Judge says order to dump school masks contravened Public Health Act, a reminder of how bad the Kenney Government was

“Indeed, it’s downright disturbing” Alberta is now governed by an unelected, “anti-vaccine dark web conspiracy theorist” thinly elected by the same UCP faction which compelled the recently-ousted premier to make as light of the Covid pandemic as he did— which of course overflowed the province’s hospitals with the afflicted (now including over 5,000 Albertans’ lives which the deadly virus claimed). But it is indeed a comfort, small as it is in prospect of the so-far bumbling caretaker-leader of the UCP’s disastrous rookie mandate, that the rule of law has been exercised by school kids’ parents and that the Court of King’s Bench Justice Dunlop issued a declaration which would probably be a better comfort to them if the new UCP administration were to ever heed it. There’s fair reason to have doubts, though.

It reminds me of two seaplane flights I took to Vancouver and back to the the Big Island a couple of weeks ago. Unlike DJC’s airline pilot acquaintance whose flights as a passenger consist of keenly trained vigilance of the craft’s air-worthiness so’s to be the first one to know if something goes wrong before going “splat!” —I’m more inclined to simply trust that we’ll takeoff and touchdown safely. I’m actually quite familiar with seaplanes, having spent decades flying in and out of logging camps on the bays and fiords of BC’s Central Coast. But I’m no pilot (or much at home on the water where I invest as much trust in the sea captain in heavy seas as I do a bush pilot in inclement weather). Still, I never worry that all the systems and expertise are checked and tested and rechecked and retested and re-rechecked and re-retested and…(my mantra— if I’m not asleep in my swaying bunk or sprawled and snoozing on the luggage in the plane’s cargo bay).

But it’s incredible to imagine politicians ever ignoring public safety standards with respect air-flight or seafaring—or, for that matter, food, medicine, any number of consumer products, and rules of the road. Because I trust they’re there, I’m usually oblivious—but, then again, I don’t live in the great province of Alberta anymore.

It might have been too frightful flying in that De Havilland Turbo-Otter if the US National Transport Safety Board and Federal Aviation Regulator hadn’t issued an urgent bulletin regarding the condition of a certain lock-ring on the pitch-control actuator-jackscrew doo-hicky a week before our scheduled flights: we flew in the same model as the DHCT-3 that crashed into the chilly waters of Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island, Washington, on September 4th, killing all ten people aboard. I could never imagine a Canadian government, aviation authorities and Vancouver’s Harbour Air company not heeding the warning to urgently check this vital part simply because the Mutiny Bay investigation was conducted by a different authority in a different jurisdiction—or because that kind of news might negatively impact the tourism industry or scare away customers. Thus I flew with complete confidence that the public safety systems of two different nations were checked, tested, and the suspect part checked and tested, rechecked, retested, re-rechecked and…(no need to recite the complete mantra)…and every single Otter in service has been likewise checked and rechecked. (The Otter is a damn fine craft I’ve flown in many times.)

Arguably the bio-political aspects of virology and public safety are exceedingly complex but, like aviation, otherwise involve standard protocols developed and carefully executed by many experts—from ambulance personnel to hospital staff and on to science laboratories developing vaccines for authorized distribution, all coordinated by numerous safety redundancies, public health regulations, medical professionals and other public health authorities —and of course, by citizens themselves. Now, admittedly Covid caught many jurisdictions somewhat flat-footed, but without the pre-existence of all these public health systems and dedicated expertise turned toward the pandemic we never could have endured it like we did.

There was never any other workable policy but to impose epidemiological restrictions to stem the spread of contagion and to develop effective vaccines in addition to specific respiratory treatments already at hand. The only real impediment was politics —that is, the politics of getting this policy done. Most Canadian jurisdictions initially struggled to come up to speed, but few actually went backwards like in the USA where over one million citizens have died of Covid. But K-Boy’s “Best Summer Ever” proved to be one: essentially he went the wrong way on a one way street.

It’s been decades since the only way labour unions could get job safety issues fixed was to drop tools and walk out. Over the years many safety measures first addressed by workers and employers made their way into systems of public health. Consumer advocates got industry and government to develop safety standards which protect everyone, not only workers and customers. Yes, there were a “freedom” complaints about seat belt mandates—and lawn darts too—nevertheless, the greater good has been the business of public authority since the modern age began. But it’s been centuries since public authority didn’t worry about epidemics—if only because the literate well-to-do, parliamentarians like Samuel Pepys and popes like Clement VI, realized they were as vulnerable as the vulgar poor. Indeed, the 14th century Pope granted remission of sins to anyone who died of bubonic plague—a considerable comfort to the superstitiously religious. Good thing we’ve come a long way since then. Or, as one might say in Alberta, “hopefully…”

Unfortunately for Alberta, voters elected a party and leader who “politicized” the pandemic—that is, the UCP pursued the politics of partisan ideology instead of that of getting that recommended epidemiological policy done. Moreover, the UCP turned Covid into ultra-toxic partisanship in order to incorporate it with its goofy policy of blaming partisan rivals for problems of its own making, of casting Albertans as victims instead of beneficiaries of measures intended to help them, and of attacking medical professionals, nurses and school teachers during a most trying time. Yet it’s fair strange that on the one hand the UCP could be thanked for getting rid of Kenney but, on the other, that its anti-vaxxer faction replaced him with the afore-mentioned “anti-vaccine dark web conspiracy theorist,” Danielle Smith. It’s like cutting off the nose to spite the face while driving full speed the wrong way on a one way street. I guess it’s a comfort that over 90% of Albertans didn’t really vote for this—not yet, anyways.

Justice Dunlop’s judicial review is a only mixed blessing: while it confirms the validity of public health standards and the public’s access to the courts, it took eight and two-thirds months to complete. That’s longer ‘n’ Smith has left in her janitorial mandate. It probably means that whatever goofy policies she might try to impose on Albertans can’t be challenged in court in a timely fashion (personally, I think that’s probably her modus operandi: Damn the torpedoes and the risk of being hoisted upon her own petard—so long’s it also explodes Alberta’s relationship with our federation). Several months is a long time in pandemic terms, and most of Smith’s Constitution-challenging horizon coincides with the typically challenging winter months when Covid and flus and inflation and recession and Holiday-Seasonal credit card hangovers are at their worst. While she’s busy not being interested in anything public health experts have to say, she’ll probably blame Ottawa for all of those things—including winter. And while good citizens with real concerns about their government not obeying the law—or even the rule of it—might contemplate resort to the courts, Smith will be contemplating her own.

I never thought I’d have to say it, but looks like my Alberta compatriots will have to look out for themselves again this Covid season—now, with K-Boy safely gone, more than ever.

Please, my friends, be careful out there.