In any other circumstance, two days of confusion in official messaging might not matter that much. But a pandemic demands more of the people we elect to lead us.
If Friday seemed to offer a small moment of reassurance, the last few days reinforced the challenge now facing governments — to act quickly and intelligently in the face of a once-in-a-century global health emergency, and to do so while clearly explaining and justifying those actions.
The first source of concern was the situation at Canada’s airports.
On Friday, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam repeated her longstanding request that travellers returning to Canada from Hubei province in China, Italy and Iran self-isolate for 14 days upon their return. Tam added that travellers from other countries should “consider” self-isolation as well.
But on Saturday and Sunday, there were reports of inbound passengers not receiving that newest advice from border agents. In a news conference on Sunday afternoon, Tam was more definitive: “I strongly recommend that all travellers coming from outside Canada take the additional precaution to self -isolate for 14 days,” she said.
By Sunday evening, provincial and municipal authorities were promising to dispatch their own officials to airports to provide the advice that apparently wasn’t being conveyed.
Anecdotally, the situation seems to have been resolved.
In any other circumstance, two days of confusion might not matter that much. Even now, it’s difficult to say whether the weekend was a significant problem or whether, in hindsight, it will seem like a relatively minor lapse.
But when lives are at stake, everything seems important — and in the frenzy of social media, hours feel like weeks.
While being asked to account for the weekend’s events on Sunday, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said that there would be “important news” on Monday. She was asked (not unreasonably) why that important news couldn’t be announ