Vincent J. Curtis
11 Sept 20
RE: Ford demands enforcement of quarantine regulations
The above reference is to a new article that appeared in today's Hamilton Spectator.
When you read the statistics contained in the report, Doug Ford’s demand that quarantine regulations be enforced is simply baying at the moon. The story is of what happens when you enact draconian laws while lacking Chinese efficiency.
Between March 25th and September 3rd, over 2.5 million people crossed the Canada-U.S. border, most being essential workers. Being essential means never being ordered to quarantine yourself. Police were asked to check on 87,388 people subject to quarantine, which resulted in zero arrests, one summons, and forty-two tickets. Ford is complaining about lack of Federal charges, which carry heavier penalties.
The problem here is scale. The judicial system couldn’t handle 87,000 new criminal cases in less than six months. The distinction between essential and non-essential is arbitrary, and the Crown having to explain why dope and liquor stores (and their employees) are essential while priests and churches are not will not go well.
Another problem is the practicality of the lockdown itself. It isn’t sustainable beyond 48 hours without trucking, petrochemicals for fuel, electrical power, food services, water, health care services, and so on, creating such large holes in the lockdown that it obviates the purpose. The exemptions prove the concept to be impractical.
Then, there’s the mindset of enacting draconian laws and hammering people for not obeying. At a certain point, people rebel, seeing no purpose to it, and no amount of shaming is going to work either. The government doesn’t have the muscle now to hammer all the people disobeying all these new masters and their orders.
Something else should have been thought of to deal with the crisis because the law and punishment model isn’t working any more.
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