TORONTO – Ontario Prime Minister lifted restrictions Saturday banning playgrounds and allowed police to require anyone outside the home to explain why he has left after a backlash from police forces, health officials and public.
Pandemic restrictions imposed by Canada’s most populous province were immediately met with opposition, as police departments insisted they would not use new powers to randomly stop pedestrians or motorists and health experts complained that the rules focus on outdoor activities and not on more dangerous indoor environments.
The government of Ontario’s Prime Minister Doug Ford announced Friday that it was giving police authority to require anyone outside the home to explain why it is out and to provide its address. Entries can be written.
But Ontario Attorney General Sylvia Jones said Saturday’s officers will no longer have the right to stop any pedestrians or vehicles from asking them why they are out or requesting their home address.
But Jones said police may require a person to provide information to make sure they meet the restrictions if the officer has reason to suspect the person is attending an organized public event or social gathering,
Earlier, at least a dozen police forces across Ontario, including the capital Toronto, said there would be no random stops of people or cars.
“We are living a horrible year of COVID-19 and all together. The (department) will NOT stop random vehicles for no reason during or after the pandemic, ”Halton police chief Steve Tanner posted on Twitter.
Ford’s announcement Friday limited outdoor meetings to those in the same home and enclosed playgrounds and golf courses. The decisions provoked widespread criticism in a province that was already closed. Restaurants and gyms are closed, as is the school in class. Most non-essential workers work from home.
On Saturday, Ford withdrew the initially announced ban on playgrounds, but added that the ban on “outdoor meetings will still apply,” Ford tweeted.
Ford complained about crowded playgrounds and playgrounds, but at Friday’s new conference did not mention jobs considered essential, such as factories, where the virus spreads.
“What we need: increased restrictions to reduce contact indoors, aid for front-line essential workers, paid sick leave, a re-prioritized vaccine launch for the hardest-hit communities,” Joe tweeted Cressy, who is in Toronto City Hall.
“What we have: the closure of outdoor facilities, which we need to keep people safe and healthy.”
“I still have to intubate a COVID patient who had become infected by being in a playground,” tweeted Dr. Ian Preyra, who works at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, Ontario.
“Warehouse worker, truck driver, construction worker … today none of my patients with COVID acquired it in the park. They are angry and have no voice. Shameful, ”tweeted Dr. Aman Sidhu, a lung doctor in Toronto.
Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto, said the closure of playgrounds and other outdoor recreational facilities “will harm children and their families whose well-being we have already damaged in to have been forced to close schools ”.
He complained that the new rules do not create paid sick leave or protection enhancements for essential workers, even as they allow “police to target anyone who chooses to face them to make sure they are find it properly outside your home.
“This will not affect a white boy like me. This will be aimed at essential workers and racialized people. This is what people talk about when they describe systemic racism,” Morris wrote in a weekly email to fans.
Ontario reported 4,362 new infections on Saturday and registered 2,065 people in hospital receiving treatment for COVID. He has advocated with other provinces to send nurses and other health workers.
Vaccinations have intensified in Canada, the presence of more contagious variants in Ontario has caused a third wave of infections.
Ford said the lack of vaccines made the new restrictions necessary.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Friday that Pfizer would double its vaccine shipments to Canada over the next month, with millions more shots than expected to arrive in May and June.
All eligible Canadians are expected to get at least one shot by July.
Ontario just closed schools days ago after insisting for weeks that they were safe. ) The new initial order to close playgrounds infuriated parents.
“The cognitive dissonance between the Education Minister insisting that schools are safe and then closing playgrounds is mind-boggling,” said Jim Vlahos, a 44-year-old father of two in Toronto.
“There is no rhyme or reason for exterior closures.”
Owen Holliday, a 16-year-old who works at a golf course in Shelburne, Ontario, is now unemployed and said he was very upset, especially for seniors who exercise through the sport.
“With all the protocols, prepaid bookings, closed clubhouses, masks to go with someone out of the house, no meetings after the departure times, golf is as safe as it can get,” he said.