The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Are Our Airport Pandemic Measures Strong Enough? Not Compared To Others.

Episode Date: January 5, 2021

Have you lost your favourite restaurant because of the pandemic? Tell me about it.

and hello there peter mansbridge here latest episode the bridge daily it's tuesday of week 43 of year 2021 and it's a big day especially especially if you live in georgia the state of georgia in the united states because today is runoff day and there's a lot at stake there's a lot at stake if you're joe biden especially because the runoff is for the two u.S. Senate seats in Georgia. They were not settled in November at the general election time. It was too close so they had to have a run-off election. Both seats had

been held by the Republicans, and if they continue to hold both of them, or even one of them, they will continue to control the U.S. Senate. But, and it's a big but, if the Democrats win both seats, they will control the U.S. Senate.

And what does that mean? What does that mean in real terms? Well, it means that Joe Biden and the Democrats will control the White House, they'll control the House of Representatives, they will control the U.S. Senate. And if all those things happen, they kind of control the agenda. Right?

So a lot at stake. But for the Republicans too. And for Mitch McConnell. If he wants to remain the majority leader in the U.S. Senate, they've got to win at least one of those seats tonight. So how close is it? It's pretty close. Looking at the latest polling data, and I like 538.com, it is Nate Silver. And, you know, he's been tracking the two Senate seats in Georgia since November, since the general election.

And it's, they're almost flatlined. You know, it's historically been a red state, a Republican state. And they usually win by a fair chunk. But they lost the state, or at least Donald Trump lost the state to Joe Biden in November. And now everything's kind of up for grabs, but it's, it is tight. It couldn't be much tighter. You've got the Democrat in the lead by 1.7 percentage points in one of the two seats and the

Democrat in the lead by 2.1% in the other seat. Now, those leads don't mean squat, really. They just don't mean very much at all. It's within the margin of error, so anything could happen. And nobody in their right mind is making any predictions on what's going to happen in these two seats. You know, Democrats are acting like they have a shot.

Republicans are saying, we always deliver in the end, and we'll deliver in the end here. So we'll see. So when will we know? That's the next best question. It may be a long time before we know. It might be tonight. Say this polling data isn't right, And that's possible. Runoff elections are

tough to predict, or not predict, but tough to do the research on polling. Most pollsters admit that. But if the numbers are anywhere near accurate, it's going to be very tight and there will be demands for recounts and this, that, and the other. You know the movie. We'll see that again. But let's say it's resolved tonight, one way or the other. It's going to be a real impact night on the future of the U.S. government. And some might argue on the U.S. democracy. Tomorrow is this craziness in the U.S. democracy. Tomorrow is this craziness in the U.S. Senate where there'll be an attempt by some Republicans to throw out the results of the election.

That's the short story of what's happening tomorrow. The longer story is more complicated. I'm not going to get into it here. But these next two days, especially after the last couple of days, as we talked about last night, a crazy telephone recording of a conversation between Donald Trump

and the Georgia State Secretary of State. Man. You know, every time you think politics is nuts in this country, you watch that and you go, man, oh, man, we've got it pretty good. Anyway, tonight will be a night for watching television, if you love politics. And if you love the craziness, if you've become addicted to the craziness of what's been going on south of the border, tonight will be a night where you're sitting there watching endless panels on whatever your cable news station of choice is. Because they'll all have them.

And hour by hour, half hour by half hour, the story's going to go up and down, and you're going to have your Steve Kornackis and your John Kings running around at magic boards talking about what this or that or county means. You're going to know more about the state of Georgia and every county in it than you'll ever have known in the past and ever want to know in the future.

But some of us thrive on that stuff, love watching it. Okay. That's tonight's story. We'll all be watching. And tomorrow, I'm sure it'll give us lots to talk about. And we've got a special program coming up tomorrow to deal with it. And I'll tell you about that a little later on. now you remember or you may remember during the summer i talked one day on the podcast about a conversation i'd had with my friend ben callendure ben is best known for his stewardship of some of the greatest golf courses in the world and two of them are in Cape Breton,

constantly ranked in the top 10 of the world's best golf courses. Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links. They're in Cape Breton, and theyot links. They're in Cape Breton and they're spectacular. I've played them and, you know, it doesn't get better than those two. Ben's a great guy.

Obviously, he cares about his golf courses. He's building a new one right now in St. Lucia in the Caribbean. And it'll be, one can assume, just as spectacular as his other golf courses.

But aside from golf, he's also the chair of the board of directors of Destination Canada. Now, Destination Canada worries about tourism in this country and does all it can do. Make tourism successful. So obviously with the pandemic, he was worried. And so was the whole board of Destination Canada, and they were trying to come up with ways to engage the Canadian people on what was at stake. And what's at stake basically in tourism in Canada during the pandemic

is one out of ten jobs. Because that's what tourism represents in Canada. 10% of the jobs have some direct or indirect relationship to tourism. And so were they worried? Are they continuing to be worried? Absolutely. Because tourism has taken a huge hit. It's taken a hit all around the world. But Canada, with 10% of our jobs related

to tourism, is particularly vulnerable. And of that industry, one of the areas that has been of primary concern, and Ben and I talked about a lot, was restaurants. And you all know this because you've seen it in your town, your village, your city, from coast to coast to coast. People haven't been going to restaurants, partly because many of them have been closed for much of the pandemic. And even when they were open for in-restaurant dining, a lot of people, including myself, resisted that temptation, just weren't comfortable.

And many of them are closed again now in terms of in-restaurant dining. What you can do and what you should do is patronize your restaurants in terms of takeout. We do at least once a week. And the food has been fantastic. The service has been fantastic. The safety has been absolutely 100%. And the fear, the great fear around the restaurant business has been two out of three would not make it through last year, 2020. Now, they're still crunching the numbers. We don't know what the final toll is, but we know it's considerable. So I thought this week, you know, in looking for something that you could participate

in in terms of sending ideas in, I thought of this one. Here's the idea. In your town, your community, whether it's a small town, village, or big city, have you seen restaurants close? And has your favorite or one of your favorite restaurants closed because of the pandemic? Because I want to recognize them this week. I want you to write to me. I want you to write to me. I want you to tell me why that restaurant was important to you.

Anything about its history. Tell me. It doesn't have to be long. A couple sentences. And we'll remember these places. Out of business through no fault of their own. A hit by a pandemic. Now, I have a, you know, as you may remember,

I have a particular concern about restaurants. I'm a partner in a restaurant. I've just gone into a partnership. You know, opening a restaurant during a pandemic, that takes either certain smarts or certain non-smarts. Whatever the case, I'm a partner in one in Ottawa. In my old neighborhood, the place I grew up in, the Glebe. And what I think we're doing wisely with this restaurant to start with is it's almost completely takeout.

Has been. The plan is eventually when all this pandemic era ends, that it will be, and we're positioning ourselves to be a full-fledged restaurant with a dining room, the whole bed. Right now it's doing extremely well as takeout because it is great food. It's Italian. It's Italian. It's terrific.

But enough about me. I want to recognize those who've gone by the wayside. So write in. And I was inspired to do this by reading a piece in the Washington Post last week. Written by Kwame Unawachi and Alice Waters. Kwame is a

James Beard award-winning chef and author of Notes from a Young Black Chef. Alice Waters is a chef, author, food activist, and the founder and owner

of the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. And they were talking about the dilemma for restaurants in the United States and the desire and the hope that Joe Biden should begin and be able to help them when he takes over the presidency by ensuring certain pieces of legislation that were ignored and rejected by the Trump administration are looked at more carefully.

But I'm not interested in getting into that. That's an American issue. We have our own issues on support programs, some of which have been very beneficial to restaurants, but in some cases, not enough. But in the States, this is what Kwame and Alice did. They wrote a piece remembering some of the great restaurants that America has lost this year.

I'll mention three. You know, one in Chicago, one in New Orleans, one in Philadelphia. If you've ever been to Chicago, a great city. You may well have heard of the Blackbird. It's a Michelin-starred restaurant. It served French-influenced American food for more than two decades. French-influenced American food. I can imagine American-influenced French food, but I guess it goes both ways. It closed

in June. New Orleans. Been to New Orleans, another great city. One of the things it's known for is great breakfast, great desserts. The Cake Cafe in New Orleans, whose founder got his start selling desserts door-to-door. Philadelphia's V Street, a hip bar and restaurant offering vegan street food. It closed this summer, too. So that's the idea. You name three. I'll give you one of my favorites.

I've probably been to this restaurant more than any other one in the last, I don't know, 20, 30 years in Toronto. Kit Kat, little store on King Street, King Street West, little restaurant, started by a guy who started in the business 30, 40 years ago selling sausage on the street in one of those little, you know, like a barbecue stand. He saved his money and he bought a restaurant and he opened a restaurant and he bought another one and opened it. Well, Kit Kat was my favorite.

Gone. Closed. It's a part of us, right? It's a part of our communities. It's a part of who we are. Losing it. So if you have some in mind, send it along. Tell me about it. It can be a restaurant. It can be a diner.

Some of my favorite places are diners. The Avenue Road Diner in downtown Toronto. I go there all the time. As far as I know, it's still open. That there all the time. As far as I know, it's still open. But it's tough. Some of the best meals I've ever had have been in diners. I remember a diner in Dallas, Texas. A couple of blocks from the Texas School Book Depository building where Lee Harvey Oswald shot President Kennedy in November of 1963. Incredible breakfast at that diner.

Anyway, you got a diner? You got a diner you want to talk about? Then send me the name. We'll talk about it. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. Okay. I want to talk for a moment, you guessed it, about airports.

Because there's much debate, and we have it in this country too, about are we doing enough to check passengers before they get on flights? Are we doing enough to check passengers who come from out of our country into our country? Is the quarantine process bulletproof in the sense that we're really checking these people? Because some countries appear to be doing it in a much tougher, more stringent way than us.

I mean, Barbados. Barbados, you can't get on a plane in Canada to go to Barbados unless you can show you've had a negative test, and I think in the last 48 hours. That's getting on the plane. How about getting off the plane? Because when you land in Barbados, you got to go through the whole thing again.

You're tested. You're questioned. You have to go through all the paperwork. And then you have to promise to go into quarantine. And not only do you have to promise, you're actually followed to where you're going to be in quarantine. They set up a camera outside your door to follow you for 48, 72 hours until your next test comes back and proves that you were negative. As you said, you had been on the flight down.

So they're tough. But if you think that's tough, wait till you hear this. This is the experience of a freelance journalist who's based actually in South Korea. His name's Rafael Rashid. And he wrote a long stream on Twitter over the weekend that detailed his experience of going from London back to South Korea, to Seoul,

to Incheon, the name of the big international airport in Seoul. Beautiful airport. Spectacular. Been there a couple of times. Alright, so here's the detail on this. Sorry, on Raphael's thread. It's a fair number of things, but listen closely to what he went through

flying home. He's based in Seoul. He's got British and French connections. Here's what happened. I thought I'd write about my experience re-entering South Korea, where I reside, during this global pandemic. It wasn't a five-minute job like in London Heathrow, where I was out in no time at all. Instead, it took 24 hours, 24 hours, to get through the airport. Here's what happened. During the flight,

that's from London to Seoul, that's about a 14-hour flight. During the flight, I needed to fill out multiple forms, including quarantine papers. Upon arrival in Incheon, that's the airport, immediate body temperature scan. As I was coming from the UK, a quarantine official already had my name on a list of a handful of people from hotspots, UK and South Africa. I was given a lanyard, lanyard simply that, you know, kind of string rope that goes around your neck holding a identification card. Next, I was told to throw away my KF-94 mask that I was wearing and had worn on the flight. Replace it with their own, even tighter, twin-strap 3M KF-95 mask

and made to wait to get tested for COVID-19 even though I already had a negative certificate. The test was carried out on the tarmac outside the plane. It was freezing. It was windy. We were then taken to another waiting area with separate seating, made to fill out more papers. Then went through immigration, made to install quarantine app on my phone, which includes entering a passport number and a valid telephone number. An official then called the phone number entered on the app to check that it was real, or on the app a little later. Violators of rules face immediate deportation.

Once through immigration, where they also checked my negative PCR test already done two days ago in the UK, we were escorted to collect our luggage. At all times, all officials were in full PPE, so they had the full bid on.

Not just a mask and a kind of shirt, gown thing. They had the whole bit, head to toe. Next, we were escorted to a bus provided by emergency services. Arriving at the national Quarantine Facility at the airport, we were escorted to a waiting area, given a separate booth each, told to wait until test results came out at least six hours later. So they're sitting alone in a booth for six hours, waiting. Aside from eating, masks to be worn at all times. We were given a dinner box a few hours later. Wasn't quite the countdown to 2021 that I had been expecting, but people exclaimed happiness and happy new year to each other at midnight. Towards 2 a.m., that's nine hours since landing,

people started receiving text messages saying their test results were negative. In fact, an official said that all those in the room were negative, but that some people, including me, had to have swabs re-examined because we'd just flown in from the UK. About five of us were then taken downstairs towards, were taken downstairs.

Towards 4 a.m., we were isolated into individual negative pressure rooms that basically prevent any potential virus from escaping, constantly sucking the air inside. Not a hotel, but can't complain. Another fella in full PPE comes in to check my temperature and told me to wait another 10 hours until results came out. Finally, some sleep after 36 hours. That's counting as flight time. Breakfast was delivered somewhere around 7.30 in the morning on the table between the doors of the chamber. On the menu, egg, mayo, ham, toast, and diet banana milk.

Actually, I love all of those, he said. Then lunch arrived at midday. Once again in a lunch box, again delivered between the doors. And it was more Korean food this time. Finally, got the all clear negative result after lunch, told to wait for the nurse to come collect me. Given gloves, made our way back into a bus provided by emergency services, escorted back to the airport. Police were waiting for us at the airport, took the register of all of those who had left quarantine. Then brought us back into the airport in order to make arrangements to go back home for self-isolation.

Assigned a taxi. Not just any taxi. A quarantine taxi. Separating the driver from the passenger. Taken to the doorstep. Cost 80,000 won. I'm sorry, I don't know what exactly that is. But little other choice.

There's a bus service which is cheaper, but it was not available and is less frequent. From touchdown in Korea to home took well over 24 hours. Finally at home, I was made to call local health center to explain I had arrived and had already been tested Those who are less at risk can leave airport and get tested in their local areas Different people, different circumstances, different requirements

Regarding the quarantine app Need to diagnose oneself and enter results daily I've heard stories of officials chasing you over the phone if you fail to enter data. Meanwhile, I'm stuck at home for 14 days, cannot leave under any circumstance. Food, grocery, deliveries, fine. A reason for writing this thread is because I was appalled by the level of incompetence in the United Kingdom when I flew in a few weeks ago. Coming from safe zone South Korea, I didn't need to self-isolate. Yet the flight back to the UK via Dubai was packed with maskless passengers.

So that was on his flight going over to the UK. It stopped in Dubai and all these massless passengers got on. And from Dubai to London is, I've done that flight a few times too. That's about eight, I think around at least eight or 10 hours. And his last two tweets. This is all a Twitter thread, and you can find it if you want it because the beauty of reading it through online is that he takes pictures with almost every tweet. His name is Rafael Rashid, R-A-S-H-I-D. At Heathrow airport

masses of people were all over the place without masks including airport staff those who were wearing masks had them under their noses baggage collection was messy and a massive virus hazard

I felt vulnerable and the final tweet 24 hours to get back home in South Korea even though a resident and the final tweet, 24 hours to get back home in South Korea, even though a resident, that was annoying, a little annoying, given the lack of sleep, et cetera, but I can't complain.

It's necessary process to fight this virus. Yet I see so many people and governments who are still clueless, namely the UK. Now, that's fascinating to read today, because just in the last few hours, the UK went back into lockdown. Will it have any impact at Heathrow? I mean, Heathrow, to me, sounds exactly the way it was when I went through it in February this year, just before this whole thing blew up.

Where some people had masks, most people didn't. Some airport staff used masks, most didn't. You know, it kind of sounds the same. It can't possibly be. And it certainly can't be today, given what they're going down, the big crackdown that they're underway with again because they fear this new mutant strain

of the coronavirus. So there you go. I mean, I think it's a fascinating fascinating thread and you know you want to be a freelance journalist look what he did right he got on a plane and he took notes for 24 plus hours And he took pictures with his smartphone. Well, good for Rashid, because people around the world have read that thread now. And now people are listening to it on the Bridge Daily. And it's quite revealing.

It's just really about one story, about one flight into one city. But there are those who are taking this seriously, and there are those who aren't. And you look at the numbers in South Korea. Have they avoided the virus? No, they haven't. Have they lost people? Yes, they have. Is it anywhere near the kind of numbers we're seeing in other parts of the world like us, certainly like our neighbors south of the border, and certainly like Britain?

No. They're doing much, much better. And why are they doing better? Well, you might argue that they're doing better because they're taking it more seriously and look at the way they're handling it. Okay, here's your last plug for today. Guess whose birthday? It is.

Or was. It's either yesterday or Sunday. She just turned 18. it's either yesterday or Sunday. She just turned 18. And many of us still think of her as a little 12 or 13-year-old who's made her mark on the world. If you guessed Greta Thunberg, you're right. She just turned 18. She's the activist who's made a lot of people feel very uncomfortable

about their positions on climate change and how dedicated they are to fixing a problem they say, in fact, does exist. And we're talking about those who are not climate change deniers. Those who are saying they believe that climate change has to be fought. But Greta Thunberg is saying, hey, you're not doing enough. But at 18, she's not quite the same kind of activist she was at 13 or 14 when she really became an internationally known figure. Remember, it was the thing that really pushed her over the top in terms of being recognized around the world was in 2018

when she ran a solo school strike. Remember those pictures of her sitting there by the wall all by herself? She turned that into a global youth movement. She stopped flying years ago, traveling instead by boat. She's vegan. Said she'd stopped consuming things. Okay, well listen to her now.

She says she stopped buying new clothes, but she does not sit in judgment on others whose lifestyle choices are less environmentally friendly than her own. Asked what she thought of celebrities who talk about the climate emergency while flying around the world, a teenager declined to criticize them, although warned that others might. I don't care, she told the Sunday Times magazine. I'm not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you are vocal about these things and don't practice as you preach. Then you will become criticized for that, and what you are saying will not be taken seriously.

Now, how does that sound familiar to what we're going through right now? Not on the climate story, but on the pandemic story, on the stay-at-home, don't travel story. When you say one thing and it becomes clear you're acting in a very different way, the numbers just keep going up on the number of public officials who have said one thing and yet have acted themselves very differently. That's not going to fly. And Greta, no matter what you think about her on any other level, she's got that bang on. When she says, I'm not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you're vocal about these things and don't practice as you preach,

then you will become criticized for that and what you are saying will not be taken seriously. Thank you, Greta. All right. That's going to wrap it up for this day. Tomorrow, we're going to try and sort out what happened in Georgia tonight and what it all means and what could happen tomorrow and what things Donald Trump is doing.

Because it's Wednesday, and that means smoke mirrors and the truth, and that means joining us here on the podcast within a podcast will be Bruce Anderson from Ottawa. And we're very lucky. We got a special guest tomorrow. I wonder if you remember who he is. You should remember who he is. Because he had an influence on a lot of things, especially on the way journalism operated in this country because Andrew McDougall was Director of Communications, Press Secretary.

I'm not sure which actual title he had. In Ottawa for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. And he was a pretty well-regarded guy in that job. And I'm telling you, that job, doesn't matter what political stripe you are, is a tough job because everybody wants you to get them such and such information or interview with so-and-so. And that sounds easy, but sometimes that's difficult. But Andrew made a lot of friends while he was in Ottawa.

In that job, he now lives in London, England, where he's a consultant for the Trafalgar Group, gives advice to any number of different people and companies, I'm sure. But Andrew's going to join along with Bruce and myself, and we're going to talk about not only what happened, but how this whole transition of government is being viewed on a global scale. And I'm sure he's going to have lots of interesting thoughts to say. So Andrew McDougall with Bruce Anderson and myself tomorrow on Smoke Mirrors and the Truth,

the podcast within a podcast here on The Bridge Daily. That's tomorrow. Don't forget what I suggested earlier. You got a restaurant that closed in the last nine months because of the pandemic. Something that was special and important to you and your town, your community. Tell me about it.

We're going to let people know about that later this week. So that is the Bridge Daily for this day. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours. Thank you.