Ontario has had the longest lockdown in North America – which has been so successful it’s just gone into another one

Eva Bartlett

Eva Bartlett is a Canadian independent journalist and activist. She has spent years on the ground covering conflict zones in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Palestine (where she lived for nearly four years). Follow her on Twitter @EvaKBartlett8 Apr, 2021 17:39 Get short URL

FILE PHOTO: Spice Lounge and Tapas on Lakeshore Road East has signs in their business door that expresses frustration with confusion over the lockdowns as Ontario tightens restrictions to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Port Credit. April 5, 2021 ©  Getty Images / Steve Russell / Toronto Star

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Follow RT on It’s April 2021 and we’re still being fed the same “stay home, save lives” line of 2020. But lockdowns are based on dodgy data and exaggerations, as well as causing more harm than they supposedly prevent.

As of today, Ontario is once again locked down. The last lockdown of two months was lifted only a month ago.

The province has endured the longest lockdowns in the country, thanks to politicians and medical officers pushing selective statistics.

The “Stay-at-Home” order (sounds so much nicer than lockdown!) requires people to imprison themselves again, except for “essential purposes” (exempt, of course, are Canadian politicians, who have repeatedly violated their own exhortations).

This latest draconian lockdown again impacts nearly every aspect of Ontarians’ ability to live their lives

It means: closed businesses; increasing poverty, loneliness, and depression; increased domestic abuse, a rise in suicides and self-harm; and utter media hysteria (actually, the media hysteria and fear mongering has not ceased since the announcement of a pandemic one year ago).

A petition to end Ontario’s lockdown of small businesses notes:

“There are over 440,000 small businesses in Ontario.

“Less than a week ago [state premier] Doug Ford told restaurants they would be allowed to operate outdoor dining even in grey zones; this caused restaurant owners to spend thousands of dollars on these spaces only to find out that this would not be the case in this current closure.

This level of carelessness and lack of foresight could be the demise of many locally owned restaurants.” Also on rt.com Covid rules for me, but not for thee? Canadians fume after Ontario govt says NHL teams will be exempt from indoor dining ban

Alarmism and exaggerated ICU data

Premier Doug Ford, in his address yesterday, spoke of case rates, hospitalizations, and ICU occupancy “increasing rapidly, threatening to overwhelm the healthcare system.”

But, as I’ve written before, the whole concept of “cases rising” is meaningless: “Cases are determined by Covid-19 tests, which have proved to be unreliable and inaccurate, giving false positives and creating a false picture of reality. This faulty testing is exacerbating the media hype over ‘rising cases.’”

And according to a long-time employee at the Ottawa General hospital I corresponded with: “I work in a large hospital and I pass through the Covid-19 ICU unit every day. And it’s never been overflowing or too busy.”

Or, as a columnist for the Toronto Sun noted: “Toronto’s top doc said that data was showing younger people in ICUs. Asked about the data, she changed her tweet to say she was ‘hearing’ of younger Toronto ICU patients. Big difference between data showing and you hearing anecdotally.”

Or, as an Ontario MPP noted: “The @OntHospitalAssn keeps fear mongering about ICU capacity. But Critical Care Services Ontario ICU data for Apr 3 reveals: Toronto 375 of 496 beds taken (76%) Central: 398 of 513 (78%) Ontario: 1852 of 2418 (77%) The question to the OHA is why?”

In fact, every year in flu season, we’ve had reports of overcrowding in hospitals, hospitals bursting at seams. This never caused us to shut down our economy and lock down our citizens.

Finally, more and more journalists are asking for proof of the claims bandied about by the Fords and media.

Even Naomi Wolf, not your average “conspiracy theorist” or “right winger” (as those opposed to brutal lockdowns are often described by dinosaur media) tweeted, “How are Canadians still being told such gigantic lies? The whole ‘lockdown equals public safety’ mythology is fully deceased.” Also on rt.com WATCH: Covid police raid Canadian home, violently arrest occupants after neighbor tattles on ‘illegal’ gathering of 6 people

Vested interests in vaccines?

While ordinary Canadians suffer tremendously under lockdowns, Canada’s unelected medical tyrants, the Medical Officers of Health (MOH) are doing quite well, earning $200,000 – $300,000, and more.

In addition to pushing for this latest lockdown, Ontario MOHs went the extra mile and called for “fewer businesses to be deemed essential and more operations shut down.”

Because a year-plus of lockdowns destroying small businesses’ ability to survive just wasn’t enough….

Some of these MOHs may even have financial links to the rollout of vaccines.

In his press conference yesterday, much of Premier Ford’s focus was on pushing jabs.

Ford promised, “better days are ahead of us,” followed by more calls for Ontarians to get jabbed with vaccines made faster than ever before which,  technically, will not even be out of the clinical trials stage till next year at the earliest.  Read more Canada halts AstraZeneca vaccine roll-out for people under 55, citing ‘substantial uncertainty’ amid blood clot concerns

The AstraZeneca vaccine is being suspended by countries around the world for causing blood clotting, which could lead to death.

In spite of this, Ontario continues to push it. As of April first, Canada has bought around 24 million doses. In addition to its AstraZeneca purchases, Canada agreed to purchase at least 20 million doses of Pfizer’s hurried vaccine.

In March, the media reported that Toronto’s MOH, Eileen de Villa, is married to Dr Richard Choi, a cardiologist and lecturer at Unity Health Toronto, who lists Pfizer and AstraZeneca among his ‘Relationships with financial interests.’ Under de Villa’s leadership, “Toronto Public Health has been used as a tool to counter any ‘misinformation’ about vaccination,” and was allegedly “behind a call to ban vaccine exemptions because of religious or philosophical beliefs.”

Another article on the de Villa-Choi conflict of interest noted: “It’s not a good look when you lock down your city when you don’t have to and your husband has financial interests with AstraZeneca and Pfizer.”

In mid-March, Premier Ford said he isn’t making the decisions, the chief medical officers are. He also said it would essentially be political suicide to go against them.

“To be frank, there’s no politician in the country who’s going to disagree with their chief medical officer. They’re just not going to do it. They might as well throw a rope around their neck and jump off a bridge.” 

Last December, Toronto’s Associate MOH, Dr. Barbara Yaffe, and Chief MOH, Dr. David Williams, admitted they are just reading a script, “I just say what they write down for me.” And laughed about it.

So, we have unelected medical officers running the show, essentially forcing government decisions on lockdowns and related issues. And as a Toronto lawyer opposed to lockdowns noted, “local Councils are legally powerless to stop” these unaccountable MOHs. How wonderfully democratic.

There is definitely a will and momentum to resist the brutal lockdown measures affecting all but the fat cats flouting them. With a new round of bullying by unelected medical officers, I hope the resistance to tyranny grows.