hopefully our first regular fall in a few years. It could be good to simply get on with our lives. Besides, the very best revenge resides nicely.

But there stay wrongs that should be made proper. There are inquiries to be answered about errors that had been made. Canadians still deserve accountability.

Check out the Postmedia podcast Full Comment with Anthony Furey — the place you’ll discover participating function conversations with fascinating Canadians, together with latest episodes with Conservative management candidates Pierre Poilievre, Leslyn Lewis and Roman Baber.