EDITORIAL: Ontario needs a targeted approach

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On Friday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford enacted sweeping restrictions that cover the entire province.

The measures include how playgrounds will be roped off and the police will be empowered to stop people who are walking around or in their vehicles for any reason.

The immediate response was one of frustration and even outrage from people across the political spectrum.

The Sun’s editorial position has consistently been that we need to take COVID-19 seriously by pursuing targeted approaches that tackle the source of virus transmission.

If we know where the hotspots are, then we target the hotspots.

If we know the hospitals need more support, then give them those supports.

(By the way, we’ve known for many months that the hospitals needed more supports and yet we failed to prepare.)

However, implementing blunt restrictions on everyone across an entire province is not the right path forward.

Should high risk locations be temporarily closed? Sure.

Should high risk persons be empowered to make informed decisions to protect themselves? Absolutely.

Should low risk persons be legally barred from engaging in low risk activities? Absolutely not.

For example, one of the many Ontario announcements made Friday was the closure of golf courses. Why? It is an outdoor activity where players stand far more than 6 feet apart.

Health officials are increasingly concerned with mobility data. It was cited a lot during the Ontario press conference.

Officials made it clear that they are closing things down to give people fewer reasons to leave their homes — whether or not those locations and activities have even been proven to relate to spread.

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Aside from how the facts don’t add up with many of these restrictions, there is also the chilling aspect of this — how civil liberties are currently being paused.

It’s alarming to see that, over a year into the pandemic, there are governments across Canada who still have failed to evolve their approach towards a more targeted one.

Because of that, the harms of lockdowns felt by businesses, our children and our communities at large will only worsen.

Ontario has lost the plot by putting so much time and effort into debating and enforcing such broad measures. We urge them to redirect those efforts into a more targeted approach.