On March 21, the Ontario government officially dropped the provincial mask mandate. However, some Canadians aren’t as fortunate.
Much like other Premiers, Doug Ford has adopted the mantra of ‘it’s time to get on with our lives’ in the wake of the Freedom Convoy protest, which was widely popular and signified that Canadians had had enough of anti-science mandates.
“Today marks an important milestone in our fight with COVID. Thanks to your hard work, sacrifice and willingness to rise to the occasion, Ontario is now at a place where we can safely remove the mask mandate in most settings,” Ford wrote in a Tweet.
And it appears Ford is only too happy to remove his face covering, shooting a video early Monday morning in Thunder Bay, completely barefaced.
Of course, it’s clear that Ford never wholly believed in the importance of forced masking, getting caught on more than one occasion flouting his own rules.
However, while things are looking up in Ontario, the BC government has dug its heels in with plans to keep restrictions in place as long as possible.
On March 8, BC Health Minister Adrian Dix said that he stands by the government’s decision to continue discriminating against the unvaccinated via vaccine passports and forcing his constituents to wear face coverings. He rationalizes this decision was made by “following the science.”
“At present, the mask order, the mandatory mask order for indoor public spaces, is in place in BC. It’s the law. People should follow it. At present, the BC vaccine card is in place, and it is enormously successful in British Columbia,” Dix said.
He continues, saying, “… “… You look over the pandemic, there have been fewer changes in BC than other jurisdictions. That effect has been positive.”
If these policies have been so successful at reducing the threat from COVID, is BC the last province to lift restrictions? We may never know.
Of course, the rest of the government decided to go over Dix’s head on this one, announcing the end of the mask mandate only days later. However, BC Premier John Horgan is still promoting their use.
With that said, the discriminatory vaccine passport remains in place until April 8, despite there being no scientific explanation for why it shouldn’t have been removed at the same time as the mask mandate.
Moreover, the province has decided to introduce a communicable disease plan for employers, leaving the door open for an expansion of the policy and future discrimination against the unvaccinated.
