Panic Has Consequences

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been “shifting the goalposts” in justifying the lockdowns over COVID-19, while portraying as “selfish” any hopes to reopen an increasingly damaged economy, a coalition of health experts and business executives say.

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute released the letter, dated May 14 and co-signed by several  business and health leaders, which said “the Liberal government has presented social distancing measures as a stark choice — either selflessly shut down the economy to save lives or selfishly worry about the economy and condemn thousands to a vicious illness.”

But that approach oversimplifies the decision facing governments, and “is being pursued at an almost incalculably large cost to the well-being of Canadians,” according to the letter, which was co-signed by 24 health professionals and business executives.

The letter comes amid some debate around the severity and length of economic shutdowns across Canada, which have shuttered the majority of businesses, put millions of people out of work, and obliterated corporate and government balance sheets. While some form of lockdown is widely believed to be a necessary measure in response to COVID-19, some people are questioning whether more limited shutdowns could have been equally as effective in keeping the health-care system from being overwhelmed.

“It’s becoming clearer and clearer that the fear we experienced at the beginning, when we knew so little about the virus, is exaggerated,” said Brian Lee Crowley, managing director of MLI. “We can rein that back now.”

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See Also:

(1) Will these Liberals be willing to do what Chrétien and Martin did?

(2) Perpetual Pandemic: Canadians say post-COVID-19 ‘return to normal’ is far off

(3) Learn from mistakes in COVID-19 crisis

(4) Next CPC leader has their work cut out for them

(5) Canada must stop legitimizing the Chinese regime’s behaviour