Not patient, or prudent

It’s no surprise that the Ford government is grabbing the earliest defensible moment to drop mask mandates and other public health measures against COVID-19.

No surprise, but still disappointing. A bit more caution, and a few weeks more to make sure the positive trends we’re seeing in the pandemic have really taken hold, would have been a wiser course.

But Premier Doug Ford never made any secret about the fact he was champing at the bit to end all restrictions and “move forward from this” — “this” being the last two years of our COVIDcramped lives.

In that, who can blame him? The premier isn’t wrong that everyone is exhausted and fed up with pandemic rules. Of course they are.

But the government’s job isn’t to do the easy and popular thing at the first opportunity. It’s to do the right thing, even if it means delaying for a bit the gratification that will come with returning to the blessed normality of going about daily life with as few restrictions as possible.

And on that front, the announcement on Wednesday that mask mandates will end in most public settings on March 21 and other restrictions will be dropped on April 27, fails the test.

It’s a matter of judgment, of course, and experts will disagree. The government is moving ahead on a schedule approved and announced by Ontario’s chief public health officer, Dr. Kieran Moore, who argues that “you can’t mandate masking forever. It has to be, at some point, an individual choice.”

But what point is the right point? In dropping mandatory masking in most public places, including schools, as of March 21, Moore and the government are brushing aside pointed advice from eight institutions united under the banner of the Children’s Health Coalition.

The coalition, including the likes of Sick Kids Hospital and children’s hospitals in Ottawa, London and Hamilton, had recommended a decision on mandatory masking in schools be delayed for two weeks after March break in order to evaluate pandemic trends at that time.

Not a big delay at all, after two solid years of living with pandemic rules, but Moore and the government decided not to wait even that long.

If we’re lucky, it will all turn out fine. Current trends, with hospitalization and serious illness due to COVID falling steadily, will continue along their current path.

But why count on being lucky? These are big decisions and it would have been better to be prudent and patient. That would have meant giving it just another couple of weeks.

There’s an undeniable political context at play here, too. On CBC News’ “Metro Morning,” the director of Ontario’s science advisory table, Dr. Peter Jüni, admitted he was taken by surprise at the timing of the mask decision and talked about “a lot of political pressure” being involved.

Having dug himself into that hole, Jüni later tried to climb out by insisting he didn’t mean direct pressure from the government, but rather the general effect of public feeling. Still, we heard you the first time. With an election due on June 2 it would be extremely convenient for the government for Ontarians to feel COVIDliberated at the end of April.

The bottom line is that the government is leaving it up to each one of us to make up our own minds.

So, mask or unmask as of March 21? Mandate or no mandate, the right thing will be to keep masking in crowded or enclosed public spaces for at least a while longer. If the government won’t be responsible, the people will have to do it for them.

With an election due on June 2 it would be extremely convenient for the government for Ontarians to feel COVIDliberated at the end of April