Do your job, journalists

It was with mounting frustration that I read the Chronicle Herald article 563 lawyers warn that COVID-19 mandates, protocols violate charter rights. In part, I was frustrated in part because I had just finished reading Nova Scotia’s health-care system in ‘dire straits’. A story of doctors and nurses pushed to the breaking point by COVID-19 and, in some cases, beyond, with nurses quitting in droves last fall and fears that the omicron wave may restart the exodus.

The surgeon interviewed said “we’re talking patients with orthopedic issues, and spine issues who are in debilitating pain, who can’t go to work, who can’t live a functional life, whose mental health is being affected by the fact that they can’t have their surgery.” 

Heart attack patients are being treated in hallways and, at times, up to 20 ambulances are waiting outside the hospital for offloading. Staffing shortages so dire, consideration is being given to allowing COVID-19 positive healthcare workers in the workplace.

“'Provincial authorities have said ‘that, quote, ‘work isolation is the last resort.’ But what does ‘the last resort’ mean?’ the surgeon asked. ‘I feel like we are at that last resort now, because we can barely provide basic medical care.’”

Mostly though, I was frustrated because the reporter who wrote the 563-lawyer article confused journalist with transcriptionist. Journalism is about finding things out. A quote attributed to journalism professor Jonathan Foster says: “If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the [expletive] window and find out which is true.” 

A more elegant and old, but analogous quote from French philosopher, art critic, and writer Denis Diderot is: “All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.” 

We all know the hospital story is true. Each and every one of us is a part of the healthcare system, as a worker, or a patient, or as their friend or family. It is not a matter of if we will use the healthcare system, it is a matter of when we will use the healthcare system.

Just so, we will all need a lawyer at some point too. Let’s take a look at the lawyer article. Evidently there is a “chorus of lawyers, business people, and private citizens”, otherwise known as some people, who are unhappy with COVID-19 mandates. Of them, 683 live in Nova Scotia and wrote a letter to Minister Lohr calling for an end to the mandates. The article does not consider the remaining 999,317 people who live here that did not sign that letter. 

At this point, we enter the ivory tower. Bruce Wildsmith, constitutional law expert, said “my humble opinion is that Justin Trudeau’s father, as the father of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, would be rolling over in his grave.” We don't know if Wildsmith is speaking from first-hand knowledge of Pierre Trudeau, because the reporter doesn't ask him. Though I suspect that  the son of the man who invoked the War Measures Act and famously said “Just watch me” knows more than Wildsmith about what his father would do in response to a pandemic that has sickened millions and killed tens of thousands of Canadians. I would also wager that the number of Nova Scotians who would prefer a roadblock on the 104 over the unencumbered passage of goods and people has a similar ratio to Lohr’s letter.

Moving on to the True North Declaration, this is where the wheels of journalism come entirely off the bus. The declaration, which was quoted in part and unquestioned in its entirety, is littered with falsehoods and right-wing talking points. The source document may well have been a Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan podcast, but who knows? None of this was ever questioned by the reporter. According to the article, 563 lawyers signed the declaration, but once you click the signatories’ button on the declaration page, you’ll see that number drop to 420 lawyers, 419 if you don’t count the one in Germany. There are over 126,400 lawyers in Canada. Nearly 126,000 of them didn’t sign this letter.

Turns out there’s more than one nutty professor in Ontario. When looking towards the credibility of a person making claims, being a law professor definitely lends credence. On the flip side, take a look at the law professor’s twitter feed. It’s a nonstop tweet-circus of Freedom Truckers, conspiracy theorist Theo Fleury, Ivermectin praise, and far-right discredited news sites. The declaration warns of a “mass hysteria”, which isn’t incorrect, but it’s not as described in the declaration. It’s a mass hysteria of a privileged class of mostly white men who have been minorly inconvenienced throughout the pandemic who think that screaming “my charter rights” and "eliminate mandates" will somehow bring about the before COVID times.

Which brings me to the last fellow in this article. Former Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford signed on to a lawsuit in Federal Court that seeks to end the vaccine mandate for air travel. The reporter was able to dig up that Peckford is the last living signatory of the Charter of Rights and Freedom, a recent Trucker Freedom Prof tweet. No acknowledgement of Peckford endorsing anti-multiculturalist, anti-environment, anti-mandate, and all around loon Peoples Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier for prime minister. It was right there on Peckford's Wikipedia page. There's a photo too. Anyone who cares about human rights and freedoms does not endorse an astrology-for-men libertarian who openly embraces white supremacists.

The pandemic has been hell, no question, but as the saying goes, when in hell, keep going. Nova Scotia’s COVID-19 response has been one of the best in Canada. It is a point of Bluenoser pride how well we’ve done. We’ve had a spike in new Nova Scotians who have moved here from other provinces during the pandemic, because of that response.

We are a resilient people. We will endure and we will see the end of this pandemic. We should not have to suffer through passive, information-silo reporting while we’re at it. It's a pandemic, not a thought exercise. Reporters, when you’re interviewing constitutional experts, real or alleged, who say they’re fighting for our freedom, dig in. Ask them what hardships they’ve personally endured throughout the pandemic. Have they been harassed and abused for enforcing mask mandates like teenage store clerks or did they have to wear a mask on the subway? Did their employer lie about a massive COVID-19 outbreak and knowingly put them in harm's way or were they unable to find three-ply toilet paper at the grocery store? Did they ride face down on a ventilator for a couple weeks or did they have to cancel a southern holiday? Did they say a final goodbye to a loved one via iPad or did they have to work from home and Zoom? Did they watch people die all week at work while antivaxxers raged at them through the windows or were they forced to celebrate their birthday at home with Skip the Dishes?

Above all else, ask them to defend their position. When someone says they want all restrictions lifted, ask them what their plan is to ensure all Canadians receive timely and equitable care when hospitals are overflowing with COVID-19 patients. How will they protect the elderly, the immune compromised, and the unvaccinated? What will they do to ensure that nurses and doctors don’t quit when the nonstop death and disease becomes unbearable? Make them say the hard parts out loud and write those words down, because that is the story. That is who they are and that is what people need to know to make informed decisions. That is your job. Do your job.