‘Can’t live in fear’ tweet from Brampton Mayor Brown blasted by hospital executive

Brampton | COVID | Health | Latest News | Politics |

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Published March 2, 2022 at 10:28 pm

The top executive of the Ontario Hospital Association tore into Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown on Twitter on Wednesday night, suggesting the politician’s greater ambitions may “undermine” public health efforts.

Anthony Dale, president and chief executive officer of the OHA, used the hashtag #Disappointed while quote-tweeting one of Brown’s messages. Brown, a former member of Parliament and one-time leader of the Ontario PC Party, has told InSauga he is “considering” a run for the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leadership. Speculation that Brown would seek the leadership of the CPC — which regularly questions COVID-19 protections and has several MPs, including interim leader Candice Bergen, who openly supported the Freedom Convoy that evolved into the 17-day occupation of downtown Ottawa last month — has been concurrent with his stances about relaxing said protections.

The Conservatives’ leadership contest will be on Sept. 10, with candidates having to declare they are running by April 19.

Last week, Brown called on Ontario to lift masking mandates for students. Schools are not considered high-tranmission settings for the virus, but rather more a reflection of community spread. Just after Brown’s call, in fact, Ontario Ministry of Health data showed that Peel Region has had more confirmed COVID-19 cases that were linked to community spread in the last 10 weeks than it did in the first 21 months of the pandemic.

The Children’s Health Coalition has also called for masking in schools to continue. It has supported keeping schools open.

On Wednesday, Brown said it was time to “get back to normal (and) follow the science” while sharing news coverage where he Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel Region’s medical officer of health, gave a media briefing.

“We can’t live in fear,” Brown wrote. “It’s time to get back to normal, follow the science and put fear in the rear view mirror. Please go out and support your community.”

The tweet had close to 500 likes in about six hours. But several of the replies to Brown, including Dale’s, were rather pointed.

“We all want this to be over, especially hospitals,” Dale responded. “But it must be said that Patrick Brown keeps making calculated comments that undermine public health & downplay the seriousness of the pandemic for no other reason but to keep his options open for federal politics.”

Public health protections are supposed to be left up to local medical officers of health in Ontario. Earlier in the day, Dr. Loh suggested he would not extend a general mask mandate beyond the life of provincial orders that would come from Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore.

“We know that in times of high transmission, certainly, masks would be very warranted,” Loh said. “We know that the Omicron wave is starting to resolve, here in Peel as well as in Ontario. I’m willing to be led by the province at this point in time. Our trends here in Peel reflect those elsewhere in Ontario.

“I can share that, here in Peel, if our trends were to remain the same at the time, that the local masking bylaws would be up for review at the end of the month.”

Loh and Brown’s public pronouncements, and rebuttals such as Dale’s, also come in a context where such local public health autonomy may be fraying. Last month, Niagara Region acting MOH Dr. Mustafa Hirji had to stand his ground on school safety measures after his fellow doctor, Moore, basically said he was taking measures too far.

At that time, as Ontario was discontinuing case-by-case reporting and moving to a monitoring system that tracks absence rates but does not say how much COVID-19 contributed, Moore told Hirji the province was unaware of any correlation between CO2 levels and viral transmission. In fact, though, scientific journals have documented it as an accurate assessment tool for COVID-19 exposure.

In Ontario, public health units provincewide have also been underfunded. The province’s Financial Accountability Office stated on Wednesday that the Ontario PC Party government, under Premier Doug Ford has spent $670 million less than budgeted on public health during the first three-quarters of their fiscal year. Ford and the PCs have also spent $554M less than budgeted on educaton.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is also introducing legislation that would restrict municipalities’ latitude to pass bylaws that do not follow the province’s public health policies and rules. Alberta is the only province or territory in Canada with a lower percentage of young children (ages 5 to 11) are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Public health officials and elected leaders across Canada have had a sort of push-pull as the pandemic nears the two-year mark. The latter group, of course, is ultimately held accountable by voters. Ontario will have a provincial election, likely on June 2, and municipal elections are also slated for Oct. 24.

Last week, a Hamilton city councillor claimed Brown had told her he has no plans to fire City of Brampton employees who do not get vaccinated. A person who is unvaccinated is more likely to spread COVID-19.

Leadership on Bill 21

Brampton was hit the hardest of any Ontario city during the third wave of COVID-19 in April and May 2021, and Brown was widely praised for his leadership during that crisis. More recently, Brampton has also started a legal fund for a court fight against Quebec’s racist Bill 21, which bars public employees from wearing religious symbols but has been weaponized against Muslim women who wear the hijab.

Durham Region, Hamilton, Milton, Oakville and Victoria, B.C., have all committed funds or moral support to the anti-Bill 21 fund.

That has helped Brown build political capital, and he told inSauga last week that he has had calls about running for the CPC leadership. It would be months until the CPC can organize a leadership contest to replace Durham MP Erin O’Toole, who was ousted on Feb. 2.

“I still feel it’s premature when you don’t have those types of rules (for a leadership contest),” Brown recently told inSauga. “But I will say it’s important for Canada’s democracy to have a competitive conservatve party so we can have an election where you don’t have one party sweep suburban Canada.”

The Liberal Party of Canada, under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has formed three successive governments, the last two with a minority, thanks in large part to their urban/suburban coalition. Last September, the Liberals cleaned up in Ontario cities with populations in the 500,000 to 1 million range. They won 20 out of the 23 seats available in Brampton, Mississauga, Hamilton and Ottawa, including a 10-for-10 sweep of the two Peel Region cities. The only seats the CPC held in those cities where leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre’s Carleton riding, and Flamborough-Glanbrook in Hamilton, where Dan Muys was elected.

In the meantime, amid Brown’s call that people “can’t live in fear,” provincial data extracted by Peel Public Health shows that the virus is hanging around in the region.

Acute care capacity was 99 per cent during the week of Feb. 15 to 21, the last seven-day period where statistics are available. Capacity for beds with ventilators (57%) and intensive-care-unit beds (76%) was more promising.

Also of note, however, was that 87.7 per cent of cases from Dec. 19 to Feb. 24, more than 44,000 in all, were linked to community spread. In the first 21 months of the pandemic, about 32,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Peel, or 26.7 per cent of the total, were believed to be most likely linked to community spread.

Many medical groups in Canada are also, contrary to Brown’s stance, advocating for children to continue masking in schools. As noted, it was just two days ago that Children’s Health Coalition called on provincial governments to continue with masking in schools.

The CHC said it would help keep children from unknowingly “spreading COVID-19 at home to unvaccinated siblings, family or community members.”

The deadline and date for the Conservative leadership contest was reported by the CBC on Wednesday night.

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