A variation of a long running Soviet Union joke on how the State ran the country
***Feb 07 Update – The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is reporting that the Federal Government is delaying their ‘Lock-Up the Travelers‘ program for a few weeks. Hopefully, some of the backlash from secretly abducting travelers like Ethan McDonald, Nikki Mathis, and Steve Duesing, whose stories are being widely publicized, gave the government something to think about moving forward. Canadian governments seem to operate mostly through gauging public opinion, so if they see the public getting into an uproar over a particular Covid policy, maybe we can get them to back down from some of the more egregious ones. Please share these stories while we have the momentum if you feel healthy Canadians should not be arbitrarily locked up until they prove they are not sick.
Western Standard has been good with articles on detainees. Here’s another man, Neil McCullough, who was detained at the same Calgary Westin Airport with Nikki Mathis. He got to spend 11 days cooped up with no representation courtesy of PHAC.***
***Feb 03 Update – Steve Duesing is now free, free that is to go and quarantine at home for another 14 days upon threat of a $1 million dollar fine or three years in jail. This, after two negative Covid-19 tests.***
***Feb 03 Update – Just reported by Joe Warmington for the Toronto Sun, Steve Duesing is still incarcerated in a Toronto hotel. Mr. Duesing reports that there appears to be lots of activity outside of the hotel and Health Canada has indicated they will give an update on Wednesday.
Ethan McDonald is now home with his mother Rebekah in Red Deer. Ms. McDonald created a series of Facebook videos to detail their ordeal and is linked here.***
***Feb 02 Update – Just reported now by Joe Warmington for the Toronto Sun, it appears that on Sunday a number of people were swept up by authorities at Pearson International. One man, Steve Duesing, spoke with the reporter about his ordeal and his fears that many people off his flight are in the same Covid jail.***
This past weekend, Canada joined the ranks of dictatorships such as Iran, China, or North Korea by forcibly kidnapping Canadian citizens at the Calgary Airport and whisking them away to secret quarantine detention centers. You may be forgiven for not being aware of this escalation of Covid enforcement because there has been very little media coverage. CTV News Calgary actually reported on the two people who were taken for forcible quarantine under the headline ‘Concern growing around mandated hotel quarantine restrictions‘. Global News Calgary has only wrote a piece about the hotel association being concerned about irate hotel ‘guests’ (prisoners) being irate with hotel employees. Nothing from CBC yet.
Faytene.TV did a long interview with the abducted woman, Nikki Mathis, (since released) so that the full side of her story plus more of the other abductee’s story, Ethan McDonald, could be told. It can be watched here and here. There is also another interview with Nikki and her husband here. Hopefully, enough heat will come to bear that politicians will finally listen and change course on a simply outrageous policy.
Getting back to the premise of the title of this article, let us delve a little deeper into the anatomy of political scandal. There are plenty to choose from during the best of times but during these unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic times, they are becoming close and personal for all Canadians.
Anatomy of a Political Scandal
The Incident Occurs
The go-to response by politicians is to outright lie, obfuscate, muddy the waters, or deny the incident occurred. Actual government services such as the police when asked direct questions try to not outright lie as they could actually get into real trouble. They will issue terse, direct, factual statements until the higher ups see which way the wind is blowing before they elaborate further. For more sensitive events, they will refer spokesperson interviews higher up the food chain. They will not volunteer extra information as context.
As an aside, is it wise to employ a pathological liar let alone allow them to be in positions of political leadership? If this type of behaviour isn’t tolerated as a trait in your employees then why do we tolerate it in the people who lead our country?
Premier Jason Kenney, to his credit, actually responded to the abduction of the pastor’s wife with this FaceBook post:
Premier Kenney, or more than likely his PR Twitterer staff, is very clever with this tweet. There was some original confusion as to which health authority was involved, mainly because they refused to identify themselves. But this muddies the waters and gives credence to the reports are just ‘rumours’.
Of course, Kenney is not alone when it comes to following this script. Doug Ford outright lied over his knowledge of his Finance Minister’s Christmas Caribbean vacation. Prime Minister Trudeau and his Cabinet just literally spew talking points when point blank asked specific questions. But we are so used to the lying, the public doesn’t even care anymore (normally). It’s de rigueur.
The Incident Grows
This is the stage where the incident grows some legs and starts to gather the ’15 minutes’ of fame. More information becomes available, usually because of media pressure, (sorely lacking in the Covid age as MSM seems to be in lockstep with the government narratives) and the lie starts to fall apart.
Now the politicians try to deflect blame and you get the classic run-around. It’s always someone else’s fault, somebody else is in charge of that, we weren’t aware of the situation, those people acted against my authority, or the classic, ‘We were following orders‘. As for the airport abductions, Kenney has this to say:
Rumours are now reports, it isn’t Alberta agencies to blame but Federal, and really this should be turned back on the people who were taken away. It’s really their faults as they didn’t ‘inform themselves’ properly. I left my comment in the post as it is indicative of the thousands of angry responses directed at the Premier. I am actually surprised that the posts are still available for viewing and commenting.
In dictatorships, they usually try censorship, arrests or executions to try and ‘make the story go away’. In democracies, they can try to let the story naturally run out of steam. This is highly dependant on how much life it receives from MSM. But if the regular news outlets refuse to cover the incident, as alleged by Stockwell Day in the following Tweet, then social media and fringe outlets have to take up the slack.
The Incident Containment is Lost
This is where the lie has been totally blown apart and the public pressure becomes the most intense. Governments can fall at this point because the public is so fed up.
As we saw during the holiday season with travelling politicians and bureaucrats, there was white hot anger on the part of the long suffering Canadian Covid locked-down public. No amount of sorrowful apologies can smooth over the mob demanding blood and heads on a pike.
Savvy politicians, like Premier Pallister, know how to navigate the political minefields as he just punted the chair of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority for non-essential travel. Boom, gone, no news cycle, no public uproar because clear decisive action was taken and the head is already mounted on the castle wall.
It will be interesting to see where these airport abductions finally end up at with regards to political and institutional fallout. This is hitting a nerve with Joe & Jane Canadian. They are already tired of never-ending and increasing restrictions to liberties as this ‘pandemic’ grinds along.
Politicians seriously misjudged the anger associated with the news of government officials travelling during the Christmas break. It’s entirely possible they will also miss the point where a critical mass of Canadians will stop putting up with their Covid shenanigans. Historically, it is not wise to push the people of this country too far.
There is one last detail every Canadian should think about for a few seconds. If we know that politicians are pathological liars, demonstrably so time and time again, then what else have they been lying to us about all through this period of crisis?
At some point, people and plain reality makes fools and examples of the liars.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
*** Dec 30 Update – Nearly 5500 calls were made to the Covid Enforcement Brown shirts over the Christmas period of Dec 21-27. Most of the $1296 personal fines were related to household gatherings. So, thousands of Manitobans ratted on their neighbors. Nice to know who is watching. ***
*** Dec 22 Update – A nearby Municipality has confirmed that the Province is soliciting through Council for persons or organizations to act as their defacto Covid enforcers ‘Eyes & Ears’. This particular Council declined to cooperate. ***
Canary, fink, informer, narc, rat fink, snitch, tattletale are all synonymous terms associated with people willing to report their fellow citizens to the authorities whether it’s on the school playground or the mean streets. Now our 2020 lexicon has a new term added, the dreaded ‘Karen’.
Notice how all the words for a stool pigeon are derogatory in nature? Tattletales run to the teacher to squeal on the mean kids. Collaborators turned in their fellow citizens in totalitarian regimes such as fascist Germany or Stalinst Russia. Now, busybody Karens drop a dime on their neighbors commiting the sin of Covid infractions.
Karens in the Keystone province have been busy since April when you could first start complaining about your neighbor’s pandemic faux pax. If you are interested in the records of Manitoba’s enforcement fines, they can be accessed at the Cross-Departmental Reports section of this link. Businesses are named and shamed for various Covid related infractions which run at $5000 a pop.
All across Canada, there are increasing instances of snitch induced Covid disputes. A widely published social media video from Calgary recently showing a young man, Ocean Wiesblatt, being arrested by Calgary Police Services. If you watch the numerous full length online videos, the situation devolved to the point where a policewoman lost control of herself and pointed a taser at Mr. Wiesblatt with the threat of discharging the weapon. Eventually, he was taken down, his skates forcibly cut off, and he was arrested.
This entire incident was precipitated by an informer, Twitter handle dlo-artist, who had broadcast the following:
Screenshot from dlo-artist’s deleted Twitter account
This Karen has since deleted many of their social media accounts but the person’s home address is still visible. The address is on the other end of town from the Southwood Community Association Rink. Why were they so bothered by the horrible ‘atrocity’ of an extra five people on the ice? Oh, the humanity, 90 minutes and the Covid SWAT teams aren’t dispatched yet?!?
Scrolling through D Lo 168’s patreon and clothing store accounts, which are still active, it would appear that this erotic artist is fond of drawing partially clad/naked Disney heroines in suggestive sexual positions. I would assume that the Walt Disney Company is entirely comfortable with the racy depictions of their creations and that there are no copyright issues.
This is the problem with the snitch game, what goes around comes around. Is it really any skin off your nose if this artist is making a living from ripping off Disney? But was it any of their business to call the cops on a gathering of an extra five people playing outdoor hockey?
Perhaps these Karens who are willing to snitch on Covid rule breakers are motivated by a higher cause. But the weight of evidence, especially from the totalitarian societies of the 20th Century, suggests otherwise. Informants were used to great effect in Stalinist Russia. If you felt slighted by your neighbor, desired his job, his house, or his pretty wife, all you had to do was call up the State, make up a story and late that night the SMERSH black sedans would whisk them away. Of course, you would always be nervously looking over your own shoulder in case you inadvertently crossed someone. Gradually, on a larger scale this devolves into a ‘Lord of the Flies’ situation and everyone lives in terror.
Even here in Canada, it has been recognized that police informants are only rarely to be relied upon, especially when some sort of compensation is involved.
By now it must be clear that jailhouse informers are so unreliable that they tend to undermine criminal trials… Their testimony has all too often resulted in a wrongful conviction… How many wrongful convictions must there be before the use of these informers is forbidden or, at least, confined to very rare cases.
The current trend of Canadian provinces setting up dedicated Covid Snitch lines is unsettling. Manitoba has a COVID Tip Line for tattling on your neighbors who might notice you are having guests over for Christmas supper. The Province went out of its way to authorize extra personnel with the ability to hand out tickets. Indeed, the Province went so far as to hire a private security firm to bolster the numbers.
What is worse is it seems that authorities are not just content with ‘Team Manitoba’ doing the right thing and volunteering to tattle. There are rumours that small towns now have PAID Covid snitches. I reached out to the Manitoba government and Crime Stoppers for comment. According to a spokesperson from the Manitoba Communication Services, the Province has not adopted this policy nor condones it. But, according to a Municipality in my area, the Council was approached by the Province to see if there was anyone or organization in town who would act as their Covid infraction ‘Eyes & Ears’. This particular Council declined to cooperate.
I predict this widening network of ratting out of your neighbors and local businesses over having a guest over or not wearing a mask, will not end well.
The young hockey player only mouthed off to those cops but he did not resist arrest other than passively stand on the ice. It was the two women officers who lost control and almost tasered him. How long will it be before someone gets shot and killed over something as stupid as not wearing a mask?
Then on the flip side, have you heard of the phrase ‘Snitches get Stitches’? It’s pretty easy to figure out in a small town who is ratting people out. Small town gossip travels faster than a viral video and the end result could easily end in bloodshed. Is that really the intent of health regulations that are supposed to be ‘protecting’ us?
The Covid-19 pandemic has started to unleash the brutish nastiness we are willing to inflict on our fellow man in the name of the ‘public good’. I suggest reading Christopher Browning’s novel ‘Ordinary Men‘ in order to better understand the concerns raised by people opposing the pandemic health orders and draconic enforcement measures.
Canada is lurching down a dark path and our authorities are employing tactics well known to tyrants. If you ever wondered what were the genesis points of past Canadian atrocities, we are living it now.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
WFPS respond to multiple calls at the Maples Personal Care Home in Winnipeg during a deadly weekend in early November 2020. (Source: CTV News Winnipeg)
WHAT WENT SO TERRIBLY WRONG IN MANITOBA?
This is a candid assessment of the abysmal handling of Manitoba’s Covid-19 response on the part of our elected and appointed officials who were tasked with guiding the province through a ‘pandemic’. Frankly, everyone of them should resign in disgrace and several should be arrested and charged with criminal negligence causing death.
The Manitoba government releases numerous News Bulletins and since Jan 30, nearly 300 specifically on Covid-19. All of the following information has been gleaned from the government’s own media releases.
Here is a list and some of my commentary on the key Manitoba Covid-19 milestones:
Mar 10: Province looking for more PPE & masks for patients and caregivers
Mar 13: Started ramping up testing & opening clinics, schools to close Mar 23 to Apr 10, events with more than 250 to be cancelled
It would be interesting to see the value of Dynacare’s contract for testing in Manitoba
Mar 17: Closure of daycares, casinos, Personal Care Home (PCH) lockdowns, gatherings down to 50, Province had 266 ventilators & Health Sciences Center created a 30 bed Isolation Ward
Mar 20: State of Emergency declared (continues to this day), all gatherings limited to 50, Manitobans asked to ‘Flatten the Curve’
The Provincial government copied most of the rest of the World with their response to a virus which was heralded as apocalyptic. In essence, we all maxed out the credit cards, took out a second mortgage, quit our jobs, slammed the door shut, and hid cowering in our basements covering our ears so we couldn’t hear the wolf howling outside.
Mar 26: termed a ‘Historic Pandemic’, $4.5M to be spent combating Covid-19 anxiety
“The most important way of reducing the spread of this virus is to stay at home as much as you can,” Roussin said. “We know that this virus is spread, almost exclusively, by symptomatic people and through close, prolonged contact with those individuals.”
Mar 27: gatherings dropped to 10, Provincial highway checkpoints set on borders
Mar 30: restaurants closed to diners, non-essential businesses to close
Mar 31: School cancelled to ‘flatten the curve’, Manitobans told to ‘Stay Home’
For the Apr & May, MB closed. There was zero traffic on the roads, no school, no non-essential businesses open, everyone applied social distancing, all borders were closed, all events started to be cancelled, there was little mask use, in person government related services closed, there was a touch phobia and a run on toilet paper, disinfectant products, and hand sanitizer.
Apr 5: Province to borrow $10B, told to stay home for Easter to flatten the curve.
Apr 9: OP Safe Apart announced with enhanced fines of $486/person & $2542/business, they have since increased to $1296/person & $5000/business plus $298/person for not wearing a mask in a public place (2nd highest in the country). Snitch line & extra officers set up to enforce, more messaging to ‘Flatten the Curve’
Apr 15: Emergency Act to be strengthened & $1B to be spent on Covid-19 efforts
Apr 16: Travel to Northern MB cutoff
Apr 29: Announced plans for slow reopening starting May 4
Manitoba did quite well at keeping the wolf out. Our numbers were very low and we did not see the type of carnage in our Personal Care Homes (PCHs) that was experienced in Ontario and Quebec. You would think provincial officials would have been taking notes.
Manitoba’s current hospital capacity: 2432 Acute Care beds plus 86 ICU with expansion plans for extra 300 AC and 100 ICU emergency spaces
Ok, looks like the Province is ready in case of a Fall resurgence. Maybe all the sacrifice and unprecedented spending to ‘flatten the curve’ bought us some time.
Apr 30: PCHs to restrict staff to one home only, all 127 homes have adequate staffing in place
Good idea? Government is great at making up new rules and laws but is infamous for not understanding the practicalities for implementation. There are reasons homecare workers bounce from residence to residence. A good manager would have looked at this and known immediately that this plan would not be sustainable.
May 4: 2020/21 deficit could possibly hit $5B, MB had the highest direct debt/capita of all provinces
May 22: Gatherings allowed to increase from 25 to 50
Jun 4: MB dropped 64,200 jobs in Apr and had a 13,800 rebound in May, unemployment rate was 11.2%
Jun 23: started planning for PCH visitations
Jun 26: Northern MB opened back up
Jun 29: $280M for PCHs for fire suppression capital projects
Jun 30: Fiscal update, $2.1B spent on Covid-19 measures and touted as 2nd highest as % of GDP, $5B deficit projected if there’s a 2nd wave. 7000 Surgical procedures delayed and still not caught up
Jul 17: cases up-ticked and blamed on Hutterites. (There was a large funeral in AB with thousands of Hutterites attending. Individual Hutterites started to be discriminated against.)
This was the beginning of the government’s ‘Name & Shame’ campaign. Premier Pallister has personally gaslighted numerous individuals and businesses for not being on ‘Team Manitoba’. His melodramatic tirades berate anyone who questions his dictates. He was ‘forced’ to cancel Christmas because we just did not listen!
This has only served to divide the population and has encouraged an army of Karens eager to snitch on their neighbors because they’re not following this or that inane new pandemic rule.
Jul 21: “Thanks to the efforts of all Manitobans, we continue to lead in recovery and have among the lowest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country,” said Pallister. “That means we can continue our careful, balanced plan to restart our economy, give people back their lives and get Manitobans back to work. Manitoba is one of the safest places in the world to go back to work and get back up on your feet,” said Pallister. “We must maintain our vigilance while growing our way out of this pandemic. I encourage all Manitobans to have their say in our next steps of restarting our economy.”
This did not age well as our rates in the fall were some of the worst in North America.
Jul 29: Front line workers to receive $1377
By this point, Manitobans were starting to move around again and businesses were open. People still kept their distance and being outdoors and camping were popular. Even on the beaches, people ‘social distanced’.
Aug 11: In the Prairie Mountain Health (PMH) region there was a slight uptick in cases related to Hutterite colonies and some Brandon clusters connected to close contacts. Vehicles for the Brandon testing site stretched for miles.
Aug 17: Advice from government was to wash hands, social distance, and the first instance to consider masks if social distancing was not possible. SuperStore and other major retailers were making mask use mandatory as of Aug 24
Aug 19: Premier Pallister, after complaints from parents, mandated masks for Grades 4-12 upon return to Sep classes
This was another knee-jerk reaction from the government. They were fine with sending the kids back to school without masks. Then immediately after an outcry from concerned parents, out came the first of the mask dictates.
You know what, I do not care if you want to wear a mask or not, fill your boots. There is some wishy washy evidence about their effectiveness that only surprisingly came out with this virus and none others, ever! But if you believe in them, fine, that’s how placebos work.I do notice that people are not avoiding each other as much anymore.
Masks also gave the government a convenient focus point to show they were serious about dealing with this thing. They could also gaslight the ‘anti-mask’ malcontents and point fingers and the spotlight away from failed government policies.
Aug 24: PMH region moved to Condition Orange for minimum 2 weeks (it lasted a month). Mandatory masks and gatherings in & out limited to 10. Cases in PMH starting Aug 6 – Sep 16 were: 18, 10, 2, 20, 11, 3, 4, 12, 25, 3, 9, 20, 2, 13, 17, 5, 24, 45, 35 (this was the day PMH moved to Orange), 10, 8, 9, 18, 31, 12, 13, 7, 8, 6, 1, 4, 3, 6, 0, 1, 2, 4, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 4. Hospitalizations, ICU visits, and deaths in the region barely moved.
My suspicion for the ‘high’ case days is there was mass testing at the Hutterite colonies and no surprise, they found extra infections. Obviously, because the colonies could be closed down easily, there was no wider community spread.
But the panic over case numbers gave the government the excuse to put the entire Southwest corner of the Province into a partial lockdown. Manitoba had been successful at keeping the wolf away but a little yip sent us running back to the basement.
Sep 3: travel to Northern MB was closed again and there were more mask recommendations from the Province
Schools reopened around Sep 8, and immediately cases were identified at various schools. They were mostly described as coming from outside of the school with no general outbreaks. But Sep 22, 20 cases were connected with a Winnipeg school. Mask use in Winnipeg was already increasing both in and out.
There are good reasons to get the children back into school. One big one is that there is not enough child care if they were all sent home again. But drive by a school at recess. The kids are swapping germs like they always have and the hundreds of ‘School Exposures’ list backs that up.
The Government lies that children do not spread the virus. Otherwise, why were the 20 schools of the Hanover School Division shut down? Why are the higher grades staying home an extra two weeks after Christmas vacation? But if you apply a risk analysis, society needs to take these extra cases on the chin and live with it.
Sep 18: PMH was brought back to yellow but there was a ‘concern’ about the rising case numbers in Winnipeg. PMH was touted as a success story because they ‘followed’ the rules.
Cases, cases, cases….so what? They’re juicy high numbers for public consumption & handy for gaslighting different regions but without context over how serious each case is, again, so what?
Sep 28: Winnipeg went to Orange with mandatory masks and gathering sizes of only 10 in or out.
It is glaringly obvious that despite mass mask wearing, social distancing, and hiding in our basements, the wolf had not gone away. The virus was endemic to the Province and all we had accomplished was to have it roar back as viruses typically do after the summer lull.
Starting in Oct, there were warnings that Manitobans should not gather for Thanksgiving (Oct 10). There were numerous case outbreaks all Oct in schools, prisons, and PCHs. Outbreaks in PCHs started to explode starting around Oct 20. Healthcare workers were identified as the carriers into some PCHs. Outbreaks are still continuing in numerous PCHs, schools, and prisons.
This was the point of breakdown in the PCHs and should have been sending wake-up calls to those in charge. PCH staff were burning out and bringing the infection into the residences with devastating results reminiscent of the spring carnage experienced in Ontario and Quebec. Funny how the PPE protocols did not protect the elderly in the scores of homes that have experienced outbreaks.
Oct 7: During the Speech from the Throne: “This year has been like no other, yet we have weathered it better than most,” said Pallister. “The resilience of Manitoba’s economy, finances, public services, and most of all, our people, have stood out strong. I am confident that if we keep working together, guided by Manitoba values, we will come out of this pandemic stronger and more prosperous.”
It didn’t take long for Pallister to be caught out in this lie.
Oct 9: An emergency $500M infusion of cash sought by government to add to $1.577B already spent on Covid-19
Oct 19: Province mandated more business closures, reduced gathering sizes, and liquor establishment curfews in Winnipeg
Oct 26: travel to Northern MB shut down again
Nov 2: Premier Pallister announced MB was ready for a 2nd wave, there was a focus on more testing. In Winnipeg, if one household resident was symptomatic all residents had to isolate pending a negative test result. Exemptions were made for healthcare & First Responders if they were asymptomatic. Winnipeg went to a hard lockdown.
Nov 5: The Premier emphasized that he was bringing the non-compliance hammer down and encouraged Manitobans to snitch on their neighbors. A contract with a private security company, G4S, was being written up so a total of 3300 government personnel could issue Covid-19 tickets. Meanwhile, PCH orders were changed to exempt workers from only working in one home.
Nov 12: The entire Province went to condition Red and hard lockdowns
Nov 13: A team was being sent to Maples PCH to determine what went wrong. Over 50 of the 200 residents have passed away so far.
The staff at Maples conducted a fo’c’sle sitdown mutiny when they en-mass called in sick and contacted 911 numerous times on the evening of Nov 6. People can only work in impossible conditions for so long before they give up in despair.
Where were the Health inspectors who should have been keeping tabs on a system that was starting to fall apart? PCHs had gone to hard lockdown mid-Oct. When things came to a head at Maples, well over 30 PCHs had declared outbreaks.
In the Navy, you are taught to stay ahead of the Ship instead of surfing behind her in the wake. The Navy also has a Board of Inquiry after every major incident in order to assign blame and to roll heads.
People need to go to jail for what happened in these homes.
The average age of Covid-19 mortality is exactly the same as the average life expectancy! If the media wasn’t blaring about the pandemic, would we even know there was one?
Dec 8: Premier Pallister cancels Christmas and New Year’s. He continues to ‘Name & Shame’ non-compliant offenders. He did let up on drive-in religious services after some high profile church incidents.
Frankly, my belief is if Pallister had enough troops, he would place all of MB under house arrest. Thankfully, he only has 3300 ticketing goons and a volunteer army of snitching Karens.
Dec 9: $7.7M announced for PCHs to help with staffing and operating expenses
This latest funding announcement, is too little too late. It was identified from day one who the virus was going to be worst towards. But instead of being proactive, the Province has allowed the system to self-monitor itself and they are always playing catch-up.
Ken Waddell has been writing some scathing editorials at the Neepawa Banner over the Government’s handling of Covid-19. In many of them, he has mentioned some proactive steps the health officials could have been touting. One in particular is the steps taken by the local hog plant which has kept the virus out. So here’s a question, how can the meat plants be so successful when healthcare ‘professionals’ are failing so badly?
Here is the answer. Healthcare in Canada sucks and has been that way for decades. PCH service is even worse. Our much vaunted systems are run by incompetent administrators who know how to ‘play the game’ instead of actually knowing how to run things. Our elected officials care more about looking like they are doing something rather than actually doing something.
Increasingly, western governments and their populations have become risk adverse. Government has sought to control more and more of our lives. Then a moderate crisis came along and their go-to response was to SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN! They went all in with a philosophy of making the goal zero cases yielding zero deaths. The population is going along with it, so why change course or admit you were wrong?
To be perfectly blunt, old, sick people die. Also, to be direct, the West is so divorced from reality they cannot handle this simple fact of life. The wolf eventually gets us all. Sadly, most people are so narcissistic they only feign concern for the elderly. The most strident of Karens are concerned only for their own well-being.
The numbers for Manitoba show we are dying from Covid-19 at the SAME EXACT RATE AS NORMAL LIFE EXPECTANCY! We literally have no abnormal death spikes, our hospitals and ICUs are not being overrun or in danger of being overrun. Unless the media told you, you wouldn’t even know we were in a pandemic.
Of course, the virus is dangerous mainly to the old and sick but instead of targeted solutions with acceptable risk/benefit outcomes, we have gone with an untenable zero risk model. This will only result in an endless game of whack-a-mole which we will never win and ruin the Province and thousands of lives. The cure is fast becoming worse than the disease. Maybe a fast roll-out of an effective vaccine will get us off this ride of horrors.
Heaven help us if we ever have to face an actual wolf at the door.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Mathematics is a joy to me. It does not care about your feelings or beliefs. 2 + 2 = 4 and does not change because of your gender, sexual orientation, or skin colour. If it ever does change because of political virtue signaling, then your car will not start and planes will fall out of the sky.
Canada is chest deep into the Covid-19 crisis and we should have some numbers to more confidently project what has happened and what may be in store. Unlike the Imperial College models that were projecting 1% of the country’s population was going to outright die, so far Canada is well short of that at 12,301 deaths (Dec 02) vice the apocalyptic number of 370,000.
If you are a fan of the Road Runner cartoons, there inevitably comes a point where Wile E. Coyote heads right off a cliff. He is okay until he looks down, then the cruel hand of gravity reaches up and down he goes despite all his arm flapping. So in spite of all the arm flapping on the part of politicians, their attendant medical professionals, and cheerleading Karens, what are the observable mortality numbers saying to us?
The caveat in this presentation is did I introduce any personal bias? I am well aware of the phrase, “Lies, damnedlies, and statistics“, so I attempted to refrain from not letting the numbers speak for themselves. I did have the bias that I have seen presentations from Ivor Cummins and Genevieve Briand, Johns Hopkins University on the numbers from the States and Europe. I wanted to see what Canadian numbers were doing.
So with the preamble out of the way, let’s dive in.
For the last two decades, Canadian mortality has been increasing at a relatively steady rate of +3475 deaths/yr. Some years are worse than others, some better. Our population has been growing and the Boomers are getting older, so this makes sense.
The big killers of Canadians are Cancer and Heart Attack & Stroke. Cancer has been increasing at about 920 deaths/yr while Heart Attack & Stroke have decreased 260 deaths/yr. Cancer became the #1 killer after 2007.
Accidents, Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease, and Influenza & Pneumonia are next up but orders of magnitude behind the big killers.
Strangely, Accidents have been making serious increases over the last 20 years.
Flu & Pneumonia kick along at the 6000-8000 range each year.
As a side note, suicide rates saw a slight uptick over the decades from 3600 to about 4000/yr. It’ll be interesting to see the numbers after this year with all the clinical depression due to the crisis and government actions.
Now, let’s add in what 2020 has been doing so far this year:
The total mortalities reported across Canada comes to 207,155. Our expected mortality given an average death rate of an extra 3475/yr should be 210,630. When reading the StatCan table, the numbers are not complete so the far yellow line is a guess that 75% of deaths have been tabulated. So by year end, that projection is about 276,000. That’s substantially short of what would be expected but who knows what lag time there is with respect to StatCan receiving correct numbers.
The second to last set of bars are the actual reported 2020 numbers to date.
Now here’s the weird part, which was also picked up by the Johns Hopkins researcher. Cancer and Heart & Stoke numbers are fairly linear with a slight dip from winter down to summer, then climbing. When looking at the provinces with numbers through to Sep, there are no large upticks that should skew these estimations badly.
After taking the first half year numbers and doubling them, you should have a good projection of the year’s totals. My assumption was any numbers past June may have not been finalized. So with Cancer and a growth rate of 920/yr, we would expect 81,072 deaths. Heart Attack & Stroke with a decrease of 260/yr would be 70,850.
But the projection of Cancer deaths after six months of stats is only 75,150 which is a shortfall of 5,922 deaths. Heart Attacks & Stroke is projected at 62,510 which is also a shortfall of 8,340 deaths, for a total of 14,262 missing deaths by the end of the year.
Did we cure cancer this year and in all the hubbub of Covid-19, someone forgot to report on it? Coincidentally, our Covid-19 deaths are just over 12,000. Weird, eh?
So, how do Canadians die on a month to month basis?
Jan, Dec, Mar, and Feb are the worst months for mortality. Some years there are spikes and some years are calm. Every 3 to 4 years there is a bad spike in Jan. On the opposite years, it looks like Dec gives the spike.
In general, Canadians die the most with the biggest swings starting in Jan then it calms down into the summer and gradually picks up through the fall into winter.
Feb & Mar 1998 was a bad year that coincided with a bad flu season that year.
2013, 2015, & 2018 saw bad Jan spikes. 2018 started off badly with spikes in Jan, Feb, & Mar. This coincided with a bad 2018 flu season which was termed the worst in five years.
So, let’s add in the deaths for 2020 and see what we get:
Obviously, there were the big jumps in Apr & May attributed to when Covid-19 got really bad, particularly in ON & QC in the Long Term Care (LTC) facilities. But there were already significant upticks in Jan, Feb, & Mar. Something was already going on and usually upticks at this time of year seem to signal something going on with the flu.
Jun seemed to flatten and decrease. Jul and Sep really nosed down but again, those numbers might not be finalized yet. But it is a good indication that after a quick rush of deaths, things may have settled and even decreased.
Here’s a great, little interactive tool on the StatCan website:
Obvious Covid-19 spike for 2020. But compare that spike to Jan’s 2018 flu influenced spike, 6745 to 6630. I don’t recall any crazy lockdowns or slaughtering of our economy because of 2018’s mortalities, maybe I just missed it. Then in mid-Jun, death rates are back within five year norms. When did all those mandatory mask rules come in again?
2020 numbers drop off out through Sep but because of incomplete numbers.
The cool thing about this interactive tool is you can check out each province. I’ll let you scroll through the rest but the most striking point is this was not a Canadian pandemic. This was a Quebec pandemic. Ontario only had a bit of a bump in comparison. This would coincide with the bloodbath in their LTC homes.
BC had a peak of deaths mid-Mar and AB has no pattern other than a slight overall increase of 30-40 deaths each month. You wouldn’t even know anything was going on in the rest of the country.
Logarithmic scale is used to show the rate of change. When you go to the interactive chart on the Worldometer site, the Covid-19 deaths were small but grew quickly until the curve ‘flattened’ at the end of May. But the rate of growth was not exponential as everyone feared when governments all hit the panic button. In fact, Mar 18, the curve was already curling over on its own. Considering Canadian Provinces had not instituted Emergency Orders even by that point, you have to ask if all those measures did anything.
Also, since we are in a so-called ‘2nd Wave’, ummmm, where’s the evidence for that? The rate of change in the death rate is almost dead flat but our lockdown measures are stricter than ever and Christmas is going to be cancelled. Sure the media is shouting about the case count each day but if Canadians aren’t falling over dead in the streets it sure seems like a nothing burger.
So, I ask again, what has all the arm flapping here in Canada been about? By the mortality stats, this does not appear to be a particularly bad year compared to even 2018. By the fall numbers and historical norms, we’re past the bad spike and into regular death rates.
Here’s my take away point: politicians, their health experts plus the media have access to this info. Everyone does because it is public and StatCan does an excellent job gathering numbers. But no one hears anything but doom and gloom. This tells me that our overlords are either incompetent or distorting the truth on purpose. One thing for sure, the precedent is set for the next time a little bump in the road shows up. Once governments see how easy it is to rip away your freedoms, they will repeat.
Unfortunately, many Canadians without cushy government jobs or with the ability to work from home are desperately trying to not look down. They know that no amount of arm flapping is going to save them from the big splat.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Most Canadians would hold the belief that their sacred institutions from the Federal Parliament down through their Province and Municipal elected officials would have their backs in time of strife or mayhem. Most Canadians have access to 911 service whose operators quickly determine, “Police, Fire, or Ambulance”. In extremis, when provincial resources fail, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are on call for Aid to the Civil Power operations.
The public should expect that with the billions of tax dollars spent on emergency preparedness with the central coordination run through Public Safety Canada that Canadians should be well taken care of in the event of calamity.
Well, Canada, depending on the scope of the disaster, be prepared to look after yourself.
Here are a few examples to illustrate my point:
A snow covered Argus at the Comox Air Museum – Photo courtesy of Katherine Bickford, http://carlykb.com/gateway/
Comox Snowfall Cancels Christmas Military Flights
If anyone has lived on the West Coast of BC, either in the Lower Mainland or on the Island, they are somewhat acquainted with that weird meteorological phenomenon called snow. It will occasionally show up, usually in multiples of feet, create absolute havoc for a couple of days, then melt with the subsequent rain. The rest of Canada would take the opportunity to make fun of us for a change while they were suffering from the more usual Canadian winter weather.
Up Island at 19 Wing Comox, there is usually a good wallop of the white stuff maybe once a year. The RCAF are not stupid and like any Canadian airport, they have a Snow and Ice Removal (SNIC) plan. But all the planning does not help when a particular weather event happens rarely. Hence, each and every year, it is like people have never seen snow or what to do with it when it shows up.
That is when the holes of the Swiss cheese all line up and an incident happens such as one occasion while I was the Duty Operations officer for 442 Squadron.
The Christmas Military Flight Airbus had flown into Comox and was ready to start the long cross country journey across Canada to Trenton, ON. A large snowfall had occurred overnight and since the airfield did not have a hangar large enough, the aircraft remained parked outside overnight. The actual snow was not so much the issue as was the ability to de-ice the aircraft whose dimensions were too large for the civilian terminal machines to take care of.
Back in the day when the Boeing 707, aka White Knuckle Airlines, flew, the frequency of flights would be two or three times per week. Nowadays, larger military aircraft flying into Comox is rare.
But, hey, no problem, call in the military de-icer. Whoops, the one guy who knew how to run the machine was on Christmas leave out of the Valley. Okay, we pulled out the Operator’s Manual to see how to run the machine. Fine, but whoops again, the barrels of de-icing fluid were half a mile up a snow plugged road that was very low on the SNIC plan priority list. Long story short, the Keystone Kops bumbling caused the cancellation of the flight and the ruination of hundreds of military member’s Christmas plans.
Lesson Learned: This debacle occurred due to a combination of factors involving the rarity of a weather event and the nature of how the RCAF is run. Snow occasionally shows up in Comox but it is only a bother for a few days until the rain washes it away. You can plan for it but institutional memory is short and can be complicated with frequent postings or lack of adequately trained personnel who are not familiar with how to handle semi-complicated situations.
If the wind was steady and freshening from the Southeast, would not a prudent person look towards where the fire might head towards?
Town of Slave Lake Burns Down in 2011
According to news articles and the subsequent 2012 KPMG report, it was a miracle that no one died during the evacuation of the Town of Slave Lake on May 15, 2011.
Words like massive, unprecedented, rapidly-developing were used to describe a wall of fire being pushed into town by 100 km/h winds. The fire, later determined to be arson, cost Albertans about $1 billion in damage and recovery costs.
The arsonist has yet to be identified and no blame was ever laid against any of the people in charge of responding to the inferno. But should have the authorities been better prepared?
The KPMG report made a series of recommendations mostly based on better communication and cooperation amongst the disparate entities in charge of the area’s emergency response. One crucial factor overlooked, except for a single minor mention related to the Provincial Operations Center (Pg 63), was literally no one was paying attention to the weather!
It was a hot, dry spring in fire country. There were numerous wildfires in the area, some to the SW of town and Fire 65 (the one that burnt down the town) was to the SE. Would you not think that a single person in charge would consult a weather forecast to see if any weather phenomenon such as high winds were in the forecast?!?
In the military, literally every briefing started with a Met Report so that everyone, especially the Commanding Officer, could weigh the risks associated with the forecast weather situation. Then as the day goes on, there are regular weather updates especially if a rapidly approaching system is expected to impact operations. Also, when all else fails, you look out the window.
Going back through the meteorological records from the Slave Lake Airport starting at midnight May 13, the wind was from the West at 20 kph, veered North at 0900, dropped to 10 kph and continued to veer to ESE at 1600 picking up again to about 20 kph. The barometric pressure started to steeply decline at this point. For the next three days the wind stayed in the Southeast with the really strong winds occurring on the 15th, the day of the main evacuation.
This type of weather indicates there was a deepening, west to east moving, low pressure system with a steep pressure gradient to the west of town. The weather forecasters would have predicted the high winds but no one was paying attention.
Lesson Learned: Complacency and lack of specific knowledge almost got a lot of people killed. The area was described as ‘fire country’ so no one was particularly concerned about fires in the area. The arson, whether deliberate or accidental, should have been foreseen because of the conditions. But the most egregious lack of foresight was the collective oversight of simply looking up the forecast or even noticing that the wind was steady and freshening from the direction of a rapidly growing fire.
Coast Guard Station Sea Island – Photo courtesy of Duane Currie
Lack of Coordination Between Lower Mainland Emergency Services
The over-riding emergency fear for Vancouver’s Lower Mainland is the inevitable ‘Big Quake’. To that end, the province has attempted to prepare for it.
Thankfully, the 2010 Winter Olympics helped officials as they were able to tap into extra money which was put towards emergency preparedness. A great example is the province’s E-Comm system (finally fully rolled out in 2018) whereupon all the seperate agencies can actually communicate with one another.
During an emergency, the first item to fail is communications. While I was with the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) in Vancouver, our communication link onshore at an incident scene was usually a police member with a cell phone. Useless! It was just easier to look for the flashing lights as the hovercraft sped up the Fraser River.
Unfortunately, Canada usually waits until after a disaster before politicians put money into proper prevention. Again with the CCG, we attempted to set up exercises with the police and fire services but were turned down as there was not money in the budget for the extra overtime.
Lesson Learned: Money for proper emergency preparedness in Canada is usually too little, too late. Of course, you have to balance budgets and be reasonable but there are simple, prudent, relatively low cost measures which are not being considered due to other spending priorities. Canada has a history of being reactive vice forward thinking.
This brings me to the unfolding debacle of Canada’s Covid-19 response. I will focus on one small aspect otherwise this article would be too lengthy.
This fall’s response by Manitoba’s Health Ministry with regards to protecting our most frail and elderly has moved into the territory of criminal neglect. From MB’s 2nd Covid-19 News Bulletin dated Feb 07, they were already advising people with flu-like systems to avoid senior residences. Quickly after that, there were ample examples coming from Italy, Spain, Quebec, etc. of what should have been prepared for. The CAF Report on LTC homes was harrowing reading and should have been a wake-up call to the other provinces.
MB Premier Brian Pallister did not listen.
To their credit, the Manitoba health system kept the Covid-19 virus out of the Long Term Care (LTC) homes during the spring spike which decimated the facilities in ON and QC.
But this fall has been a bloodbath, particularly in homes like the Winnipeg Revera Maples Long Term Care Home. According to the government’s News Bulletins, for the month of November, a full 25% of the 200 bed home’s residents have succumbed from the virus. On Nov 13, the Province announced it was setting up a review of Maples plus other hard hit facilities. No kidding!
What exactly did the Province think was going to happen in these homes whose staff consists of low paid, mostly recent immigrants? I do not blame the staff whatsoever as they have been shouldering ever increasing workloads and health issues with miniscule extra support from government. At Maples, it finally reached a breaking point on Nov 6 when the staff mutinied by en-mass calling in sick for the evening shift.
In the Navy, this would have been called a Messdeck Lock-in where the lower deckers refuse to come out until their demands for better treatment and conditions were met. Work people too hard, for too long without support and they become despondent and rebel.
Ministry inspectors and the Health department should have foreseen these issues but blindly disregarded obvious problems with the LTC homes. Too little, too late and in my opinion government officials and LTC home management need to be charged and jailed for negligence.
Do you feel safe with the fact that all these agencies are supposedly in charge of keeping you safe during a major emergency?
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Does Manitoba have a Plan to end the Health Emergency?
The short answer to my query posed above, is no.
It appears that the Manitoba Government is continuing to knee-jerk react when it comes to dealing with this pesky virus. A little bump in numbers of cases over the last few weeks has the population clamouring for lockdowns, quarantines, and border closures. It appears that despite the miniscule numbers of hospitalizations, ICU beds used, and deaths (seven, one, & thirteen), the goal now seems to be total eradication of the virus with zero cases no matter the severity.
So, despite the massive intrusion of government upon the lives of Manitobans, the incredible hardship being borne by businesses and individuals, and the incredible cost being incurred, the media has decided to act as cheerleaders for the draconian crackdowns. Zero effort is being made to question the Government’s decisions.
To be fair, I would say our leadership is being asked to make unprecedented decisions which may ultimately be the correct course of action. But in the absence of media asking the hard questions and demanding answers, the public is left uninformed and divided with all the opinions and contradictary information flying around.
I would like to point out that a few voices in the media wilderness are piping up and imploring the Government to figure out an exit strategy. Ken Waddell, who runs the Neepawa Banner, put out an excellent editorial today which I encourage you to read. It’s worth noting that Ken owns the paper, so he is not beholden to higher corporate interests and can speak his mind.
So if I were able to hold Premier Pallister’s feet to the fire over his Covid-19 strategy, I would have the following pointed questions for him, his Health Minister, and his Chief Medical Officer:
The goal from the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic was stated as ‘Flatten the Curve’ so the hospitals and ICUs were not overwhelmed. Kudos and back pats all around as MB never even came close to taxing our medical system. So why is there still a Health Emergency Order in place? Even with the uptick in numbers there wasn’t a commensurate rapid rise in hospital patients. Under what conditions will you release the Province from the Emergency Order?
According to StatsCan, Manitobans die from all causes at a rate of 30/day. BTW, what has the suicide rate been like since this all started? We’ve lost a whopping 13 people from Covid-19 related deaths (I’m guessing there was co-morbidity and old age involved). Is this Government operating under the premise that even one death from this virus is too many?
Have the 13 deaths, although regrettable, been worth the estimated 15% of Manitoba’s businesses closed for good and the rest of our damaged economy. Were the 13 deaths worth the extra $10 Billion plus in extra debt the Province has taken on? Were 13 deaths worth the suspension of our rights, freedoms, & liberties which the Government shows no sign of returning? Were a whole 13 deaths worth tossing a million Manitoban’s lives upside down?
Now masks seem to be the order of the day. Please show me the medical evidence you’re basing your decision on. If masks are so successful, why weren’t they mandatory back during the lockdowns and quarantines when the State of Emergency was first declared? How much did public pressure play into the decision to start making masks mandatory in schools and in the Prairie Mountain Health Region?
As for the Hutterite colonies, I hope you realize you’re putting a big target on their backs by identifying them. But since you have and it’s been stated that they’re the source of many of the new cases in Westman, do you have evidence of widespread community spread of the virus due to Hutterite activity? In addition, on the affected colonies, was there widespread testing or only testing of the symptomatic?
What criteria, other than a modest rise in case numbers, did you use to put the PMH region under Orange conditions?
The PMH region takes in the whole SW corner of the Province. Please substantiate why citizens of, for example, Swan River are being forced to follow Condition Orange procedures when the actual clusters are located in the Brandon region?
What is the exit strategy for dealing with this virus? Seems to me that a strategy of protecting the vulnerable such as the elderly and immune-compromised along with reminding Manitobans to keep up good hygiene habits would allow us to go back to normal. Instead, this Government seems determined to keep Manitobans hostage under Health Emergency Orders until there is never another single case ever.
It will be interesting as to just how far Manitobans can be pushed before more and more of us poke up our heads and cry out ‘SHOW ME THE BODIES’ and then reject the Government’s intrusion on our lives.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
A nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital wears a unique mask as the hospital celebrates the release of a COVID-19 patient after 45 days in their care in Orange, California, May 5, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Blake
To Mask or Not to Mask – Why is this even a question?
***January 12, 2021 Update: Here’s an excellent video detailing the timeline of mask usage. Somehow, within a span of a week or two, the World’s health experts went from decades of evidence of general mask usage to be worse than useless to making them mandatory because of ‘evolving evidence’. Masks are straight placebos, nothing more, nothing less. It makes the public feel ‘safe’ and it makes it appear as if the government is doing something. It’s the same pattern for every useless government measure which the virus has circumvented merely because mankind can only live with a viruses, not defeat them (with the exception of vaccines). Watch the video.***
To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. ‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare
The latest flashpoint in Canada’s Covid-19 response relates to the mandatory wearing of face masks. Just like the run on toilet paper, hand sanitizer, flour, garden seeds, and other goods whose demand sky-rocketed, now retailers are running out of elastic for ‘do it at home’ self-made masks. The public has been whipped and beaten with 24/7 virus coverage by their governments and the media and they are desperate to find a solution to end this rollercoaster ride.
Let’s start with a question that is probably too obvious: in all the umpteen decades that surgical masks and the like have been around, has the medical community not thoroughly studied their effectiveness under these type of circumstances? Are doctors and our Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) so grossly incompetent that they cannot with a reasonable certainty declare under what conditions we should be utilizing masks, the frequency they should be changed/washed, and their relative effectiveness? Why are masks going to be touted now as the ultimate panacea when they weren’t back during the spring lockdowns?
If you want a good explanation from a doctor on what masks can and cannot do for you I recommend listening to ZDoggMD’s Mask explanation video along with all his other info and concerns with this pandemic.
There should be zero debate as this simple piece of medical tech should long ago have been figured out. But instead, we have people shaming non-mask wearers in person and on social media. We have Anti-Mask groups protesting and promoting Mask Exemption cards online. Large businesses such as banks, Walmart, Superstore, and other chains are declaring on their own that mask use is mandatory on their premises. Oh, if anyone thinks these large businesses are just ‘protecting their employees and patrons’, well give me a break. They are just protecting their bottom line in the event a case gets linked to a store and they have to shut it down.
So here is my problem with the randomness of mandatory mask wearing: if you’re a CMO who has bona fide reasons to order the wearing of face masks, then fine, that is where you have to balance the needs of society with our personnel rights and freedoms under the Charter, (which happens to be the first paragraph). But if you are some random business or ‘Karen’ who tries shaming or ordering me into wearing a mask just because you say so, then you can FUCK right off. Paragraph 7 of the Charter reads: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.
In general, that means, I do not get to tell you not to wear a mask and you do not get to tell me to wear one.
The whole reason we have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms is to protect our rights and freedoms especially during times of duress when they are most likely to come under pressure. There was a reason the War Measures Act was changed after the 1970 FLQ Crisis. Sweeping powers given to government are never a good thing.
The argument of ‘Well, it’s their business, it’s their rules. Just shop elsewhere.’ comes up as a counter-argument. That does not wash with me. I am old enough to remember the AIDS hysteria. It was a Gay disease and you could catch it from something as simple as a toilet seat. Would it have been proper to make a policy of ‘No Gays Allowed’ in your store? But because the population was scared, homosexuals were persecuted anyways. There are a few Christian bakeries who learned the hard way about turning away certain customers.
Speaking of Brandon, starting on August 24, group sizes of 10 and mandatory mask wearing comes into effect for all indoor/outdoor areas of the Prairie Mountain Health Region. This is ostensibly in response to a slight uptick (there was a ‘jump’ of about 100 cases in the last two weeks) in cases mostly in the Brandon area. The PMH region takes in the entire South West corner of the province and it baffles me as to why citizens up in Swan River should be forced to take the same precautions as people in the ‘hot’ zones. As an aside, when you glean through the government’s numbers for the southern health region and the adjacent city of Winnipeg added together are higher than PMH’s but there is no change in their health policies.
My feeling is that Premier Pallister did not want the blowback of making masks mandatory at this time for Winnipeg. He waffled on mandatory mask use for school children than quickly made them mandatory after a barrage of concern from parents. It will be the same for the rest of the province. Mandatory masks are coming because the public demands them, not because of any concrete, scientific, medical reasoning.
But this is typical for the entire lurching, knee jerk reactions exhibited by our authorities since this whole virus thing started. It was understandable in hindsight that governments got scared and shut everything down. But since then, we have not been stacking the bodies in the streets. Hospitals have never been overwhelmed and we have been learning the true nature of this particular virus. But we have gone massively into debt and there is more and more evidence that the ‘cure’ is worse than the disease.
No government has the balls to declare that they massively screwed the pooch with their response so they keep playing politics and with the aid of the media has kept the population running scared.
As I first opined, there should not be a debate whatsoever about whether we should ‘mask up’ or not. I cannot believe the medical establishment is that inept. All the CMOs have to do is lay out the facts and pass on their best recommendations. Most people are reasonable and if they are treated like adults will follow sound advice. Instead, we have the politicians playing politics with a hot potato and as usual none of them have the fortitude to make a hard decision. As a society, we have become afraid of our own shadows and the sheep are easily panicked.
It is understandable why individuals and businesses want to protect their interests and feel like they must take matters into their own hands. It is after all just a mask. But where does this stop? When do the roadblocks go up with armed police demanding your papers for Covid-19 testing and mandatory vaccinations? When will the citizenry be divided up into ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ zones? When will the masses be forced into more draconian lockdowns?
When you look at the relatively small numbers of sicknesses and deaths in Manitoba and Canada as a whole that are attributed to Covid-19 and compare those with a regular flu season, imagine how far the country would go down the rabbit hole if we had a real crisis.
I spent many years in uniform protecting this country and my actions were governed by the National Defense Act. In the military, especially back during the Cold War, most of your rights and freedoms were stripped. I had the right to vote and that was about it. I did not sacrifice my rights and freedoms for them to be arbitrarily taken away by a bunch of jittery sheep.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
Photo Courtesy of the Polka Dot Press – Mary Ann Kirkby, author of ‘I Am Hutterite’
We Are People Just Like You
Imagine for a nanosecond that there was even a hint of a shop owner posting a sign saying ‘NO BLACKS ALLOWED’ or ‘NO GAYS ALLOWED’ or ‘NO TRANSGENDERS ALLOWED’ or ‘NO NATIVES ALLOWED’. The shitnado following such an action would be apocalyptic.
The news cycle would be filled with talking heads opining about those racist Canadians. Our apoligizer-in-chief would be on the Canadian networks with tears streaming down his cheeks and lamenting that ‘Canadians need to do better, you’re such nasty cretins.’ It would be a given that there would be worldwide protests and the offending shop, irregardless of whether the sign existed or not, would be burnt to the ground along with a sizeable portion of the surrounding community.
It would go without saying that the perpetrator of the obvious Hate Crime, which multiple police units would be investigating, would be vilified, doxxed, and virtually lynched by a gargantuan horde of Social Justice Warriors, real and keyboard. The creator of such an abomination, plus their family, would be hounded until the mob’s ire turned to fresh meat.
But, but, but, the poor devil would protest, the health board and the news outlets reported there were large groups of Black people attending a Black Lives Matter protest or LGBTQ people participating in a Pride Parade or Natives blockading rail lines. Government sources said that because of the gatherings, there was a resultant spike in Covid-19 cases in my area. I’m just trying to protect my family, staff, and patrons.
Guess where the next ‘peaceful’ protest would occur.
But of course, no one would be idiotic enough to throw more fuel on the BLM, Antifa, LGBTQ, Native protester’s fires even if there was a clear and identifiable link between their activities and a spike in Covid-19 cases.
Then why did our powers to be in government and the MSM deem it necessary to announce that some spikes were occurring on Hutterite colonies in the Prairie provinces?
Manitoba Media Bulletin: COVID-19 Bulletins #133, 135, 136 & 137 specifically state Hutterite colonies were linked to new outbreaks. #133 reads: ‘Today’s cases are a male and female in their 60s, a male and female in their 30s and a female in her 20s. All the cases are on a Hutterite colony in the Interlake-Eastern health region. The investigation is ongoing and any additional information will be provided as needed once investigations are complete to inform people of any public health risks.’
Bulletins #135 & 136 read: ‘The high case counts are reflective of an outbreak of cases in several Hutterite colonies.’
Bulletin #137: ‘Seven of today’s eight cases are on Hutterite colonies.’
Finally in Bulletin #138, the government stopped identifying Hutterites but reading between the lines ‘Today’s case is a male in his 40s from the Interlake-Eastern health region.’ was probably a Hutterite.
Do you think if there were outbreaks on Native Reserves that the Manitoba government would start identifying those and the region they were in? Of course not!
Did no one at the government public relations offices or the health departments do a one, two pause before issuing such specific statements? What public health reasons made it necessary to identify Hutterite colonies? Even without the virus, members of the regular public do not visit a colony without good reason. Finally, after the colony elders complained the PR people came to their senses but there was not even a hint of an apology in subsequent Media Bulletins.
Of course the media latched on to the story, doxxing and putting targets on all the Prairie Hutterites. Eventually, a letter had to be sent to the news networks telling them to desist or face court action.
Did not a single network have an inkling of the damage, scorn, or possible violence they would incite by specifically identifying Hutterite colonies for these minor outbreaks? Of course they did but again there was a rush to publish and after an anemic mea culpa, they stopped running the stories.
In part, a Hutterite letter to the networks, had to state the obvious that ‘We are people just like you.’
If you are unaware of Hutterite persecution, that’s literally their entire history and in large part why they established colonies in North America. To this day, that persecution has not ended and is obviously rampant to this day with government and MSM involvement. Mary-Ann Kirkby, author of I am Hutterite, gives an excellent rendition of what it is like being a Hutterite.
Institutional racism is built into Canadian fabric but it isn’t Blacks, Gays, or Natives who are the targets anymore. If you are white and religious, it is your turn to have the target on your back now.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
So, my ex-wife has had anger, depression, and general mental issues her whole life. But this Covid-19 pandemic has tipped her straight into the abyss of self-pity, vitriolic anger, and general despondency.
I present the following series of text messages for twofold reasons: a) I am tired of being her whipping boy since it’s been nearly a decade after our break-up and b) I wanted to present what dealing with this virus has done to people who are already dealing with significant mental issues.
*****WARNING – THE FOLLOWING IS DEEPLY DISTURBING*****
2020-03-23 21:23:07 Received So please tell me that you’re parents are home safe because I have talked to both kids and neither of them can tell me!
2020-03-23 21:29:24 Sent They are still away and are just as safe where they are as they would be here.
2020-03-23 21:31:58 Received Ok well I don’t agree and they better have the best travel insurance in the world right now…and who’s buying their groceries while they shelter in place?! Or they better have figured out how to order online with delivery to their door
2020-03-23 21:33:23 Sent Well it’s really none of your business is it?
2020-03-23 21:34:20 Sent This is precisely why I asked about my passport so not sure about the feigned concern
2020-03-23 21:35:09 Received I still love them and they are my kids grandparents so yes it bloody well is my business!! Goddammit Blair have you bothered to ask how my Mom’s doing?!
2020-03-23 21:37:06 Sent Considering I had to find out about your Dad by accident I don’t bother prying.
2020-03-23 21:38:52 Received I sent you a bloody picture you only had to ask and I thought the kids kept you a little more in the loop than they apparently do…and that’s totally your problem and your fault not mine
2020-03-23 21:42:13 Received And my Mom was an idiot and went on a trip to Toronto two weeks ago and I convinced her to come home early yesterday although I would rather have had her stay there and now she’s on Self-isolation for 14 days
2020-03-23 21:46:09 Received And now I am symptomatic and got tested today because I have been in the front lines of a hospital checking in every patient in the Valley with fever, cough and needing an X-ray to rule out pneumonia! Thanks so much for making me do this shit job. Bet you hope I die
2020-03-23 21:47:33 Received If I die it’s all your fault Blair
2020-03-23 21:49:01 Received Though I really think I will live because it’s early days and they haven’t run out of ventilators yet
2020-03-23 21:49:58 Received And I want to live just to piss you off you dick
2020-03-23 21:51:31 Received Now back to reality and my original purpose of contacting you… tell your parents to come home NOW
2020-03-23 21:53:56 Received The USA is going to turn into something worse than Italy…have you been watching Italy?!
2020-03-23 21:58:09 Received So anyways I tried. I care. Tell them from me to please PLEASE come home!
2020-03-23 22:02:25 Received Please don’t die Blair…you’re the asshole who picked a Life Insurance Annuity when you turn 60 and I still want to have FMEP garnish that in 2026
2020-03-23 22:02:51 Received Cheers
2020-03-23 22:06:37 Received No reply?! Ok fine with me… I finally get the last work you asshole
2020-03-23 22:07:04 Received The last word
2020-03-23 22:17:26 Received Goodnight
2020-03-23 22:18:00 Received Sweetie dreams Blair
2020-03-23 22:22:47 Received I sleep with a clear conscious….do you actually sleep at knowing how you have treated me!?! I was a good wife to you and I Dad didn’t deserved the scorn and disrespect you have showed me! I’m a good woman still doing the right thing every day! I deserve respect from you and more importantly I respect myself!!!
2020-03-23 22:25:28 Received So sleep well Blair.,. I will haunt your integrity forever…you can never look in a mirror again because you screwed me and I bloody well didn’t deserve it!
(I try to keep my interactions with my ex to a minimum as she inevitably blows up my cell phone with her ranting. The only reason I don’t outright block her is on the off chance there’s an emergency with the kids.)
2020-04-03 19:09:11 Sent So, dead yet? Been 2 weeks and doesn’t look like we’re like Italy yet. Same with the States. But you’re used to being a lying drama Queen.
(Yep, I got snarky here as the situation in Canada didn’t turn into an Italy and I’m tired of her pity parties blaming me for her horrible life.)
2020-05-27 23:36:17 Received So I guess you don’t need your Passport much anymore 😂
2020-05-27 23:39:24 Received Going to give me a lump-sum soon and get rid of this FMEP nonsense once and for all or not?!? Your call and don’t blame me for being a bitch if I garnish your Annuity at 60 if you live through Covid-19
2020-05-27 23:39:35 Received Asshole
2020-05-27 23:43:36 Received Only 6 years and less than 5 months to go but who’s counting in this purgatory?!? I AM dick-smack
2020-05-27 23:48:45 Received But logically who’s going to get Covid-19 first? You who lives in Rural MB apparently living off your GF Jackie or me who’s been forced by you to work full-time in the front-line of a hospital???
2020-05-27 23:49:50 Received If I die first I will send my last text to our kids blaming you for my death Blair Gilmore
2020-05-27 23:50:47 Received And you can look in the mirror and ask yourself if you did right by me…. I already know the answer
2020-05-27 23:53:38 Received I loved you Blair and spent the best years of life trying to earn the love and respect that you never gave new. I was not perfect but I stuck with you through thick and thin and you should have a as appreciated me more even if you never meant your vows
2020-05-27 23:54:32 Received I meant my vows on our wedding day…why did you think you could opt out?
2020-05-28 00:07:25 Received I leaned on you when I was in labour with both our kids and you were my rock and my everything and gave you magnificent babies!!! And you didn’t appreciate that?!?!?!?!?
2020-05-28 00:13:25 Received And I raised them through thick and thin and you gave us a lot of thin and yet I protected our kids from most of it…and you still don’t appreciate what I did Blair?!?
2020-05-28 00:19:05 Received Ran into *Mary Smith* (name redacted by me) recently don’t ask how. It was awkward and neither of us said anything…she deserved better too I think. Maybe *Joan* (name redacted) has low enough expectations or standards and I hope you and her have a “mediocre” relationship… at least you have someone to keep you warm on those cold Manitoba nights. I don’t because I have standards
2020-06-07 20:07:59 Received So lump sum soon so I can relocate to Saskatchewan?!?
2020-06-07 20:09:14 Sent Nope
2020-06-07 20:10:57 Received Do you think I would have left the Prairies if I knew a Pandemic was coming?!?
2020-06-07 20:11:52 Received Nope because you are a loser and broke or just cause you hate me almost as much as I hate you?
2020-06-07 20:12:36 Received Come on answer your phone… I feel like playing
2020-06-07 20:13:05 Sent Blocked
(Occasionally, I get tired of her BS and I block her number for a period of time. You’ll notice she felt like getting into it with her ‘playing’ comment.)
2020-06-16 00:11:27 Received So now you get to deal with the consequences of treating the Mother of your children like shit all these years because I got blind drunk last Friday evening after a PARTICULARLY trying week that even my Boss admitted to me today was messed up….so I said a bunch of shit I shouldn’t have a that I regret but you can’t see unless you have taken over your Dad’s FB profile which is not that weird considering how smart you are Blair Gilmore
2020-06-16 00:17:37 Received So now I am in a mess with our kids and I take full ownership of drinking too much and posting too much on FB and you can take me to Court anytime you want but I know for a fact that you survive on the Goodwill of Bar 7 Farms under the table and your current GF Jackie. I really wish you had given us the chance to live life together without the pressures of kids…we were just JUST becoming empty-nesters when you gave up WHY?!?!?
2020-06-16 00:21:05 Received I was a really high-functioning Military Wife with a life of my own and plans for a heavily subsidized Masters degree in Leadership online from Royal Roads University and dreams of high-level positions in Health-Care Management
2020-06-16 00:25:32 Received But nope you killed all my dreams and treated me like shit throughout this scorched earth Divorce and somehow expected me to not hit complete utter exhaustion and bitterness and anger and despair because I really know that you don’t give a shit. Except now that I am completely used up and bitter and hopeless you forget or didn’t give a shit about how this wasted life of mine would impact our kids and Grandchildren
2020-06-16 00:27:06 Received I remember screaming at you late in 2011 after you forced me out of your life that “Just remember I am the Mother of your Children “.
2020-06-16 00:34:23 Received I take 85% of the responsibility of why I am a train wreck today and I give the other 15% blame to you. Either way it doesn’t matter…just live with the train wreck that you helped create because dammit I tried to make this Divorce reasonable and you just “didn’t feel like dealing with it” in December 2014 and I will go to my grave hating you for not having compassion when I begged you to help me and sort out a resolution. So the resolution in 2020 is now $50,000.00 lump sum and FMEP goes away… FINAL OFFER
2020-06-16 00:42:48 Received I beg you for one last time give me a chance at a life and I will set you free from FMEP and you can have a chance at a life not in Purgatory too
2020-07-01 00:01:19 Received What was that quote your friend posted on FB a few years ago? “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. When are you just going to stop being such a dick and start trying to make this divorce better for the sake of our kids and grandchildren?!?
2020-07-01 00:05:05 Received I would like to be able to be in the same room as you when both our kids eventually get the chance to throw a wedding. Now start trying harder to meet me in the middle and play nice in the sandbox please
2020-07-01 06:59:06 Sent Oh always the toxic drama queen, nobody including the kids are fooled by your lies anymore.
2020-07-02 03:35:11 Received Are you really so far gone that you think that I would EVER lie to our children Blair? Especially now since they are adults?!? Stop being so stupid you are smarter and better than this crap…
2020-07-02 03:46:56 Received Grow up or wake up or have a day of reckoning preferably NOW instead of on your deathbed next Winter in the second wave or if you are lucky enough when you are 85…I just hope that sometime before you die you actually have some insight please deal lord
2020-07-02 03:58:18 Received You should be thankful that I have not lied to our kids but mostly have cared about them to withhold the truth Blair
2020-07-02 03:59:14 Received Now leave me alone because apparently you are nuts
2020-07-02 06:53:20 Sent Have you ever wondered why no one including the kids likes or can even stand to be around you? Everyone sees right through you. I can send one text but you need to send multiple messages because you’re empty inside.
2020-07-05 02:02:24 Received Stop throwing stones Blair. I loved you and meant my vows to you when we go married. It broke my heart when you ended it on August 20, 2011. My heart almost broke in half when I divorced you on May 20, 2016. We share children and grandchildren so let’s figure out a way to find peace for the sake of our family
2020-07-05 10:20:35 Sent I’ll find peace with you when you call off your dogs. I would even seriously consider giving you a payout.
(So here’s the glimpse of the rational woman who pops out rarely.Rationality quickly gets the boot.)
2020-07-07 17:58:55 Received Let me know your next move and I will contact my FMEP Case Manager here in BC. I am not allowed to contact Manitoba FMEP directly myself…yeesh
2020-07-07 18:04:47 Sent Call off your dogs and I will consider a payout. That means ceasing enforcement. You put it on. You take it off.
2020-07-07 18:33:42 Received You gave me NO CHOICE to put it on Blair. I was gob-smacked that you tried to bully me so hard that you thought I would cave. You would think that after an Interim, Final, Divorce and Garnishment Court Order you would have realized that meant business!! Let’s get the FMEP to do most or ALL of the work for FREE…otherwise we’re both going have to lawyer-up again and my last lawyer was $350.00/hr how about yours? Because doing it you way would make the lump-sum taxable and that’s just plain stupid. Check your ego at the door for once and use your brains Blair!! It’s a big reason why I fell in love with you in the first place! What the hell is wrong with you?!? If you truly wanted to end this scorched-earth divorce which is now scorching our kids and grandchildren you would do it the SMART way….I’m tired of you dangling a lump-sum once and awhile in my face. Because it’s the only trump card you have left isn’t it?!? Well the window of opportunity to play that card is closing fast so your turn is now once and for all…or never. I know that I have tried so many times to find a resolution to this sick game you’re playing. I only have 6 years and less than 3 months before FMEP starts to garnishee your crappy Pension Annuity so from any sane perspective I hold all the cards. You have two weeks to give me a decision. Goodnight
2020-07-07 18:36:42 Sent Go fuck yourself you crazy bitch, I don’t need 2 weeks for that.
2020-07-07 18:37:33 Sent Tell you what, that’s a real easy decision to just tell you to fuck off.
2020-07-07 18:38:42 Sent Have fun with my little GST checks, don’t spend it all at once.
2020-07-07 18:44:35 Received Well considering that my GST cheque’s are still going to my bankruptcy trustee 18 months after discharge and because of Covid 19 delays I may or may not finally get it in October I most DEFINITELY will enjoy yours 😂
2020-07-07 18:46:31 Received So should I show this conversation to our kids so that they can figure out who’s reasonable, rational and calm and who’s crazy Blair???
2020-07-07 18:48:42 Received Tell you what… I will give you until August 20, 2020 to grow a rational brain to give me an adult response Okay?
2020-07-07 18:52:49 Sent Nope, you can go fuck yourself since you won’t turn off Maintenance. The kids know who the fucked up bitch is so don’t bother with your empty threats
2020-07-07 18:53:39 Sent Have fun at work bitch!
(The ex knows full well that Family Maintenance isn’t into ‘making deals’. Their purpose is to enforce court orders for the full amount so any sort of side deal she wants to make with me doesn’t matter a bit to them. The significance of the date is when we broke up in 2011.)
2020-07-09 20:22:50 Received Grow up and grow a pair Blair Gilmore and you get to figure out how both of us get to be in the room when both of our kids eventually have the time and money to have the weddings they want and we couldn’t give them…I’m done trying to bury the hatchet with you and meet in the middle because there seems to be no middle with you
2020-07-09 20:26:19 Received And you have blinders on like six Court losses doesn’t matter and you still seem to think that you get to call the terms of this Divorce…call me when you hire a lawyer to seriously negotiate a lump-sum settlement with FMEP because I will never contact you again otherwise.
2020-07-09 20:27:50 Received And do it for our kids and grandchildren you selfish fuck…
2020-07-09 20:29:36 Received Because I sure as shit have long ago stopped hoping you would do it out of respect for me…about the time I did the paperwork for FMEP in January of 2016
2020-07-09 20:37:29 Received Call off the hounds?!? You have the power to do that every day so grown a pair and do it yourself. Trust me I don’t even care enough about your opinion to even rub your nose in the dirt. You have Control Mr Gilmore…bad ugly nasty Divorce or mature logical divorce that loves our kids and grandchildren?!? You choose
2020-07-09 20:43:52 Received I am consciously giving you that power because you seem to demand that in our sad and problematic negotiations…you have all the guts then you get all the glory Blair. You figure it out finally then I will let you be the hero because you always had the ego and I never did
2020-07-09 20:44:13 Received TRUTH
2020-07-09 20:45:27 Received Be the hero and saviour of our family Blair…I dare you!!!!!!!!!
2020-07-09 20:45:51 Received Be a MAN
2020-07-09 20:47:03 Received An actual grownup MAN who cares for his kids and grandchildren MORE than his own EGO
2020-07-09 20:52:22 Received Rant over. I am DONE
2020-07-09 21:03:20 Received And just because I am a wee bit human…can I just say once and for all…FUCK YOU Blair Dwayne Gilmore!!! I gave much MUCH more than I got and if the second wave of Covid 19 kills me your paltry GST credit gives me enough extra money to get a current Will in place so at least our kids don’t get to deal with a Mom who’s Intestate
2020-07-09 21:04:52 Received Asshole
2020-07-09 21:05:00 Received Prick
2020-07-09 21:05:43 Received Dick-smack
2020-07-09 21:08:26 Received Go punch another cow tomorrow…I get up tomorrow to do a thankless job every day but get thanked by total stranger every day which Goddamit makes me go do my jobs tomorrow
2020-07-09 21:09:57 Received Because my job actually matters during a Pandemic huh
2020-07-10 07:26:37 Sent Such a bitter old crone, I hope you live a long long life and stew forever in that crazy head of yours all alone because everyone hates you.
2020-07-15 23:27:21 Received Oh really EVERYONE??? How about words like “always” and “never”? You had almost 4 years to negotiate with ME including when I gave into all your terms in December 2014 but you “didn’t feel like dealing with this right now”. So then you’re surprised when 4 months later I retained a put-bull lawyer and hauled our Case into BC Supreme Family Court 4 more times and then opened a file with FMEP to enforce the multiple Court Orders?!? What the hell did you think I would do Blair? Go quietly? You should have realized that the shitty life you gave me for 23 years at least toughened me up. So grow a pair if you can at this point and offer a lump-sum settlement to FMEP and if it’s a reasonably good offer FMEP will gladly accept with my approval and happily close the File forever and you might get to have a credit rating and a Passport and even get to keep a Driver’s License and be a big boy again.
2020-07-15 23:30:30 Received I’m trying to move on from this scorched-earth divorce because it’s starting to scorch our kids and grandchildren so stop being a narcissistic jerk and DO THE RIGHT THING FOR ONCE
2020-07-15 23:55:12 Received 9 years ago I was in Penhold trying to help you from a distance deal with getting unfairly tosses out of Phase 3 of your flight training in Southport. Your Wings were actually on display before I left for Penhold I saw them… you were so damn close to your Dream you could taste it!!! Did I falter or give up on you that summer when you got screwed?!?!? Did I love you any less or stop wanting to be your wife Blair?!? I DID NOT. I LOVED YOU BLAIR FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE and the previous 23 years of our marriage should have made you appreciate that!!! Why did you throw me away then??? Did you think you could find someone better?!? Because you never have…is *Joan* your 4th girlfriend since 2011??? Are you going to put a ring on this one?
2020-07-15 23:59:31 Received A part of me will ALWAYS love you Blair Gilmore how could it be otherwise?!? We basically grew up together and share two kids together and now two grandchildren
2020-07-16 00:00:24 Received Make the deal. Bury the hatchet and let’s move on
2020-07-16 00:08:40 Received So stop being the truly bitter one locked into an untenable position and give FMEP a legitimate offer so you can move forward with your life and offer *Joan* what she deserves if she’s the one you want to end your life with… I wish you both the best
2020-07-16 00:11:25 Received Reality check Blair…. there’s a Pandemic sweeping the World and so far Canada is doing really good but there’s no guarantees…I personally would like to settle this divorce once and for all before the second wave comes this Fall and Winter
2020-07-16 00:18:23 Received And if I die before you I want it on record that it’s YOUR FAULT because by now I should have a Masters Degree in Leadership and Adult Education and I should be teaching virtual classes this Fall making double my current salary instead of being a front-line Registration Clerk in Medical Imaging at Comox Valley Hospital and begging you to end this shitshow because I for one am truly exhausted
2020-07-16 00:22:32 Received I was exhausted in December 2014 but you didn’t give a shit then….so I am not going to hold my breath now waiting for you to change your spots now but yet I still am trying to challenge you to do so…NOT FOR ME BUT FOR OUR KIDS AND GRANDKIDS OK?
2020-07-16 00:26:57 Received Are you remotely capable of seeing the bigger picture EVER Blair?!?!??!????
2020-07-16 00:31:55 Received When I said that we grew up together I really meant that I grew up and tried to be the best co-dependant wife you worked in peeler bars and biked to work on a bicycle for a year when we only had Betsy to get you to work… you should be ASHAMED OF WHAT YOU MADE YOUR WIFE DO
2020-07-16 00:33:28 Received And you never ever EVER said thank-you or sorry in the end and I damn well deserved MUCH BETTER THAN I GOT
2020-07-16 00:39:17 Received I really don’t give a flying fuck is “everyone” in your family hates me I know you really tried and who was the asshole so judge me all you want Blair Gilmore your opinion doesn’t matter to me in the least
2020-07-16 00:39:21 Received Goodnight
2020-07-16 00:42:07 Received I really tried not you…you always cared about you before me and before our kids and now if you don’t settle with FMEP you really don’t care about our grandchildren either…
2020-07-16 00:42:40 Received You have Control
2020-07-16 00:45:07 Received So be a grown up Man and sort this shitshow out for good
2020-07-16 00:51:45 Received Nobody on this Planet understands what happened to you you in the summer of 2011 more than me Blair. I forgive you for going slightly nuts but now you get to sort out the mess that you created and give me a lump-sum settlement so I can finally stop being in survival mode and rebuild my life without you and know that I always wanted to live a life with you because I meant my vows “for better or for worse” but that didn’t seem to count with you
2020-07-16 00:57:35 Received You chased me to Kingston in 1987… I was already having the best summer of my life dating a Captain and an Ocdt an a MCpl at the same time…yet at the end of that Summer I was wearing YOUR ring…tell me now to not be bitter and wonder why I made the wrong choice Blair?!?!?
2020-07-16 01:02:14 Received Oh and then the Sgt I fucked for a solid week the summer before drove 500 miles out of his way to land at my door when the Captain I was dating was already there and things got really interesting at that point…do you not realize that I had really good men fighting to date me when I met you Blair and I chose YOU???????!!!!!
2020-07-16 01:03:16 Received Now tell me that I am a bitter old woman and take the blame you dick
2020-07-16 01:06:05 Received Do I really care if you hate your life? Nope because you ruined any chance of my life being anything other than a fucking front-line Clerk thank
2020-07-16 01:06:15 Received Thanks Blair
2020-07-16 01:12:33 Received Now I am NEVER going to text you again after this unless I hear from FMEP that you want to finally settle this Divorce with a lump-sum offer of $70,000.00 because the price just went back up from $50,000.00 because you missed that window of opportunity
2020-07-16 01:14:11 Received And seriously what do I really care? You are never serious anyways about this so why should I be?!?!?!?
2020-07-16 01:16:55 Received So I will garnish your Pension in 6 years and 3 months and maybe only have work a part-time position after that
2020-07-16 01:18:05 Received I can afford to play the long game Blair…can you????
2020-07-16 01:21:49 Received There’s something really wrong with hoping I die from Covid 19 Blair…because it will cause our kids severe grief and that should matter more than the fact that I won’t garnish you anymore
2020-07-16 01:28:59 Received I don’t wish you dead Blair I just wish you the best when you finally sort out this divorce once and for all and not on your terms because you fucked that up in December 2014
2020-07-16 01:30:11 Received When you had the chance and couldn’t be bothered because why?????????!!!!!!?????
2020-07-16 01:44:34 Received So you have Control and you get to live with the consequences NOW of dealing with this Divorce properly once and for all
2020-07-16 01:46:46 Received Or not…because I know by now what a narcissistic prick you are and you only ever really care about yourself and that’s what you’re on your 4th girlfriend since we broke up because nobody is stupid enough to marry you like Me
2020-07-16 01:55:56 Received I’m tired of this shit Blair. Your move. You have Control. Grow up and care about our kids and figure this out and call FMEP with at least a lump sum of $70,000.00 and let’s move on from this shitshow
2020-07-16 01:57:21 Received FINAL OFFER WITHOUT PREDJUDICE
2020-07-16 07:04:58 Sent 34 texts. You just proved my point bitch. Don’t think anyone would miss you if you were gone.
And, so it goes. Imagine living with this screeching harpy for over two decades who dredges up every misadventure. Covid-19 has just greatly exacerbated her paranoia and general anger. It’s given her more ammunition, in her mind, to hate my guts.
It would be interesting to study the psychology of what’s gone so wrong with her mind and what role dealing with the virus has played.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
UPDATE – Analysis from Israel seems to confirm these Canadian numbers and our experience of declining cases. After looking at world numbers, it appears the virus plays itself out all on its own in about 70 days despite government action or inaction. We might have destroyed our economy for no good reason other than mass hysteria.
Borrowing from my nautical background, there is a document called the Collision Regulations which regulates the safe passage of vessels on the water. In order to prevent collision, ships determine who is the ‘Give Way’ vessel and who is the ‘Stand On’ vessel and then act with due regard to the observance of good seamanship to safely avoid each other.
As an Officer of the Watch on a Navy ship, one of my jobs was to look for possible conflicts with other vessels, work out a plan to avoid them, inform the Captain with my recommendations, follow and execute his orders, monitor the situation until danger of collision was past, then get the ship back on track.
Ideally, you would try to minimize the ship’s detours and time off track as we were always on mission.
Taking another page from my naval career, when lazy leadership wanted to send a message to the sailors, they would enact group punishment. This was particularly detested and unpopular because the many would be unjustly punished for the actions of the few. The reasoning for giving out a general slap across the face was to build unit cohesion and self-policing but the effect was usually just sharp resentment.
Tying these bon mots in with Manitoba’s and indeed most of the World’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in my opinion, governments did too little, too late. Then when they did start to act, it was a shotgun approach vice a targeted strategy which succeeded in only panicking their populations and subsequently devastating their economies.
Canadian governments knee-jerk reacted to dubious reports from China, horror stories from Italy, and worst case epidemiological modeling which projected apocalyptic, Biblical ‘End of Times’. This has led Canada into the worst crackdown and suspension of civil liberties probably in the history of our country.
The Manitoba government has been regularly issuing Covid-19 Media Bulletins since January 30. Bulletin #53, April 16, lists no new cases (cumulative total 250), 8 in hospital, 4 in ICU, 121 recovered, and 5 deaths. 18,349 Covid-19 tests have been completed. For comparison for the Manitoba 2017-18 flu season: In total, 508 influenza cases were hospitalized including 35 admissions to intensive care units (ICU) and 46 individuals died. Of those hospitalized and deceased cases, 65% and 76% were aged 65 years and older.
Just as a quick aside, it’s being reported that greater than 90% of Canadian deaths are those 60 years and older. (Sounds eerily like the flu stats that I just spoke of.) ‘Dr. Theresa Tam says outbreaks in long-term care homes are the most crucial COVID-19 problem. Tam is urging all Canadians to continue to stay home to keep older people, who are most at risk, from dying.Half of the 734 deaths in Canada from COVID-19 had occurred in long-term care homes.‘ Um, here’s maybe an alternative thought. How about we protect the most vulnerable of our population and keep them in lockdown instead of destroying our economy by keeping everyone else at home?
By using the Way-Back machine, here is a review of the major points of the Manitoba Covid-19 timeline starting with the first Bulletin issued on January 30.
For the month of February, the risk to Manitobans was rated as LOW and people had no need to wear masks.
Early in March, it was recognized that cases were climbing in China and the virus was starting to spread to other countries particularly Iran then Italy. By the end of February, MB had tested 38 people, there were no cases, and Canada had 12 cases.
March 10, the Province started looking for more Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE). They also stated that when dealing with patients with the virus, the patients and their caregivers would be wearing masks. (This went against the Health Canada, Dr. Tam, advice that masks would not work.)
March 11, MB recorded its first case (travel related), people traveling from China, Iran & Italy were asked to self-isolate, the WHO declared Covid-19 a pandemic. The government stated ‘Those at the greatest risk of severe outcomes include those over 65 years of age, those with underlying medical conditions and those with compromised immune systems.’ The oft-repeated phrase, social distancing, was first introduced and recommendations set.
On March 15, all international travelers coming back to MB were recommended to self-isolated for 14 days. Only travelers with symptoms were going to be tested.
So at this point, the bold action would have been to test and quarantine those travelers coming in from the hotspots. Social distancing practices are always a good idea even when a bad flu or the chicken pox is going around, so good recommendation there. They already knew who the target group was so early lock downs of the nursing homes and hospitalsmade sense (but really did not happen).
As reported by MB, it looks like Covid-19 cases peaked around April 1 (34 new cases that day) and are flattening out. This ties in with the curve flattening for new cases experienced by Canada as a whole and also calls into question the effectiveness of ‘Social Distancing’ policies. Graph SourceFactoring in recoveries, there was a big split in early April which suggests MB has peaked regarding the virus. Source – MB Covid News Bulletins 1 – 49Crunching the numbers for Covid-19 in MB, tentatively the province peaked for Hospitalizations/ICU visits/Deaths around April 8th. The caveat is the numbers are quite low to start with. Source: MB Media Covid-19 Bulletins 1 – 49
For the next week, testing for the virus ramped up, schools were slated for early closure (March 23 for 3 weeks), events with 250+ were canceled (soon dropped to 50+), daycares, casinos, care homes, surgeries, adult day programs & courts were slated for shutdown. Border measures for drivers were being considered. The Province had 266 ventilators and the Health Science Center was prepping an extra 30 ICU beds.
On March 20, the government hit the panic button by declaring a State of Emergency. Here is the actual legislation. The directives first applied to public areas, not work. Groups of people of 50+ were banned. The phrase, ‘Flatten the Curve’ was first used as was this being termed a ‘Historic Pandemic’. There were 19 cases (all travel related) in the province.
On March 23, schools were closed and Manitobans really started into ‘social distancing’ protocols.
On March 25, a female in her 60’s was the first hospitalization and ultimate death.
On March 27, the government launched a $4.5M program to help combat anxiety related to the virus. Only groups of 10 people were now allowed. Information checkpoints were set up at provincial borders and the two main airports. Domestic travelers coming to MB were also supposed to self-isolate by this point.
March 30, the Province moved to really shut things down. No diners in restaurants, no non-essential business, school was cancelled indefinitely, transit was still running but social distancing and flattening the curve were the watchwords. This was when the big push for people to ‘Just Stay Home‘ was used by the Premier. At this point, the province had done 8550 tests, there were 103 cases, 3 in hospital, 2 in ICU and 1 death.
April 1, a research program with QC, AB and MB regarding the drug hydroxychloroquine was announced. Also, ‘new screening procedures are being implemented for staff working in acute and long-term care facilities.’ This was odd because the hospitals and nursing homes were supposed to have already been on lockdown. The screening is a little hit and miss because many care staff are not having their temperature taken.
April 5, the cost to Manitobans estimated at an extra $10B
April 6, Manitobans are told to stay home for Easter, there was a no ‘non-essential’ travel advisory and we still had to flatten the curve.
April 8, social distancing was credited with keeping new cases low as they had seemed to have peaked back around April 1 but we were cautioned not to let up. Considering, really hardcore social distancing had not reached the 2 week point, this seems like a dubious claim.
On April 9, the government really hammered home the message that Easter weekend should be spent alone in your house. Operation Safe Apart was announced with pre-set fines of $486/person and $2542/business for people who were not social distancing enough. There’s a snitch line to report your neighbors and extra officers have been hired. That curve was not going to flatten itself despite evidence that MB may have peaked in early April. Hospitals and ICUs have never come close to being pushed to capacity up to this point.
As of April 16, cases have slowly flattened out to 250 in total with 121 people recovered. 8 people are hospitalized, 4 in ICU and 5 total deaths.
Returning to my Navy examples, our governments saw a potential conflict, started to gather pertinent information, slowly began to react, but instead of acting rationally, they hit the panic button. Then they forgot to monitor the situation so that we could get our country back on track.
To be fair, I can see where confusion would happen as China was lying through their teeth regarding their experience with the virus. (But China always lies so why would anyone take them seriously?) At first, everyone was told human to human transmission wasn’t possible. The risk to Canadians was low (ultimately this is going to be true). But it was the 3.4% mortality rate from China, Italy’s experience, and the influential Imperial College paper model that freaked World governments.
Unfortunately, governments are full of risk adverse bureaucrats and spineless politicians. Instead of targeted approaches to a crisis, it is easier to blanket a situation and punish the masses. Catchy propaganda phrases are designed to cow the population into submission.
Canadian governments should have aggressively quarantined people coming from hot zones immediately instead of belatedly bringing those policies in now. It was identified right from the beginning what age groups were most at risk. So why are there calls at this point to protect the nursing homes? I know for a fact that these homes are not being protected as well as they should be. Monitoring the numbers, it is obvious the virus outbreak peaked, the hospitals were never close to being overwhelmed, and the government’s main weapon, social distancing, appears to have had a limited effect.
So for Manitoba, if this entire episode with the Wuhan virus resolves itself and ultimately ends up being less deadly than a regular flu season, was it worth Manitoba going an extra $10 Billion in debt? Was it worth crippling our economy, throwing thousands out of work and into bankruptcy, and exponentially increasing people’s rates of anxiety, depression and ultimately suicide?
Other World jurisdictions have announced plans to start coming out of this ‘Great Pause’. Will Manitoba come to its senses and restart our economy or will they double down on their policy of keeping us locked down?
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.
