The anti-gay and anti-choice views that formed the basis of his campaign for the Conservative leadership were bad enough.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on December 7, 2020.

OTTAWA—Derek Sloan should be tossed from the Conservative caucus.

The anti-gay and anti-choice views that formed the basis of his campaign for the Conservative leadership were bad enough.

Last week, he went from the ridiculous to the delirious, sponsoring a parliamentary petition that discourages Canadians from vaccinating themselves against the worst public health scourge in a century.

Sloan actually went so far as to claim that the vaccination was human experimentation and within hours of its announcement, his petition had gathered more than 22,000 signatures. Even more frightening was the decision by Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole to sidestep the question when asked about it during a presser on the government’s handling of the vaccine. On this one, O’Toole is making a deadly mistake.

While he and his party were starting to develop some media traction in the attacks on government pandemic strategies, the Sloan petition has the effect of throwing all that under the bus.

It makes a number of egregiously false claims including the fact that “no coronavirus vaccine has ever been approved because of serious adverse effects, including death to test animals, due to pathogenic priming; COVID vaccines are not designed to prevent infection or transmission and bypassing proper safety protocols means COVID-19 vaccination is effectively human experimentation.”

This is not the first time Sloan has put his foot in the wrong place. Who can forget his claim that Dr. Theresa Tam was a Chinese agent, a statement for which he did apologize? He has not apologized for opposing federal legislation to end conversion therapy. Sloan stands with those groups that claim they can stamp out homosexual urges through shaming and bullying.

O’Toole is refusing to silence Sloan and by not doing so, he will alienate the majority of the thinking population.

How can the Conservative leader convince Canadians to vaccinate themselves when his own colleague is leading the warped world of online anti-vaxxers?

Before the recent American presidential vote, social media websites like Instagram and Twitter actually blocked false anti-vaccination claims, suggesting they were untrue and designed to have an influence on the election result.

But here in Canada, O’Toole runs the risk of losing the public completely by refusing to stop Sloan from peddling his false and dangerous claims.

It looks as though the Conservatives are backing themselves into the same corner that cost them the last election.

Their refusal to shake off the extremists in their caucus and party are going to do them grievous harm when most Canadians are looking for leadership on pandemic issues.

With the government launching another confidence vote on the $25-billion COVID-fighting investment announced by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland last week, the Tories could be facing the electorate sooner rather than later.

That means a clear, coherent strategy on the main issue of the day should not be muddied by caucus members with mixed messaging. Kicking Sloan out would mean a couple of days of internally negative headlines, but it would clear the way for an election that would not be affected by mixed Tory messaging.

O’Toole has struggled to place himself in the moderate middle when it comes to social issues facing his very conservative caucus. He made it clear immediately after his leadership that he was not going to follow the lead of Andrew Scheer and turn his back on the gay community.

But with colleagues who have no problem doing that, O’Toole’s brand is damaged when he does nothing about them.

Thus far, the Conservatives have not made much political hay out of the COVID challenge. Even with government missteps, the Tories have been kept off balance by bizarre claims from Sloan that question mask-wearing and accuse public servants of being in cahoots with the Chinese government.

Those statements were beyond bizarre but last week’s anti-vaccination rant makes Sloan’s previous missteps pale in comparison.

If there is one way that we are going to be able to end this collective, global nightmare, it is by massive immunization with a vaccine that can protect the globe from this deadly virus.

The opposition has every right to question the government on vaccine availability and rollout, and the federal/provincial cooperation that has characterized the last nine months could be shattered in the fight for vaccinations.

Under normal circumstances, that tension should provide a real opening for a reasoned, competent Opposition leader to show how his party could offer something better.

But when O’Toole refuses to fire a team member who is a delirious anti-vaxxer, all leadership claims ring hollow.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Lame duck leader Andrew Scheer continues to shoot from the lip in his criticisms of everything the government is doing to minimize impacts of the COVID-19 world pandemic.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on May 4, 2020.

OTTAWA—The biggest political victim of COVID has been the national Conservative Party.

Lame duck leader Andrew Scheer continues to shoot from the lip in his criticisms of everything the government is doing to minimize impacts of the COVID 19 world pandemic.

In the face of the pandemic, we have the unusual picture of provincial premiers and the prime minister working together on a daily basis to manage the health crisis and plan for a staged reopening of the economy.

Thus far, even Ontario premier Doug Ford is regularly praising the prime minister and all the premiers of other provinces across the country.

That air of camaraderie may be blown out of the water as Quebec moves to reopen its economy while the province still has the highest rate of infection and death in the country.

As Quebec Premier François Legault promises to free up roads leading into his province, Ford may be forced to close Ontario’s doors. On April 30, his province reported the largest number of COVID-19 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Given the curve has not fully flattened, the last thing the country needs is the spread of infection through unnecessary travel.

The decision to open child-care centres and elementary schools, but keep secondary schools closed does not seem to be based on the best science. If I were a Quebec parent, I am not sure I would want my children at school while the virus is still killing people in large numbers.

Quebec’s decision may cause a rebound of coronavirus cases, making the situation even worse for a province that has already suffered more than 26,500 COVID cases and almost 1,800 deaths. Their mortality rate is currently larger than the combined death rate for the rest of the country.

It is understandable that Quebec teachers, and workers have serious questions about the government’s move to be the first out of the gate when it comes to social reintegration.

Quebec is banking on herd immunity, with the belief that the large number of COVID carriers may provide a reduction in the spread of the disease.

But that is a huge gamble, because if it fails, the Quebec economy will sputter while the deaths will continue to rise.

But all provinces and the federal government have been careful in refusing to comment on the Quebec decision, not wanting to be drawn into an interprovincial fight at a moment when Canadians expect all provinces to be working together.

The only one who has not gotten that message is the outgoing leader of the Conservative Party.

Andrew Scheer’s ad hominem attacks on everything that has been done by the federal government ring very hollow to the population at large.

It may be playing well to his base, but it is certainly not helping his party position itself for an election that might come sooner rather than later.

The racist attack by leadership candidate Derek Sloan on Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam fuels the impression that the Conservative Party has lost its way.

While the Conservative’s own caucus in Ontario is trying to get Sloan to apologize or be turfed from caucus, not a single opponent in the leadership race stepped in to attack his claim that Tam is a pawn of the Chinese government.

Peter MacKay, the onetime frontrunner in the leadership race postponed because of COVID, missed an opportunity to cut ties with Sloan by a public disavowal of his claims.

Instead, MacKay and all other leadership candidates refrain from criticism in an effort to build bridges with Sloan, whose previous public outbursts include the claim that being gay is a choice.

Sadly, Sloan’s viewpoints appear to be fairly popular with the rank and file of the party, which is why other leadership candidates do not want to attack him.

They need the support of his followers.

And Scheer’s public attacks on the government’s COVID-fighting plans is equally out of step with the rest of the country.

It would be so much easier for the next Conservative leader to fight the Liberals on the economic front in the aftermath of the financial cost of COVID.

The Parliamentary Budget Office says the government could face an economic contraction of 12 per cent this year, which would result in a potential $252-billion deficit.

With those numbers, all the opposition leader has to do is wait for a recession to do the government in.

Instead, extreme Conservative views are serving to strengthen the government’s potential pre-election hand.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Courageous, when she told the country that successive governments had neglected their responsibilities by not investing in pandemic preparation. Dangerous, because at the end of the day, Canadians will blame current governments when things go wrong.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on April 6, 2020.

OTTAWA—Health Minister Patty Hadju made a courageous and dangerous statement last week.

Courageous, when she told the country that successive governments had neglected their responsibilities by not investing in pandemic preparation.

Dangerous, because at the end of the day, Canadians will blame current governments when things go wrong.

The general strategy in politics is never complain, and never explain. That is based on the belief that the more information is out there, the more it can be twisted by political opponents to become disinformation.

The general rule of thumb in communication is that less is better.

But these are no ordinary times.

And Hajdu is no ordinary politician. In the daily briefings she is clear, concise, informed and not overly verbose. Like Dr. Theresa Tam, Hajdu transmits an aura of believability.

The Hajdu admission may be out of step with her political colleagues but it reflects what is happening out there in the real world of hospitals, nursing homes and health delivery across the country.

The overreaction to Hajdu’s admission also underscores why governments hesitate to publish modelling projections of worst-case scenarios. Those projections have not been available in all parts of Canada.

Ontario and British Columbia have promised or delivered modelling projections. Some other provinces have not. And the federal government is trying to synthesize disparate data from different provinces, as some experienced the virus onset earlier than others.

According to the premier of New Brunswick, all provinces should be collating the same information, but that is apparently not the current case.

Canada’s chief public health officer suggests that building projects too far in advance is not useful because it is simply not accurate.

Information is vital in the fight to engage all Canadians, but too much information could cause panic or complacency.

American President Donald Trump went from claiming we should all be out celebrating at Easter to suggesting that a quarter of a million Americans may die because of the virus. The American newscasts reported last week that their military has been tasked with securing 100,000 body bags for the dead.

The United States is also claiming that statistics from other countries, specifically China, have been underreported.

Hajdu debunked that claim during a press conference last week, saying that the World Health Organization is gathering all the pertinent data from multiple jurisdictions, and there is no evidence that China understated its deaths. According to Hajdu, the current numbers in that country are actually less than what was originally reported.

But each country is doing its best to reassure its own citizens and position its response to the pandemic as in keeping or superior to that of other jurisdictions.

For the past several weeks, Canadian politicians from all levels of government having been reassuring the country that we have enough supplies of masks, gowns, and ventilators to meet the upcoming crush facing hospital emergency departments.

Front-line workers are living a whole different situation.

A hospital in Ottawa recently told their medical staff that protective material would not be available in the delivery ward as the normal protective devices were being repurposed to fight the COVID-19 battle.

The federal and provincial governments have been pulling out all the stops to secure protective supplies for the medical front lines. With a $2-billion purchase order, Ottawa is locking down supplies, and provinces are even sending planes to secure materials that have been ordered from international sources.

Their efforts include public bulk purchasing and financial support for Canadian companies to replace their normal lines of business with COVID-19-fighting materials to join this war on the coronavirus.

Irving is retooling operations to make hand sanitizers. Bauer is switching from hockey masks to hospital masks.

Stanfields is making medical gowns and protective apparel where the company usually focuses on underwear.   Canada Goose has moved away from their iconic down filled jackets to medical gowns.

Canadian medical suppliers are partnering with auto companies to speed up production of desperately needed life-saving ventilators.

Transformations take time. Frontline workers are scrambling to protect themselves by recycling materials and seeking out any sources they can. Some make their own protective masks, and others are trying to source protective equipment in whatever way they can.

But they also face a race against time and a global hunt for similar products. The issue of supply is not just a Canadian problem.

“Many governments around the world are going to be reflecting on this issue,” Trudeau admitted last week.

Pandemic reflection yes, but flattening the virus comes first.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

Canadian Bruce Aylward is leading the World Health Organization team charged with stemming the spread of the virus. He warns us that this is not the common flu and is 10 times more deadly than that.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on March 16, 2020.

OTTAWA—Call me contrarian. But I refuse to join the wave of panic reacting to the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19.

Two women in Australia were arrested for fighting over the purchase of toilet paper.

People are crossing the street when they see anyone who looks a little different from them.

The price of hand sanitizers and hygiene wipes has skyrocketed as merchants exploit the law of supply and demand.

Members of Parliament go into voluntary lockdown. Planes are no longer flying to China, Korea, Italy, or Iran.

The Canadian government is introducing a stimulus package to help the country weather the storm, with targeted support for affected industries and workers.

Canadian Bruce Aylward is leading the World Health Organization team charged with stemming the spread of the virus.

He warns us that this is not the common flu and is 10 times more deadly than that.

But he also says that there are ways we can reduce the spread of the disease, the single most important being scrupulous handwashing. If no one with the virus sneezes on me, I am not going to be affected.

And even if I am, the chances of getting through it are good because I am a healthy sexagenarian.

I am a great believer that when my time is up, my time is up. I could get hit by a bus crossing the street in Ottawa. I cannot and will not stop living for fear of dying.

We could shut down the whole world and people still need to interconnect for work and sustenance.

The whole of Italy is now in lockdown and they are warning the worst is yet to come in other parts of Europe. But the world goes on and putting everyone into quarantine is simply not possible.

Not everyone grows their own food so a trip to the grocery store is inevitable.

Likewise, the decision to cancel sporting and entertainment events seems to be a huge overreaction.

I guess everyone is following the mantra, better safe than sorry.

If you don’t have to get out of your house, it is easier to stay there.

But what if you have already made the move?

I am currently half-way around the world, getting ready to embark on a 25th anniversary cruise of the South Pacific.

The cruise was booked more than two years ago, when nobody thought the coronavirus would be playing a role in people’s travel plans.

Canada’s chief public health officer Theresa Tam has issued a warning that people should cancel planned cruises, because of the risk of coronavirus contamination.

So why would I even consider ignoring her blunt warning?

Thus far, only two cruise ships have been reported to be affected. From the moment they were identified, the cruise industry heightened its boarding procedures. The temperature of every person is taken before they board the ship, and if there are any doubts, the passenger cannot board.

Staff from affected countries are not currently working the ships, and the companies have also cancelled the reservations of prospective passengers from certain targeted countries.

The cruise ship industry seems to have gotten its act together.

It is obviously financially motivated to do so because worldwide, the business is worth $126-billion. The cruise industry can’t afford to simply shut everything down.

Media have identified cruise ships as a Petri dish for disease. But ships are also a Petri dish for disease containment.

If a single new virus has not been found on a cruise ship in two weeks, does that not mean that the methods being employed to contain disease are working?

I must admit, I am thinking with my heart, not my head. Twenty-five years of marriage is a milestone and this voyage is symbolic of that celebration.

I am perusing the news vigorously to watch for reports of any new cruise contaminations.

Luckily for me, I have a first world cruise ship problem. Some dying Covid-19 patients around the world do not even have access to proper health care.

Italian medical staff are reported to have to ration available respirators based on triage, as their hospitals do not have enough to support all patients that might need them.

More than 4,000 people have already died, and more will because of this new super-virus.

During the same period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14,000 people have died from the ordinary flu virus.

Perspective, not panic, should be the order of the day.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.