Hi Line Editor,
I hope you'll take a minute to read my response to "Doug Ford's Rules
Make No Sense..."
The complete and utter confusion in the education system makes your
point stronger many times over. The chaos is multiplied when the school
board gets done with trying to implement. It's an insane clown show.
One example: HWDSB recently rolled out a new approved sanitizer
for use on articles that will be handled by students, ie. desks, bins,
countertops. The sanitizer requires a 5 minute stay on the surface, and
then a water rinse. And this is to replace the previously approved
product which required a 3 minute staying time.
What kindergarten
or primary kid is going to sit at their desk and wait 5 minutes and not
touch a wet surface? It seems like stupidity.
Going through the typical daily email list of memos from the school
administrator (principle, vice-principal) a teacher is faced with these
obsessive new protocols for any number of items or procedures, and then
at the same time they are being told they can sign up for the next
workshop on Anti-racism or Math Curriculum strategies.
You can just tell,
you just know by reading between the lines, that the board staff
are literally freaking out every day trying to do the right thing in
response to the latest government "whim" – fact is, they can barely get
organized to show up to work with their buttons buttoned and their
zippers zipped, let alone lead an army of parents and teachers in a
sensible way.
Ford's strategy of creating choices, and letting local school boards
find their way is not stupidity, it is pure evil, because his government
can lay blame in any number of directions. And they are already doing
it, and they will keep doing it.
It is evil and destructive and irresponsible to the core. It's not
just being stupid. It's about creating chaos. And in the schools
it is working.
Second example: HWDSB announced a second restructuring yesterday. In the
K to 8 school I know about, 6 teachers were surplused, meaning 6 classes
worth of students will no longer be attending in person starting next
week and will either be doing "online" or "homeschooling". So
the six teachers with least seniority are bumped into new
positions, and they will no longer be working at that school where
they just spent several weeks setting up their classes and getting
to know their students and their families. And the remaining
classes will get new students and their numbers will go up, overcrowding
classrooms even more. This is because the Ontario gov't never created
new class size limits, so we're working with the usual numbers of
22 kids per class, on average. One kindergarten teacher's room is not
big enough to accomodate the 16 students she had before the
reorganization, and now she will likely have to find space for at least
5 more students.
Every class gets kicked over like so many bowling pins, and now
the entire school setup changes. Parents who thought they were
choosing to have their kids stay at school will now be learning that
their child's class has closed, and the kids are being split up into two
or three other classes. So much for the concept of doing our best to
create safety and security for our children.
So much for looking after peoples' mental health. Multiply that times
several dozen schools, and all the school boards in Ontario, and you see
that this is not stupidity. It is an evil, cutthroat strategy where you
destroy the system by systematically giving up your authority to act and
protect people, and you let other agents (school boards, parents)
make choices. The strategy for education under the Ford government has
been to sell off the pieces by giving up the choices.
Lecce is the ultimate poseur.
The system is literally coming apart from the inside because
of this planned chaos.
I tell you the revolt is already happening. Teachers are crying BS and
are tossing the obsessive cleanliness protocols out the window,
especially when they see inconsistencies all around.
GB
Original Article By: Josh Dehaas
In his 1964 book The Morality of Law, Harvard law professor
Lon Fuller tells the story of a benevolent king, Rex, who tries to create a
legal system that works for his people. Rex starts by attempting to write
down a complete set of rules but quickly gets overwhelmed; it isn’t easy to
come up with general dictates that fit every situation. Rex scraps the idea
of a complete code and starts judging disputes on a case-by-case basis. This
doesn’t work either; Rex’s subjects say they need to know ahead of time what
they can and can’t do. Rex returns to the idea of creating a code that
anticipates every situation, but it turns out so wonky and opaque that his
people can’t understand it. Rex loses patience with his ungrateful subjects
and creates harsh new penalties including 10 years in prison for coughing
and sneezing in his presence. The people revolt. Fuller sees law as a set of
obligations that most people are willing to obey, even if they don’t agree
with every single rule, and not just because they worry about being punished
for disobeying. Fuller uses Rex to show that people will only accept a set
of rules as the law if they conform to certain basic principles: they’re
advertised in advance, understandable, capable of being followed,
non-contradictory and stable.
I couldn’t help but thinking of Premier Doug
Ford when I read about Rex in my jurisprudence class at Osgoode Hall Law
School. The COVID-19 emergency has given Ford king-like powers to make
public-health rules by cabinet decree. Like Rex, he’s demonstrated that he
wants what’s best for his people but he’s struggled to come up with COVID-19
laws that are clear, non-contradictory and stable. If he doesn’t fix this
problem, Ontarians could end up revolting … just kidding, docile Ontarians
would never actually revolt. But if he doesn’t fix this problem, we might
punish Ford at the ballot box.
One of the worst mistakes Ford
has made is that so many rules are contradictory. It makes no sense to allow
10 people from up to 10 different households — as the law currently
specifies in so-called “hotspots” like Toronto and Ottawa — to gather in
their homes while simultaneously banning people from eating with a single
family member inside a restaurant that’s taking proper health precautions,
as nearly all were.
It’s even more contradictory that my local dance studio
can be open, allowing people to gyrate along with 10 strangers while spewing
droplets into the air inside an enclosed space, but you can’t lift
well-sanitized weights at GoodLife while standing two metres from other
people wearing masks in a big open room. My neighbours on the community
Facebook page seems especially enraged by the contradictions around
Halloween. If children in Toronto and Ottawa can attend school with 25
others indoors, why are they being told they can’t trick-or-treat with their
family outdoors while wearing masks? Many parents say they plan to ignore
Ford’s advice against trick-or-treating. Will they listen to him ever again?
Ford’s rules are also changing so frequently that they’re bound to be
ignored. Consider group sizes. At a recent family barbecue with several
adults and several children, somebody asked if we were technically breaking
the gathering-size law. My brother-in-law seemed to think it was legal
because there were fewer than 75 people present — a logical conclusion
considering that 75 people was the limit at his workplace. My sister seemed
to think we could have 15 to 20 — or maybe that was just the limit at
daycares? It turns out the limit was 10 people indoors and 25 outdoors.
Hosts can be fined up to $100,000. Who knew?
If Ford wants
Ontarians to continue following the COVID-19 rules rather than getting
frustrated and giving up, he needs to simplify the law. The law should be
that people from different households must stay two metres apart or wear
masks in public. That means restaurants can serve indoors, but people will
need to sit two metres apart unless they’re from the same household. Fitness
businesses can be open with distancing in place, and people can decide for
themselves whether they think spin class or weightlifting is worth it.
(Hint: spin class is not worth it.)
People can legally host whoever they
like in their homes during the holidays, but they will do so knowing that
it’s risky unless they stay two metres away from Grandma, or else wear a
mask. There could be sensible exceptions, but in general the rule would be
clear to everyone. It would address the risk of COVID-19 while treating
business owners fairly and allow individuals the freedom to make choices
that make sense for them, without jeopardizing the health of others. If Ford
can pull that off, voters will reward him. If they remain frustrated and
confused, they may throw him out like King Rex. Subscribe now Josh Dehaas is
a freelance writer and student at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto.
