Christine Elliott

Saturday January 8, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 8, 2022

Ontario schools reopen (maybe) in two weeks. What can be done to make them safer from COVID-19?

August 31, 2021

Ontario has delayed reopening elementary and secondary schools for at least two weeks in response to a meteoric rise in COVID-19 cases.

What are the chances that in-person classes can resume as tentatively scheduled on Jan. 17?

The provincial government says it’s adding new layers of protection from N95 masks for teachers to extra HEPA air filters. At the same time, key elements of the infection-control trio of “test, trace and isolate” have been dismantled in the face of the skyrocketing case counts.

The government is under pressure from all sides: pandemic-weary parents scrambling to work themselves while dealing with another round of online classes at home; pediatricians warning of the harm to children caused by school closures; teachers, principals and school staff and some scientists and doctors calling for additional safety measures.

Everyone agrees students need to resume in-person classes as soon as possible. The debate is over what is required to make schools safe enough to send students back and keep them there.

Tuesday August 31, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 31, 2021

It’s better late than never for vaccine passports

To the long and still growing list of pandemic reversals by the Ontario government, add vaccine passports. Late last week government sources confirmed that after months of what Premier Doug Ford called “a hard no” to passports, public and expert pressure forced the government to change course.

April 29, 2021

As far as we know now, this is all good. Like it was good when Ford reversed himself on paid sick days. Like it was when he gave police unnecessary new powers to enforce pandemic regulations, and then reversed himself shortly after.

So, better late than never … all’s well that ends well, right? Or maybe this is more like the devil is in the details. At the time of this writing, the premier still had not met with his cabinet to go over the plan for passports, even though it is supposed to be finalized in the next couple of weeks.

August 11, 2021

And so the pressure continues. On Monday, the mayor of Ottawa wrote a letter calling for passports. Business groups like the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, various municipalities and nearly all public health officials are on board. But the government, and especially Ford himself, remained ideologically opposed, not unlike the conservative government of Jason Kenney in Alberta, which is still steadfast in its opposition in spite of pandemic numbers worse than all other provinces.

British Columbia has them, as does Quebec. Prairie provinces either have or are getting passports or something similar. The United Kingdom. All European nations. The question is not whether Ontario should have a proof of vaccination system, it is what took so long?

For weeks, businesses and organizations have been struggling to come up with their own pandemic regulations. How much money, stress and energy went into that work which could have been saved had the government just done the right thing in the first place?

August 25, 2021

Vaccine passports are not a panacea. There are challenges. They are not perfect. Some businesses are warning that if passports come into force without a relaxation of other measures, like capacity limits, for example, the real potential won’t be realized. Advocates for poor and vulnerable people worry about those who don’t have permanent addresses or even cellphones to display their certificate of vaccination.

And, maybe the biggest problem: Given that the government is being dragged into this kicking and screaming, will it deliver a partial solution or one with enough loopholes to limit its effectiveness? That would serve no one’s interests, least of all Ford’s.

Unquestionably, any proof of vaccination system is a double-edged sword. Just as passports protect those of us wise enough to get vaccinated, they will take away a lot of choices from people who choose not to get vaccinated. (Those with legitimate reasons for remaining unvaccinated should not be harmed.)

May 29, 2020

Armed with our passports, we can attend sporting and concert events. We can feel more comfortable going out for dinner in a restaurant filled with other vaccinated people.

No doubt some businesses will try to capitalize on keeping their doors open to unvaccinated consumers. It will be interesting to see how the government deals with that. But provided businesses and organizations clearly indicate they are following — or not following — provincial vaccine passport regulations, consumers can make an informed choice. We can patronize businesses and events where we feel relatively safe and avoid those where we do not.

Passports are just another tool, not unlike vaccination, distancing and masking. We will need all our tools in this fourth wave. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Tuesday August 31, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 31, 2021

It’s better late than never for vaccine passports

To the long and still growing list of pandemic reversals by the Ontario government, add vaccine passports. Late last week government sources confirmed that after months of what Premier Doug Ford called “a hard no” to passports, public and expert pressure forced the government to change course.

April 29, 2021

As far as we know now, this is all good. Like it was good when Ford reversed himself on paid sick days. Like it was when he gave police unnecessary new powers to enforce pandemic regulations, and then reversed himself shortly after.

So, better late than never … all’s well that ends well, right? Or maybe this is more like the devil is in the details. At the time of this writing, the premier still had not met with his cabinet to go over the plan for passports, even though it is supposed to be finalized in the next couple of weeks.

August 11, 2021

And so the pressure continues. On Monday, the mayor of Ottawa wrote a letter calling for passports. Business groups like the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, various municipalities and nearly all public health officials are on board. But the government, and especially Ford himself, remained ideologically opposed, not unlike the conservative government of Jason Kenney in Alberta, which is still steadfast in its opposition in spite of pandemic numbers worse than all other provinces.

British Columbia has them, as does Quebec. Prairie provinces either have or are getting passports or something similar. The United Kingdom. All European nations. The question is not whether Ontario should have a proof of vaccination system, it is what took so long?

July 21, 2021

For weeks, businesses and organizations have been struggling to come up with their own pandemic regulations. How much money, stress and energy went into that work which could have been saved had the government just done the right thing in the first place?

Vaccine passports are not a panacea. There are challenges. They are not perfect. Some businesses are warning that if passports come into force without a relaxation of other measures, like capacity limits, for example, the real potential won’t be realized. Advocates for poor and vulnerable people worry about those who don’t have permanent addresses or even cellphones to display their certificate of vaccination.

And, maybe the biggest problem: Given that the government is being dragged into this kicking and screaming, will it deliver a partial solution or one with enough loopholes to limit its effectiveness? That would serve no one’s interests, least of all Ford’s.

May 29, 2020

Unquestionably, any proof of vaccination system is a double-edged sword. Just as passports protect those of us wise enough to get vaccinated, they will take away a lot of choices from people who choose not to get vaccinated. (Those with legitimate reasons for remaining unvaccinated should not be harmed.)

Armed with our passports, we can attend sporting and concert events. We can feel more comfortable going out for dinner in a restaurant filled with other vaccinated people. 

No doubt some businesses will try to capitalize on keeping their doors open to unvaccinated consumers. It will be interesting to see how the government deals with that. But provided businesses and organizations clearly indicate they are following — or not following — provincial vaccine passport regulations, consumers can make an informed choice. We can patronize businesses and events where we feel relatively safe and avoid those where we do not.

Passports are just another tool, not unlike vaccination, distancing and masking. We will need all our tools in this fourth wave. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday May 13, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday May 13, 2021

On Doug Ford’s watch, a new health crisis looms

A soaring backlog of surgeries and medical tests is shaking Ontario’s health-care system to its core. And Doug Ford needs a second opinion on how to deal with it because nothing he’s done so far has worked.

April 1, 2021

In struggling with the crisis unleashed by COVID-19, the premier and his government have created a new one that could result in even more suffering and death than we’ve been witnessing. Simply put, people aren’t getting the care they need when they need it.

To be fair, Ontario’s health-care system had to implement major changes over the past year as it battled the pandemic. Public health officials had to redeploy finite resources — including doctors, nurses and hospital beds — so people who had fallen sick with COVID-19 could be treated. 

But three weeks ago, Dr. David Williams, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, shifted course in a more worrisome way. He ordered hospitals across the province to halt all non-emergency surgeries and non-urgent procedures. That didn’t impact only people waiting for hip or knee surgery, it also affected people needing cancer and cardiac treatments.

Now, a rising chorus of doctors is warning Dr. Williams’ order is too restrictive. They insist the system could expeditiously treat more patients with serious medical conditions without weakening the fight against COVID-19. One of the people speaking out is Dr. Robert Nam, a Toronto surgeon who says he’s “had to turn away referrals to help patients with cancer because of the provincial order to cancel elective surgery.”

January 16, 2021

“For cancer patients waiting for treatment … their hopes of being able to beat their disease have been severely harmed by the stroke of a pen,” he added.

What makes the situation even more frustrating for Dr. Nam is that it doesn’t have to be this way. He argues hospitals have the capacity to deal with COVID-19 but also other illnesses because they’ve “developed efficiencies and surgical techniques for cancer operations that do not require a hospital bed.”

But it’s not just where the health system is today that’s alarming; it’s where the province is headed that demands immediate action. According to Ontario’s science table, the pandemic-related surgical backlog had grown to 257,000 cases as of April. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the province’s Financial Accountability Office now predicts wait-lists of 419,000 surgeries and 2.5 million diagnostic tests and procedures by the end of September.

July 27, 2019

As it stands today, people aren’t getting the timely MRI tests that might reveal a serious medical condition. And as many as 500,000 women have had their breast-cancer screening delayed. But while some of those women might have developed breast cancer, they’ll have to wait for it to be diagnosed, then treated.

Even if the health-care system can offer surgeries, tests and procedures well above pre-pandemic levels for an extended period of time, it will take the province three and a half years to clear this backlog, the Financial Accountability Office said.

Given such numbers, it’s hard to believe Health Minister Christine Elliott when she says the government is on top of this problem. While the last provincial budget committed $610 million to clear the projected surgery and diagnostic procedures backlog, the Financial Accountability Office estimates it will cost $1.3 billion to get the job done. 

Somewhere, this government must come up with $700 million to deal with the systemic backlogs that are increasing by the day. Somehow, it must find the staff and resources needed to confront two separate health-care crises. And somehow, it must learn to fight a health-care battle on two fronts and at the same time. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Friday May 7, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday May 7, 2021

The Political Blame Game

February 6, 2021

For months now, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has blamed everyone for Canada’s trickle of COVID-19 vaccines but himself.

Trudeau and his ministers have gone so far as to blame former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney — who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993 — for the privatization, or “the selling off“, of Connaught Laboratories. What he fails to mention is that Connaught Labs didn’t go anywhere. It’s now part of Sanofi Pasteur, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. The Connaught Campus in Toronto accounts for one-fifth of the company’s global vaccine sales.

Experts in Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry — as opposed to the generic pharmaceutical industry — say Trudeau’s attempt to pin the blame on Mulroney or a more recent Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, is ironic, because were it not for Mulroney, the innovative industry likely wouldn’t exist here at all.

March 9, 2016

Paul Lucas, who was president and CEO of GlaxoSmithKline Canada from 1994 to 2012, started speaking out and wrote an opinion piece in the Financial Post after he heard federal Liberal Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc being interviewed on CTV’s Power Play with Evan Solomon, saying that GlaxoSmithKline had closed its manufacturing facility for vaccines during Harper’s Conservative government, which is false.

“This facility didn’t close, it’s still producing most of the flu vaccine for Canada on an annual basis,” Lucas said during a recent telephone interview.

“I’ve been very concerned and frankly upset about the lies that are coming from the federal government about this whole (COVID vaccine) file,” says Lucas, who was integral to the production and distribution of the Canadian vaccine for the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. All of the vaccine for that outbreak was produced in the GSK factory in Quebec City.

“Trudeau has badly botched Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine procurement,” states Lucas.

“First, he blamed Harper for his own failings. Then he blamed Mulroney and then he blamed the provinces. Then he actually turned on his own vaccine task force. He blamed them for about a day or two. Then he blamed the companies — Pfizer for delaying the delivery of its vaccines in January,” explains Lucas. (Calgary Herald) 

November 19, 2020

Meanwhile, Ontario Minister of Long-term Care Merrilee Fullerton faced a call from the Opposition to resign her cabinet post on Tuesday, in the wake of two reports that reviewed her ministry’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In recent days, Fullerton has been pressed to explicitly acknowledge whether she feels she shares any responsibility for the more than 3,700 deaths of long-term care residents with COVID-19 in Ontario.

During question period Tuesday, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked when Fullerton was made aware that some residents had died of dehydration or basic neglect, which led a tense exchange between the two.

“The premise of your question is bordering on obscene,” Fullerton said. “And the reason why is because all of the ministry, public health, medical officers of health, thousands of people have been working to shore up these homes and they were no match for COVID-19.”

Fullerton said that some long-term care homes became “warzones” within days of the first confirmed cases among residents and staff. 

“What we were doing 24 hours a day was trying to get support to those homes, with an unknown virus that wasn’t fully understood and a shortage of supplies globally,” she added.

May 4, 2021

Fullerton then said the NDP had failed to pressure the previous Liberal government into fixing Ontario’s beleaguered long-term care sector.

“Look at your failure. I was left to pick up the pieces from a devastating 15 years of neglect,” she said. “I will not be spoken to that way by the leader of the opposition that neglected this sector.” 

Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk and the Ontario Long-term Care COVID-19 Commission both released their respective reports last week. While the probes examined different aspects of COVID-19’s impact on the long-term care sector, they reached similar conclusions: the ministry was not prepared for a pandemic, in part due to years of inaction to prevent a crisis. (CBC)