Use of masks should be mandatory across Ontario

Re Making masks mandatory is not a civil liberties issue, Opinion, June 24

I live in Centre Wellington, where the medical officer of health made face masks mandatory to enter every business a day before we moved to Stage 2 reopening. As far as I have observed, everyone complied.

Last Sunday, I made the trip to a bigbox store in Kitchener, which is in a region that has not made masks mandatory. I didn’t see anyone in the store wearing a mask — not customers nor employees.

I’m sure there are some people wearing masks in Kitchener and some not wearing them in Centre Wellington and Guelph, but when they are required, the majority wear them and it is safer for all of us.

Make them mandatory. Sandra Hennessey, Fergus, Ont.

“Making masks mandatory is not a civil liberties issue.” I heartily agree. Why the reluctance to apply a “no mask, no service” policy?

Substitute “shirt” or “shoes” for “mask” and you have the universal condition for admission to bars and restaurants.

If our governments won’t act, business owners can and should. Paul Collier, Toronto

Clearly society’s right to be free from death justifiably overrides an individual’s freedom to choose a lifestyle.

Actually, under the current laws no rights are absolute.

An individual cannot choose to drive while not wearing a seatbelt, while not having insurance, or while drunk.

Yet some libertarian extremists, of absolute free choice above all rights, insist that the dangerous behaviour of not wearing a mask in public should not be legally restrained.

If society allowed such an unmasking exception, then it would contradict the spirit and the letter of those laws, premised on the fact that a society’s right to protect itself can legally overrule personal free choice. Tony D’Andrea, Toronto

As a teenager, many years ago, I remember the righteous indignation of a smoker blowing smoke into my face when it was mentioned that the habit was a bit sickening and it might be a health hazard.

The standard reply was that it is a free country and there was no definitive science proving harm to anyone but the smoker.

Over many years, countless people suffered and died from second-hand smoke in restaurants and bars before we decided to enact laws to protect them.

After a community discussion about mandatory mask use in enclosed areas, there is a strong sense of déjà vu.

When a mask-wearing country like South Korea goes from 35 deaths to 280 deaths, while the live-free-or-die U.S. morphs from 11 deaths to more than 110,000 in the same period, too many people seem to be siding with the country making all the mistakes in this pandemic.

And while working against a mandatory law, the person railing against mask use may be totally unaware they are blowing the deadly virus into the air.

At least the smoker knew they were puffing out a noxious substance. And the virus is faster-acting than cigarettes.

Maybe that is why communities in Florida hotspots are now requiring mask use. Russell Pangborn, Keswick