No this doesn’t concern any of the topics I have recently commented on. I have already offered an apology for using the term “bitching and moaning” at a board meeting, and I don’t think Andrew will be getting any type of thank you, much less an apology.
The apology I am suggesting should be offered to Dr. Jim Chirico the Medical Officer of Health for the North Bay Parry Sound Health Unit. The people who should seriously consider apologizing are our local politicians and some of our local business leaders.
I have been quiet about the whole COVID-19 situation, but I have been following it closely, more as part of my professional activities than as a spectator sport. For fun I prefer to watch American politics. Anyone else miss Donald Trump? Watching him operate was like watching a 5-year-old trying to land a Boeing 747. Lots of confidence but no experience or natural ability to succeed. I am actually getting quite a bit more work done now that he is not coming up with his entertaining daily demonstrations of narcissism.
Have you looked at our COVID-19 infection and death figures relative to the other districts and municipalities? Do you remember when Dr. Chirico imposed certain restrictions when he first saw evidence of COVID-19 variants in our district? There was a howl from businesses and the public that resonated with the politicians who demanded he meet with them weekly to discuss the situation and explain his decisions. How about we have a similar forum where the politicians meet with the public on a weekly basis to answer our questions and criticisms? Yes, we have deputations, but all the politicians have to do is listen and then conclude the presentation with a simple mention that they will take the input under consideration. What if they or staff had to answer on the spot or provide a written response within a week? I am sure they would feel that this was an unreasonable questioning of their authority.
But when it comes to public health, everyone, and that includes politicians, public, and businesses, is willing to question the medical professionals from the perspective of what they have read online and their friends have posted on Facebook.
Perhaps an apology is too much to ask, a simple thank you would be appropriate. It’s no fun putting restrictions in place. It’s so much easier to let the kids play video games and watch YouTube rather than convince or coerce them into doing their homework. But like a responsible medical officer or parent you have to provide leadership with longer term considerations in mind. Short term pain is often required for long term gain.
Disclosure: I am still annoyed by the response of the Town of Parry Sound Council when it came to the fluoridation issue and their lack of leadership. I am sure that if you put COVID-19 restrictions to a vote we would have no restrictions. Voting on public health issues is not in the best interests of the community but it keeps voters happy and supporting the politicians when election time rolls around. Better to trust the professionals.
8 Comments
April 17, 2021 at 11:25 pm
I’ve stated several times that Parry Sound may be in such good shape because of the restrictions from our health unit.
Our businesses have certainly been devastated, mine included, but my family is safe.
Who knows how long we will have to curtail our developed habits and social interactions?
I’m trusting the experts and not the knee-jerkers.
April 18, 2021 at 8:57 am
That’s the mature and experienced attitude towards this pandemic. Resilient businesses can bounce back. It’s not possible to bounce back from the grave. From what I have read surviving a severe case of COVID-19 is a horribly traumatic experience, like drowning on dry land. Many people have reported that they wished they could just die to get over the suffering.
If the Province and our District didn’t impose what are considered by some to be ‘unreasonable’ restrictions we would be using the Bobby Orr Community Centre as an overflow Centre for hospitalized patients. I saw photos of one hospital in the south U.S. where they had converted the top floor of an adjoining parking garage to house overflow patients who needed hospitalization but didn’t require the most intensive care.
It’s so easy to assume that the suffering of others is not as bad as yours.
The people who are perhaps most traumatized are the kids and schooling. This might be the type of validation the District needs to rationalize investing in proper broadband coverage to make sure everyone can get instruction and learn online.
Disclosure – I very rarely eat in restaurants in the best of times so it’s not much of a loss for me personally and local stores other than the grocery store and pharmacy, have never stocked the materials that I need or want.
April 18, 2021 at 5:18 pm
In a democracy, an unelected official with no accountability to the people should not have broad powers to limit basic rights which would normally be counted as constitutionally enshrined.
I suspect most people did not realise that a public health official would have that kind of authority in an emergency situation. I know I was surprised by it.
It’s entirely normal for people to object to an obscure person they had likely never even heard of before suddenly being given such control over their lives.
It’s also a clear breach of how democracy should work.
You happen to agree with his ends, so you’re conveniently not bothered by his means. If he was handing out decrees with which you disagreed, I suspect we’d hear a lot more, ahem, bitching and moaning about the democratic process.
You are right that leaders are supposed to lead, and that often that will mean making the hard decisions that are best for the people even if the people disagree. That’s what leaders do. But leaders are also supposed to be elected.
April 18, 2021 at 6:41 pm
Oh, I so do love libertarians.
And I guess that police have no right to make arrests and child care has no right to remove a child from an unsafe or abusive situation? There are lots of professionals we give the right to take action on our behalf on the basis of their training, their scope of responsibilities, and best assessment of a situation. These folks are more likely to make a good decision than internet educated trolls. They also are likely to be held to account for their actions. Their authority is given by the people we elect. Fortunately these elected folks, the leaders as you like to think of them, realize that they are often totally unqualified to offer an opinion on any number of topics and delegate the authority.
It seems to work, at least until the elected folks start to think that doing the right thing may impact their reelection prospects. or they can’t stand the pressure of doing the right thing. With great power comes great responsibility. Some elected officials don’t realize this until they are in the thick of it and they just give up. It’s actually not a game, it’s a question of life and death.
April 18, 2021 at 7:30 pm
Wait, so I disagree with Dr. Chirico and so now you’re trying to position me with the child abusers? You weren’t kidding when you said you missed American style politics, we’re you Jo!
And I’m not sure what libertarianism has to do with it, I voted green and Ndp in the last couple elections.
You are correct, of course, that our elected leaders delegate all kinds of authority to unelected officials. That’s perfectly normal.
But – and for such a detailed person you seem to be carelessly skipping some important words I wrote – those are typically not, as I said, broad or an encroachment on basic rights.
For example, yes, the police are given certain powers, but they are not broad or general. Rather, they are specific and strictly regulated. A police officer cannot walk into a domestic situation and just do whatever his own personal judgement suggests. He can only do what is specifically prescribed in the law – the law written by elected representatives of the people.
Nor do such powers typify apply to basic rights, but rather they typically come into play with matters of choice. For example, if I do not want a police officer exercising his authority over me, I have a very easy way to avoid it: just don’t break the law. I have no similar avenue out from under the thumb of Dr. Chirico – merely by waking up in the morning I am subject to his restrictions.
I doubt I need to tell you that the very definition of democracy is that power rests with the people. If the buck does not stop with the people’s elected representative, then it simply is not democratic.
I would propose that either Dr. Chirico’s powers should be appropriately limited, or his position should be elected.
April 18, 2021 at 8:07 pm
You made the link. Freudian? I merely suggested that non-elected officials have the authority to step in and act in any number of situations, which was at the crux of your original argument.
Actually you have the same rights under a medical order as you do with respect to the police. The health rules are made for a reason as are the rules of law as they apply to policing. The difference is that the health rules are enacted for a defined period and generally very clearly outlined and publicized.
And don’t tell me or any person of aboriginal descent that the police do not have broad authority to do whatever they want, or as little as they want, regardless of the law.
If you are in your backyard and the police believe there is a ‘shooter’ in the neighborhood and order you to go inside and lock your doors are they infringing on your rights? They are of course doing it with certain vague authority for your own protection.
Health officials have for decades had, and exercised, the right to quarantine. This is much the same. It seems that border officials can also require quarantine.
I could go on. There are times when a public health situation trumps, oh I so do miss that entertainment, what some people feel are their individual rights.
I would also make the case that there are times when unelected public officials should have the right to overrule an elected official. Just look south of the border for the past four years, and the elected official of note didn’t even have the support of the majority of the population. Are our judges elected? They seem to decide just about everything based on their experience and their own interpretation of the law.
Someone it seems wishes they were back in graduate school debating issues that have no real consequence. You could start your own blog you know, it’s fun most of the time.
Okay, then let’s just be thankful we have a Dr. Chirico even if we can’t muster the good sense to actually thank him.
April 18, 2021 at 8:25 pm
Are you seriously suggesting that the abuse of power by some police with first Nations can be used as a precedent for justifying giving broad powers to Dr. Chirico?
Sounds like someone should have spent a little more time in grad school practicing their arguments.
In any case, I’ll leave the blogging to experts such as yourself.
April 19, 2021 at 8:38 am
You sure like to change the topic of discussion, don’t you?
The police mention was to address your statement “the police are given certain powers, but they are not broad or general. Rather, they are specific and strictly regulated.” Your choice did not seem to me a good example of how policing can be used in a discussion of public health policy.
The point is that groups are assigned certain powers that they use largely at their discretion. This includes public health officers. The are answerable ultimately to elected officials and the medical community.
One point in the original post was that having elected officials, often with a public relations and election bias, weigh in on public health is not a great idea. Just take a look at the past U.S. administration’s actions to interfere in public health policy and how many deaths and how much suffering resulted. Even now we are getting reports how politically appointed managers in that administration distorted policy and findings to support their political and business interests.
None of us are as dumb as we would like to think we are smart.