Notes from a disrupted school-board meeting in Ottawa tonight
Obedience is not a pathway to respect.
Tonight I was sitting in the back as an audience member at a special meeting of the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. On the agenda: reinstating mask mandates in schools.
The meeting was interrupted by shouting, and all audience members were asked to leave. The meeting is currently continuing online only. [update, November 22, 10:37 pm: I have just heard through social media that the trustees voted to not go past 10:30 pm, so it seems that the meeting will be continuing another day.]
I wanted to describe what led to this interruption. Keep in mind that I was sitting in the back with limited vision and that I am writing from memory. I apologize for any inaccuracies (hopefully a recording will be made available by the Board).
Dr. Lindy Samson, the Chief of Staff of CHEO, the children’s hospital in Ottawa, was giving a presentation and answering questions. The following points stood out (I put in CAPS words that seemed to be emphasized):
· CHEO is facing an UNPRECEDENTED situation. Long wait times were repeatedly emphasized: if you bring your child in, you might have to wait up to 13 hours.
· CHEO is doing everything they can. The words ALL HANDS ON DECK were repeated more than once to deliver a heroic/exhausted message.
· Other hospitals are equally overwhelmed, so there is nowhere to send children.
· CHEO is recommending to do everything we can to stop the spread of viruses in light of an UNPRECEDENTED situation.
· This request is TEMPORARY.
The first shout I heard was, “Please give an honest answer.”
The person was asked to leave, but that episode brought forth many other shouts by many more people:
“Tell the truth!”
“Shame! Shame! Shame!”
“Freedom!”
“Stay away from my children!”
“Let them have an education without a face diaper!”
“This is child abuse.”
Some members of the audience then started singing O Canada:
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all of us command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Being the timid and rule-respecting person that I am, I did not shout out. I am also not listening to the rest of the meeting online but am focusing on describing what led to the discontinuation of the meeting in the presence of an in-person audience.
Now, with the audience removed, the trustees, I imagine, will be voting on the mask mandate. But it is we, the culture as a whole, who will have to decide on the following question:
How can we ensure that a hospital chief of staff is not jeered, interrupted and shouted at as if they were a high-ranking aristocrat during a revolutionary moment? Watching the interruption of the meeting was both powerful and unsettling. It is an experience that makes me very uncomfortable and emphasizes the urgent need to find a pathway for restored mutual respect among all members of society.
I see two pathways to the desired outcome of restoring more universal respect for medical authorities:
The first is for our society to become increasingly authoritarian and punitive toward people who shout, “please give an honest answer!”
The second pathway is for hospitals to focus on better management and humble service without overreaching—understanding that their mandate is to heal, not to mask or to numb our ability to think freely and ask questions. The presentation I listened to yesterday essentially comes down to this message: the hospitals are extremely busy, so recommendations that come from figures of authority within them should be obeyed. Health authorities speak about a layered approach, but in practice the purpose of the meeting was to enforce a particular measure, masking at schools, not to engage in a multi-factorial discussion of health. In response to this message, we have the right to ask questions and listen to a variety of opinions. For example, given the evidence that masks do not work and that they cause harm, why is so much emphasis being placed on this measure? If children are waiting for long hours in the emergency room, is this not an indication that the healthcare system needs to be better managed, for example by having more healthcare providers outside of the hospital where these children may go instead? For every 100 children who go to the emergency room, how many really need to be there? How many could have been served elsewhere if we had a better healthcare system?
While shouting and disrupting is not the way that a meeting should be conducted, what took place tonight was a reminder that medical authorities cannot count on blind obedience. Our culture must work hard to restore liberty and respect to all. A good starting point is, indeed, to give honest answers and engage in an open and peaceful debate.
Happy update: the proposed mask mandate failed on a tie on November 24, 2022.