Rebuilding trust in the midst of a pandemic
Canada is a nation built on an improbable vision and unshakable trust.
Believing a thin strip of settlers flung thousands of kilometres across a continent would be able to survive an implacable environment and exceedingly harsh winters took conviction and faith. Most importantly, we learned to trust our neighbours, our community and the institutions of 19th-century society. We placed our trust as well in a (usually) competent state.
Today, in a pandemic, low trust means more dead Canadians. The transgressions of the pandemic flouters’ partying, mask refusal and resentment at any forced changes in their private lives stems from one place: their declared mistrust of government.
Politicians could start rebuilding damaged trust with an apology. Apologies for promising Canadians 200,000 tests a day, months ago, and delivering one quarter of that today. Apologies for failing to create a proper contact tracing system after months of broken promises. They could try more transparency about how and when they intend to fix their mistakes, and being upfront about scientific advice they have received critical of their choices.
Trust is breached when mistakes are ignored or denied by those accountable. So, how many apologies have we heard from the owners of some appalling long-term-care facilities? Not an apology from a hapless LTC home manager — real apologies from the chairs and CEOs of the big chains. Perhaps starting with Mike Harris, the chair of Chartwell Retirement Residences, a firm that put out a stunningly insensitive self-congratulatory news release in May, with no hint of apology, and apparently none since.
Perhaps the best index of Canadians’ mistrust is this: the large number who say they will not take any vaccines. Although the number is coming down, it is still nearly one in three of us. This is seriously dangerous territory. If vaccines are forcibly mandated or restrictions are imposed on the freedoms of those who refuse, we risk serious civil unrest. If vaccination is not required, we will hit wave after COVID wave.
We should ensure that trusted senior physicians, faith leaders and academics also have effective platforms as vaccination advocates, not just politicians or public health officials.
Perhaps it might help to place advertisements in mainstream and social media, featuring young mothers and fathers pleading with the recalcitrant on behalf of their children and grandparents.
After the August holidays, France saw their death rate climb from nine per day to more than 540 per day in a span of ten weeks. At the end of the summer, we had an average of four daily deaths; we now lose more than 60 people a day. Our trajectory is climbing fast. Australia has done very tough lockdowns — now twice, in some states. On one day this week, not a single Australian died of COVID.
Our leaders need to trust Canadians to be willing to endure tougher and tighter restrictions now. There appears to be a division developing between those provinces moving quickly with tough measures, such as B.C., Manitoba and Nunavut, and those that are not. Ontario Premier Doug Ford appears to have returned to his early pandemic form — serious, empathetic, and persuasive — in announcing tough new measures on Friday.
Nearly every other government is either hesitating to impose broad and painful restrictions, or proposing completely unrealistic measures, such as Quebec’s complete quarantine one week before and one week after Christmas. It seems certain to fail.
New Democrats and Greens have wisely demanded Ottawa and the provinces offer financial assistance to families in near lockdown.
The political hero of the pandemic continues to be New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In a powerful speech last Sunday in Riverside Church — the home of American progressive Christianity — the governor was eloquent on the painful social injustices revealed by COVID. It’s worth the watch on a gloomy day.
Cuomo made a passionate appeal for the vaccine. He ended with this chilling truth: “We must restore trust in government, because for a vaccine to work, our people must trust the government enough to take it.”
A bad COVID week for Canada was capped by the universally trusted Dr. Fauci no longer heralding our better track record, but instead wagging his finger at us for the first time.