Dear Editor:
As I read the Feb. 18 issue of the Wellington Advertiser, I was struck by the two differing views of our pandemic lockdowns in your paper.
On the one hand, we have letters chastising and ridiculing Steven VanLeeuwen for suggesting that the lockdowns violate our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And on the other hand, we have the heart breaking article written by Don Wildfong about seniors being denied visits by their loved ones.
VanLeeuwen is disparaged by the media and his colleagues for spreading misinformation. Mr. Wildfong exposes another side of the story in an extremely touching piece.
We are told we must obey our government emergency orders without question. Those same governments have been allowing infected workers to enter long-term care homes for almost a year.
Quick antigen COVID-19 tests have been sitting in warehouses in Ontario for months while COVID- positive workers were entering long-term care and congregate living homes untested.
A Canadian citizen returning to Canada needs proof of a negative COVID test before arrival. And another test upon arrival. And then you are forced to stay at a $2,000 hotel for three days.
Long term care homes? Where most of our loved ones are dying? I wish they had those same protocols. But they don’t even come close.
Stay at home people, the experts are demanding. Small businesses, sorry, suck it up, shut up and obey. Walmart and Amazon will take care of our citizens’ needs. We must protect our most vulnerable they say, but they have failed miserably. I can shop in person at Walmart during lockdown but not at my local Home Hardware? Pure idiocy.
Ron Weiler suffered, his family suffered. It is a travesty. And for no logical reason. Proper protocols would have allowed his family to visit safely.
This massive overreach through emergency orders by our provincial and federal governments needs to come to an end. I do not trust them anymore. And neither do many of my friends and family. We can’t wait to vote.
Peter Hopper,
Rockwood