After nearly two years of strongly supporting the use of restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 — and not backing down — Ontario Premier Doug Ford stunned people by sharing the same frustration with everyone about pandemic restrictions.
Speaking at a news conference on Feb. 15, Ford said it was time to move on from a world of constant restrictions as the virus is here to stay.
“We are done with it! Let’s just start moving on, cautiously. The world’s done with it, let’s just move forward,” Ford said at the news conference.
“We just have to be careful, make sure we wash our hands and move forward.”
“We also know that it doesn’t matter if you have one shot or 10 shots, you can still catch COVID-19,” he said.
The premier elaborated that vaccinations and implementation of vaccine passports did little in the fight against the virus, and that people with three doses still caught COVID-19, and some of them still caught the Omicron variant.
“You see the Prime Minister, he has triple shots and I know hundreds of people with three shots who caught COVID-19, we just need to be careful, always make sure we wash our hands and move forward,” he said.
“It doesn’t make a tonne of sense, you either go to three doses or you scrap it,” Ford said.
He expressed remorse about the vaccine passports and how it has caused a lot of division in the public. People were turning against each other because of it.
“There’s rebel rousers, and there are just hard-working people that just don’t believe in it, and that’s their choice,” Ford said. “This is about democracy and freedoms and liberties.
“I hate, as a government, telling anyone what to do. We just have to get out of this and move forward and protect the jobs,” Ford said. “I’ve never seen this province and this country so divided. It’s affected friendships, it’s affected coworkers, it’s affected families.”
The premier teased about the divisions in his family due to pandemic policies.
“I can tell you guys, I’ve faced all three of them, and let me tell you something, it’s challenging, especially on the family side,” he said.
Ford’s daughter, Krista Haynes, has repeatedly criticized vaccine mandates and the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines on her social media accounts. She also sparked attention for strongly voicing support for the “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa and other blockades, a series of events where people protested against all pandemic mandates.
The protests in the nation’s capital were ended by authorities after nearly four weeks of wreaking havoc on public life in the downtown core.
Meanwhile, Ford was rebuked by opponents and is being accused of misleading Ontarians.
Ontario NDP leader Andrea Horwath was quick to weigh in on it.
Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser also slammed Ford in a statement released the day after Ford’s press conference.
“Premier Ford said that vaccines don’t matter. His statement was irresponsible and destructive. During the tidal wave of Omicron, vaccines protected thousands and thousands of Ontarians from serious illness, hospitalizations and, for some, death,” Fraser said.
The Ottawa South MPP also accused the premier of going against the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and Public Health Ontario and the Science Table.
“Whether Premier Ford is misinformed or is playing some sort of dangerous game, he needs to retract his statement from yesterday and follow the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health and encourage Ontarians by reminding them that vaccines help protect us from serious illness and hospitalization,” Fraser said.
“After two years of our nurses, doctors and front line healthcare workers working tirelessly to get people vaccinated, we shouldn’t have a Premier trying to tear down that important work,” he said.
Most restrictions are set to be lifted across Ontario on March 1 with the exception of masking requirements in all indoor public places. It is expected to be re-evaluated in the middle of next month.