Chaotic management of the pandemic is bringing government into disrepute

OTTAWA—The COVID-19 pandemic is enough to give a semanticist fits. As provincial government consultants have gone into overdrive to coin phrases for measures to reduce caseloads, the public is increasingly confused and restive. “Lockdown, shutdown, moveable curfews, circuit breakers, emergency brake”—the lexicon is becoming meaningless. As are the measures themselves. In Ontario’s “emergency brake,” some stores are open, restaurants are not, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme nor reason in who operates and who does not. In Quebec, gyms and restaurants were opened, then closed when cases soared. Curfews were extended, then shortened from region to region. Quebec Premier François Legault mused about allowing family gatherings at Easter, then retreated. In Alberta, the new variants are raising fear of cases crowding intensive care units, but not enough for Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to impose new restrictions. In B.C., home of the “circuit breaker,” the increase of 4,000 cases over the weekend included members of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. Meanwhile, in the Atlantic provinces, money is being saved on communications by closing provincial borders and imposing stringent quarantines to actually reduce the numbers of people with COVID. The motivation for this Balkanized approach to health care has more to do with politics than epidemiology. For elected officials, there is a desperate need to tie the arrival of vaccines with the return to normalcy. There is a saying “the business of government is business”: apparently, it was the concern of mass bankruptcies that kept the Ontario cabinet talking about lockdowns beyond midnight last week. We are taught government works in democratic societies because it is undertaken with the consent of the governed. The classic Liberal philosophers like John Locke and John Stuart Mill emphasized that individual freedom drove the desire to act for mutual benefit. Authoritarian governments like China and Russia are using the pandemic as Exhibit A in their proof democracy doesn't work, because it allows too much individual freedom. While democracies like South Korea, Taiwan, and New Zealand succeeded in stemming COVID, those in the Americas and Europe have produced pitiful results. The federal Liberal government has to be included in this assessment: it has paid out hundreds of billions of dollars more than was necessary to respond to the pandemic, another perfect example of how minority governments spend recklessly to get elected. A few faint voices are beginning to question how Canadians will pay back this enormous debt without severe economic consequences. According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, evidence is inadmissible when it brings the administration of justice into disrepute. I fear we are witnessing democracy itself brought into disrepute by poor management at all levels of government. In Quebec, one of the sore points is the nightly curfew. Columnists in Montreal have taken potshots at the only curfew on the continent, which nightly brings the city to a halt. My cousin Don Ramsey lives in downtown Montreal. Having lived through SARS in Taiwan in 2003, he is assiduous in respecting pandemic protocols, but is frustrated at being unable to go for an evening walk. In his words, “the government should have exhausted all other direct measures before punishing harmless people.” He put his words into action, and drafted a petition to be submitted to the National Assembly. He was astonished his Member, opposition Liberal Jennifer Maccarone, refused to present it. Her office said it was “politically charged.” But petitions are a democratic vehicle for citizens to blow off steam. In a time of crisis, silencing the people is not the best strategy. In the past weeks, there have been demonstrations of thousands of people walking maskless in the streets of our major cities. While many come from the fringes of society, they may be a harbinger of a less deferential populace. One example: health inspectors in Vancouver were given the bum’s rush by the owner and patrons of a restaurant that was openly in violation of pandemic regulations. If authorities fail to be consistent in managing the pandemic, the numbers of the disaffected are bound to increase. Success has to be based on evidence, not clever catchphrases. It may be a political theoretician’s dream to observe citizens as their faith in government declines, but it should be every elected official’s worst nightmare. Andrew Caddell is retired from Global Affairs Canada, where he was a senior policy adviser. He previously worked as an adviser to Liberal governments. He is a fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute and a principal of QIT Canada. He can be reached at pipson52@hotmail.com. The Hill Times