September 2021 – The Hungover Pundit

Police and Trust Two Years Later

Given the recent tide of outrage against anti-vaxxers demonstrating at hospitals, there’s been an increasing amount of discussion on the role of the police in this country; specifically, why the police can’t seem to do anything about anti-vaxx protests, and yet can somehow behave very aggressively towards indigenous activists and homeless encampments.

Ordinary Canadians are increasingly shocked that this one-sided approach to policing is occurring… while LGBTQ+ people, people of colour and above all indigenous communities have been stifling the urge to jump up and down and scream “we told you so.”

I for one welcome the fact that straight white people can see a massive injustice when it parks itself in front of an ambulance bay and blocks traffic and I’m pleased that they’re finally asking why the police are allowed to let one group slide while cracking down hard on others.

This is a critically important discussion. Police in Canada and especially in Ontario have no meaningful oversight of their actions and have a great deal of discretion in how they decide to go about “maintaining law and order.” It’s a situation rife for abuse and injustice, and desperately needs reform. I’ve been writing about that need for a long time now… and sadly I suspect I’ll have to continue to write about it for a long time to come.

On Hospital Protests

If someone tells you who they are, believe them.

This statement goes around on the internet occasionally, and despite being a bit trite and cliché I’ve come to recognize it as fundamentally sound.

So when anti-vaxxers rally outside hospitals, screaming abuse at workers and slowing ambulances, then they’re telling us exactly who they are… even when they’re claiming to be someone they aren’t.

Today and though in the week, the anti-vaxxers have planned another series of protests outside hospitals right across Canada. The first round, of course, included infamous scenes of anti-vaxxers spitting and coughing on counter-protesters; of ambulances being blocked and delayed; of cancer patients forced to run a gauntlet of unmasked and agitated protesters; and worst of all of front line health care workers being targeted by the mob.

Priorities

I did a survey the other day. I still hadn’t received my voter information card for this election, so I went to the Elections Canada website and double-checked that I was registered. (The card ended up coming in the mail that afternoon, so no worries.) After I went through that process, I was prompted to do a survey, so I figured “why not?”

One of the survey questions has stuck with me: What are your priorities for this election?

I’ve found myself thinking about that one a lot in the last few days. There’s a lot of stuff that I’m concerned about… but priorities? How do you choose?

I’m reminded of a job I used to have in IT where one of my co-workers had the habit of flagging every new ticket with “priority.” Eventually I had to explain that if everything is marked as a priority, then effectively nothing is a priority. You have to put some thought into it, and ticking a little box on an internet survey doesn’t really address the nuances.