Front Burner - On careless social distancing Prime Minister says "enough is enough"

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

The prime minister is firing off a warning today to Canadians who are not abiding by social distancing measures. He said “enough is enough” and asked people to “go home and stay home.” On tonight’s coronavirus episode, we will get you caught up on: The increasingly tough language coming from the federal government on social distancing. Questions about whether the Emergencies Act Measures act will go into effect. And how Canada is handling the return of tens of thousands of Canadians who have been stranded abroad.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Michelle Shepard, filling in for Jamie Poisson. It's been a busy weekend and Monday. So on tonight's coronavirus episode, we will get you caught up on the increasingly tough language coming from the federal government on social distancing, questions about whether the Emergency Measures Act will go into effect,

and how this country is handling the return of tens of thousands of Canadians who have been stranded abroad. This is FrontBurner. Joining us again now is Adam Miller, senior writer with the CPC Health Unit. Hi, Adam. Hi, Michelle. Thanks for having me. We've all seen the pictures online of people who seem to think they're invincible. Well, you're not. Enough is enough. Go home and stay home. This is what we all need to be doing. We just heard from the Prime Minister a statement in really his strongest tone yet.

Trudeau was also saying that, quote, staying home is your way to serve. Do you think that's a last warning to Canadians before we see even tougher measures? It definitely seems that way. The language that's being used by the Prime Minister has clearly shifted in tone. I think he was incredibly frustrated with what we all saw across the country this weekend. Photos of people in crowded spaces at parks and beaches, despite being told to practice social distancing and stay at home unless absolutely necessary. And this has been happening across the country. In Vancouver, there were hundreds of people flocking to the seawall because the weather was so nice there this weekend. There were hundreds of people flocking to the seawall because the weather was so nice there this weekend.

And Nova Scotia declared a state of emergency partly because they said the number of people who aren't following social distancing there as well is getting out of control. So Trudeau said that these people think they're invincible. And if educating them doesn't work, the government is going to look at enforcing the rules if necessary. And I think the main thing that he's trying to stress to Canadians is that even if you're young and healthy, you're putting other people at risk by doing this. There are people who, you know, these are the people we're trying to protect the most, our most vulnerable populations, the elderly, people with underlying health conditions, and the most essential, like our frontline health care workers and people who work in pharmacies, grocery stores, and those who deliver our food. I think Trudeau is trying to make it clear that he won't tolerate this for much longer. And I think we're definitely going to see some stricter measures put in place very soon if this

continues. And we know that he's having conversations today with the premiers across the country. And the House of Commons will be sitting in session tomorrow and Wednesday to pass emergency legislation. Do you think the Emergencies Measure Act will be part in session tomorrow and Wednesday to pass emergency legislation. Do you think the Emergencies Measure Act will be part of those conversations? Yeah, I think there's a very real possibility that the Emergencies Act will be used to enforce these kind of measures across the country, especially as we're going to see the number of cases of COVID-19 rise in Canada. At this point, we've seen every province and territory declare a state of emergency or a public health emergency, but the federal government has not yet used the Emergencies Act.

But what it does is it gives them special powers to enforce quarantines and self-isolation and limit people's movements around the country. The reason that it's controversial, though, is because it's basically allowed the government to override our civil liberties in order to contain the outbreak. We know this is very likely coming soon especially since the premiers are meeting with the prime minister tonight. Today the coronavirus cases in Canada exceeded 2,000. Ontario and Quebec have clamped down harder. They've shut down essentially all non-essential businesses. And Toronto, if you hadn't heard, had declared a state of emergency today.

But you do see people asking, you see this all over social media, definitely. Why did none of this come sooner? Are you hearing that as well? Yeah, it's a really good question. And I think there's been a lot of discussion around, you know, why the federal government was urging things and encouraging things, but not outright saying that, you know, these things had to be done. And we have to kind of assume that politicians and public health officials were, we got to assume that they know more than we do. They know what's coming. It's clear that we're about to see a rise in the number of new cases in this country.

And that's partly because we've had thousands of people returning from overseas. So, you know, there's also the issue of community transmission. COVID-19 is spreading in our communities at a rate that we don't really know. So I think that the approach that they were taking is that before the number of cases rose dramatically, they were going to provide Canadians with these instructions to self-isolate, monitor for symptoms, help protect our most vulnerable, socially distance. But what they've seen in the past few days is that people aren't necessarily going to listen or fully understand what they're being asked to do. And you mentioned that issue, the fear of all these people who have been repatriated and what that is going to do here. I believe I read Sunwing alone has brought

back 60,000 Canadians. That's definitely raising concern over more potential coronavirus cases coming into the country. What's being done to manage that risk? I don't think there's any doubt that we're going to see the number of cases continue to rise because we have all these people returning home. What's important, though, is that we keep up our efforts to contain it and not give up or think that social distancing and self-isolation aren't working. That's why the language is getting so strong from the Prime Minister, because we're at this critical point where cases are about to increase. The government is also rapidly trying to scale up its testing capacity, which is key to understanding how many people have COVID-19 so we can isolate them and treat them. But unless we're testing as

many people as possible, we're not going to get a sense, a true sense of how many people in this country are infected. So we're doing much better than we were initially. And we've now tested more than 100,000 people in this country at an average of about 10,000 tests per day. So yeah, I mean, cases are going to continue to go up, especially because we've got all these people returning home, but it's important to keep it in perspective. And hopefully we'll see the number of eventually plateau and drop. Canada made the decision to not send its athletes to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. And meanwhile, there's a lot of pressure on Japan's organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee to postpone the Games altogether. And a veteran Canadian IOC member says he does believe the Games will be postponed.

But as of right now, the Games are still on. Why do you think there's a reluctance to postpone them? That's a great question. I think initially there was some hope that maybe this wasn't going to be a pandemic and affect as many countries as it has. But we're at the point now where almost every country in the world is reporting cases. If you're going to effectively contain this worldwide, having an international event like the Olympics is not going to help. Athletes in athletes' villages, sleeping in the same areas, like it's just really not an effective event if the goal is to contain this around the world.

Adam, you must be so busy. Thank you so much. Thanks, Michelle. It was a pleasure. Thanks, Michelle. It was a pleasure. as entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. That's it for now. For more, watch The National tonight for a wrap of what happened today in Canada and the world. And tomorrow morning on the show, we are talking to the CBC's Hayden Waters about the unexpected frontline workers of this crisis, grocery store employees. I'm Michelle Shepherd, in for Jamie Poisson. Thanks for listening.