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The bickering between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford over whether they should temporarily ban foreign students from attending Canadian educational institutions to lessen COVID infection rates is merely smoke and mirrors.
Granted, statistics show the real danger from the virus in Canada is not so much from international transmission as it is through local community spreading.
But Messieurs Ford and Trudeau made deadly mistakes during the opening hours of the global pandemic that got many people killed. Trudeau refused to close the borders thereby ensuring COVID’s arrival, opting to keep them open with then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trudeau failed to acquire the needed vaccines to prevent as many deaths and infections as possible.
But Doug Ford is equally at fault. His first Ontario lockdown did quell the initial spread leading to some positive results, but the sheer number of travelers entering Ontario guaranteed COVID’s ‘royal welcome.’ He followed that up with poor safeguards in the seniors’ care homes and the reopening of schools, among other things, which guaranteed the subsequent waves.
Ford blamed Trudeau for not bringing us enough vaccines, but these ought to have been dispatched to hot spots like Peel Region as a means of curbing urban spread.
Temporarily banning international students is a wise precaution, but this should include the closing of schools and institutions until further notice. This doesn’t negate the fact Trudeau should not have excluded these students from the non-essential travel ban.
The question remains as to whether we can shut down air travel and border crossings at the risk of nixing important shipments.
The prating and waxing of these two so-called leaders is something we don’t need right now.
Christopher Mansour
Barrie
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