03.26.2020 10:31 AM

This is even more insane than usual

19 Comments

  1. the real Sean says:

    the Star is also reporting that Ontario got rid of stockpiled surgical masks after SARS.

    Disaster management in Canada = Disaster.

  2. joe long says:

    I’m not a Trudeau fan, but I think Trudeau was hoping that China, which some sources say produces 80% of the world’s medical personal protective equipment, would remember Canada’s generosity. It’s too early to say if this will work.

    Would this be part of Justin’s security council seat campaign? I don’t know, but based on his past actions, it wouldn’t surprise me.

    Would I trust the CCP? Nope.

    • PJH says:

      The same Communist Party of ZhungGuo that sat on, nay, quashed vital information for weeks that might have helped the rest of the world be more prepared for what was to come?. It is time to divest ourselves from this corrupt, ignoble, and untrustworthy regime….they dont give two shits about the “little potato” or us…Their days of revering the memory of Dr. Norman Bethune are long gone….world hegemony is all they care about now…

  3. Peter says:

    Fair enough, and let’s hope we’re more careful about “outsourcing’ essential goods when this is all over. But there is a lot of alarmist stuff floating around the internet and it;s fueling a lot of “conjectural” panic, In particular, about how we and our healthcare systems weren’t prepared for this. They weren’t, but how could they have been? Nobody is going to design, fund and manage a healthcare system that stands by ready at the drop of a hat to combat a once-in-a-century global pandemic. At some point it becomes as realistic as listening to those astrophysicists who warn we aren’t prepared for a collision with an asteroid. We’re in the hands of medical experts, and we have little choice but to do what they say, but we can also be aware and wary of some of their professional interests, or at least their single-minded perspective.

    As recently as six weeks ago, many of us would have seen these shipments has evidence of global responsibility and a fine example of the best of traditional Western impulses to give aid and succor to those afflicted by catastrophes wherever they occur.

    • Chris Sigvaldason says:

      As recently as six weeks ago many of us were loudly complaining of lax border and airport controls, naive “suggestions to reconsider” travel plans, and other rather lazy government responses.

      For that effort we were branded as “racists” and told to shut up.

  4. lungta says:

    those headlines should be dated
    so is the insanity
    1) global co-operation on a global problem or
    2) unfair distribution of resources
    3) underfunding of science? medicine?
    4) too compassionate for you?
    just saying “insane” might be that gut code to blame
    before understanding

  5. ABB says:

    The shrewd Chinese probably turned the pallets around at the airport and re-sold them back to us. Nuts!

  6. WestGuy says:

    Just wondering if surgical masks expire. If you look at some of the materials in a common First Aid kit, quite a few items have expiry dates on them. A lot of safety supply items do. I’m just wondering if that includes items like surgical masks as well.
    I’m not saying that the Ontario government had to dispose of the masks but there might be a reason why.

  7. Well, often times, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

  8. Max says:

    And not a peep about the 2 Canadians illegally imprisoned in China.

    • Max,

      This release effort is going nowhere until Canada comes up with a convenient diplomatic fig-leaf that calls a spade a spade, as China is demanding without it being obvious to everyone else.

  9. PAM LEVY says:

    I’m still trying to join the stupidity dots on this one.

  10. Maybe Ottawa was responding to a request for help. Perhaps medical experts suggested that by attempting to control the spread of the disease at its source, other parts of the world (like Canada) could potentially be spared some of the dire effects of the disease. I wouldn’t second guess the gesture, or attempt to play politics with it at a time like this. There will be lots of time for reflection and finger pointing when it finally ends.

  11. Pedant says:

    Has John McCallum been whispering in Trudeau’s ear, taking turns with Gerry?

    None of these men put Canada’s interests first.

  12. Pedant says:

    Handing over our medical supplies to a hostile enemy, leaving Canadians without adequate provisions, is the right thing Mike? Who’s side are you on? Or is this simply the standard Liberal “party before country” that we’ve become accustomed to?

  13. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Geopolitical implications are not for arm-chair prognosticators. Maybe it was the right thing to do, and maybe it wasn’t. But ER has it exactly right. It’s far too early to read demonstrable tea-leaves.

    • Fred from BC says:

      It sounds like a matter of degree, to me.

      Sure, okay, it was the “right thing to do”. But Justin Trudeau’s primary responsibility, first and foremost, is to *Canadians* first…the rest of the world, second. What he needed to do was consult with his own heath-care officials and ask for their advice on how much of this material we could *safely* afford to donate while still leaving ourselves a comfortable margin in case the virus spread here…he did not. That’s why people are pissed, I think.

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