Conflicting messages

Re: Sending mixed messages, Raymond J. de Souza, Jan. 9

Had this article been written by any another journalist than Fr. Raymond de Souza, there would likely have been more appropriately harsher words used to describe the behaviour of Dominique Baker, a federal civil servant who works in a management capacity for the federal department that is charged with keeping infectious diseases out of Canada and reducing health risks for travellers.

Firstly, how could any thinking being contemplate travel during the pandemic while millions of us rule-abiding, compliant Canadians follow health officials' guidelines to stay home and deny ourselves holidays or other celebratory gatherings, in hopes of staying healthy and not spreading this deadly virus? Secondly we read that she enjoyed an all-expenses paid trip to a luxury resort, paid for by Air Canada as a “social media influencer.” Are there no conflict of interest rules that apply to civil servants (paid from my taxes)?

Finally, thousands of Canadians are risking their lives daily, in hospitals and long-term care facilities, tending to the sick, trying to save COVID patients, often in precarious working conditions, watching others in more privileged positions jet-set on the public purse to places they might only dream of once this scourge is behind us. What can Justin Trudeau be thinking each time he opines “we are all in this together?” It is time we had a government that behaves in a way that ordinary Canadians expect of them in such a time of crisis.

Susan Silverman, Toronto