Maureen Wilson and Rory Nisan: Where was the Debate over Mask Mandates?

Rory Nisan is a city and regional councillor for Ward 3 in Burlington and Halton and Maureen Wilson is a councillor for Ward 1 in Hamilton.  Both of them join us today to give their perspective on why the municipal votes in Hamilton and Halton to repeal mask mandates were so one-sided when the public seems far from united on the wisdom of abandoning masks.

Last month, Doug Ford announced that vaccine passports and mask mandates would be a thing of the past.

For many across Ontario, this was good news.  For others real trepidation and fear took hold.  What would this mean for possible future waves of COVID-19?  No one could give clear answers.  Only our scientists wished for more time to learn what was around the corner.  But there was no time for that.  Instead, Premier Ford pushed forward.

Only he hit a snag.  The provincial government wasn't the one who had implemented the mandates, it was actually the various municipalities around the province that did the heavy lifting.  So it would be them to have the debate and determine the proper course of action right?  Actually no.  The municipalities of the 905 rushed with seeming little debate to lift all restrictions.

Between Hamilton and Halton only three councillors voted in favour of keeping mandates. Three. Why was this the case? Why was the argument so one-sided? To get a sense of what was going on, we spoke to two of the three councillors who voted to maintain mandates.

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