Cancelled vacation plans. Closed borders. Social distancing, masks, and handwashing. Horror stories in long-term care homes. Massive fiscal deficits. Fake news. Incessant wars. Conspiracy theories.
I think we can all agree that 2020 couldn’t end soon enough. Mother Earth is in crisis yet we northerners are mostly removed from the catastrophic events that have been happening elsewhere.
We see them in the news or maybe read about them on-line. Despite our isolation, we are facing massive changes that will have an impact on how we live and how we will be governed in the future.
A return to the pre-COVID status quo will simply not cut it. The virus has exposed several inequities in our society that must be addressed without delay.
Under cover of the pandemic, legislation has been passed by the Ford Conservative government that protects the owners of long-term care (LTC) facilities from liability due to neglect, deliberate or not, that has led to the death of so many seniors.
Long overdue promises to improve funding levels and health care standards remain unfulfilled. Further privatization of health care delivery is obviously not the answer.
Nearly 80% of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in long-term care, the vast majority in for-profit homes. More than 200 LTC homes in Ontario are presently experiencing outbreaks. How can this be acceptable?
It is long past time to make LTC homes part of our public health care system. We can no longer delay adequate financial support from the federal government but strings must be attached in order to provide equal access and appropriate standards of care across the country.
We must hold our politicians accountable when they are not being transparent or have failed to implement their campaign promises. They have a responsibility to hear us out and to justify their actions, especially when they may be controversial or go against the interests of the vast majority.
Accountability necessarily goes both ways. As citizens we have the right to be informed about decisions being made that affect us and we have the right to protest against them without being labelled as radicals.
Faith in our political leadership has diminished. We have become skeptical of the media. Conspiracy theories have replaced logical thinking. Islamophobia, xenophobia and homophobia are used to divide us even further from one another.
Our focus on what used to matter to us as individuals has shifted dramatically over recent decades. The advent of social media and electronic gadgetry has made us more isolated from each other than ever. The concept of community and all that once entailed seems to have been lost.
Worse still is our apparent lack of commitment to stand up and fight for what we believe in. The precocity of work and our enormous debt load have us hamstrung. We have willingly fallen victim to consumerism.
Despite the above, it is still possible that our post-COVID reality will be greener, healthier and more just. A better world is still possible and we all must do what we can to help create it.
Ben Lefebvre
Iroquois Falls, ON
