"The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking the law." - Ayn Rand
It is May 17 and in Ontario, we are still in lockdown. Those of us who live in Toronto, have been living under stay-at-home orders for months. The pandemic is more than a year old. We are in wave three but it seems we haven't learned a damned thing. We know a lot more now about how Covid 19 is transmitted than we knew a year ago but our government hasn't been able to create a plan to get us out of this mess. They just keep ordering the same old restrictions, the ones that didn't work in the first place - the very definition of insanity - doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. But this time, it's truly crazy. In the world according to Doug Ford, we all need to just stay home. No leaving our own homes unless it is for an essential reason - grocery shopping, medical appointments or trips to the pharmacy or the liquor store . The other stores are all closed except for curbside pick-up from employees who still have to go to work to walk the merchandise outside. If you work at Amazon, the bank, a law office, an accounting firm, a medical facility or any store or factory or food services company, you are still allowed to go to work. Ditto, daycare workers, special needs teachers, media workers. The rest of us can't go into an almost empty store to do our shopping where our risk is low and easy to mitigate but we can order most anything on Amazon so their workers can crowd together to serve us in unsafe conditions where they've been dropping like flies. Meat packing plants have been petrie dishes of infection as have been factories and high density apartment buildings.
In this latest lockdown, Mr. Ford decided that he would also stop access to outdoor facilities and activities. No outdoor visits or interactions with anyone outside our homes, no golf, no tennis, no basketball. His original list included playgrounds and gave the police wide sweeping powers to stop anyone outside their home at random to question the reason for being out of our homes. The playground and police pieces didn't even last a day. Parents objected loudly and police forces across the province refused to accept their new powers. Medical professionals have spoken out strongly about the other outdoor restrictions. Stopping people from golfing or playing tennis is just stupid but Mr. Ford and his band of covidiots has not been dissuaded from holding fast to a position unfounded in science.
I am a senior citizen and like most Canadians, I have been pretty law-abiding all my life. I will admit that I sometimes exceed the speed limit by five or ten kilometers an hour when driving on the 401 but that is pretty much the limit of my lawlessness - or at least it has been until now. But this last round of nonsensical restrictions has pushed me beyond my limits. For more than a year, I have obeyed all the rules. I don't go into anyone's home or have people in mine. I have not attended any illegal gatherings. I patiently waited for my vaccine appointment - even though I had been advised by several people on how to jump the queue. I am waiting patiently for my second appointment - now in serious question because I got the AstraZeneca shot. I double mask in the grocery store and stay six feet away from the people dropping my art supplies in bins to retrieve for contactless delivery. But enough is enough. Concern for my own mental health and wellbeing won't allow me to isolate from everyone I love. I break the law when I walk over to my sister's place to have coffee and talk in her yard. I break the law when I have tea outside with my neighbour. I break the law when I stand on the walkway and speak to friends who are standing in their doorways accepting my small gifts of pickles and jam. And here in Ontario, those things make this old lady a criminal. So Mr. Ford, congratulations for pushing me to the dark side. Have me fined or arrested if you feel the need.
