"If the law supposes that," said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, "the law is a ass — a idiot. If that's the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”
This type of rule is made to be broken, because it's stupid- obviously so. But the government needs to be seen to be doing something, even if that something is patently ineffective. And of course, this will give them an out if, as seems likely, cases continue to occur: people just didn't take their rules seriously enough. This is, of course, already happening; my sister was expressing her frustration with these new restrictions online yesterday and a whole slew of the righteously indignant swooped in to defend the government's actions. One said that if she was looking for someone to blame, it should be her "fellow man" because, if we had all just done what we were supposed to do, "the government wouldn't need to control us." I don't even know what to say to this attitude, and it seems to be spreading faster than Covid. I was in a store one day a couple of weeks ago and there was a woman standing, seemingly nonplussed, at the end of an aisle. An employee happened by and asked the woman if she needed help finding anything; she said, "No, but there are no directional arrows on the floor and I didn't know what to do." What the heck is happening to us?
The thing is, I'm not a "Covid denier" whatever that is, or callous about the lives of the vulnerable. I've followed the rules... well, mostly... even when, in the case of masks, I don't want to. Yet now, if you point out that the government's directives are useless and/ or vastly overstep their boundaries of power over us, the first thing you hear is, "Oh, so you're okay with killing Grandma, eh?" This is a nasty and intellectually dishonest accusation which is designed to shame and shut down any disagreement with their opinions. As free Canadians, it's our duty to question and criticize the government when we think it's wrong. Pointing out that forcing families who live together to sit apart when they're in public will not stem the tide of Covid is common sense, not science denial. Also, believing that the government has no business telling families where they can sit in church, or who they can have dinner with afterwards does not equate with wanting to kill off Grandma. Disagree with me? That's fine- I'm all for healthy debate; what I have a problem with is people who impute malicious- indeed, murderous- intent to those who push back against these strictures. We're living through a pandemic and that's bad but it will eventually pass. The unhealthy acceptance of- in some cases, thirst for- government control over all aspects of our lives, the loss of jobs and livelihoods, the enforced separation from loved ones, the snitching on neighbours, the attacking of peoples' motives... these things may in the long run prove a lot more ruinous to our society.