Saturday April 17th 2021 is a day to remember because I am hearing that police forces are lining up to refuse to enforce government orders, in what seems to be a move to be in solidarity with people who, we assume, are conscientious and zealous for human rights and Canadian Charter rights. These are the same police services who have savagely and heartlessly documented the lives of Canada’s First Nations, Black and brown peoples, and people using cannabis, without any sign of respect for humanity. I can hardly wait to see what the legal tempest will be, because this segway by the police services will bring into question the universal call for honouring the parent.

The context of science and passion

All across the world the examples of steady progress in the fight againt coronavirus seems to come where populations have followed the simple actions recommended by medical professionals: mask up, protect your 2-metre bubble, stay home, and wash your hands. Ontarians have been persistently flattered from the beginning of the pandemic by the Premier about how great and cooperative we have been. A boldface lie. Ontarians have been carrying on their lives as if nothing needs to change. That, in my opinion, explains why we are where we are in April 2021. Ontarios gather in large numbers in protest and in parties, they cross municipal boundaries to shop, they infect their children and want them to continue in in-person education, they jockey to be designated as essential services or exempt from anti-covid19 measures, and they chafe against restrictions to religious gatherings. In general western nations have infected the world with “protest over protect”. Ontario cannot pass the buck on to the lack of vaccine supply (from the Federal government).

I only hope that the bluster of ignorance, the rejection of science and workable wisdom, the passing of the blame buck, and the readiness to play the role of litigant-hero, so rampant in the United States and the United Kingdom stays in those countries and dies quickly. Police services trying to appear humane and conscientious without doing what they are solemnly authorized to is a moment like New Year’s Day, two-headed, challenging a look forward or a look backward. It is a moment that will have to be explained in the light of the command for honour to the parent.