In a CBC article entitled “Chris Hall: Hajdu says on COVID-19 Ottawa acted on ‘the best advice possible at the time”, we can hear an interview with our federal health Minister:
She said that “our first case that came from Iran, if you remember was a game-changer because in fact Iran was not even declaring any cases whatsoever…, etc.” (2:48 to 3:29).
When she talked about “our first case coming from Iran” and “Iran was not declaring its cases” (as reported verbatim above), we cannot help not to wonder the following:
First, according to a CBC article on the coronavirus timeline, our first Canadian case was from Wuhan, China (not Iran). That was on January 25, 2020, according to CBC!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-coronavirus-timeline-1.5482310
Who seems to be saying false claims here, Ms. Hajdu or the earlier CBC article?
Second, let’s assume it was Iran and not China. Had she read the international media well, she would have known that Lebanon declared its first case of coronavirus on February 21, 2020. It was a woman coming from Iran actually!
Third, the last time Bambi checked, Iran was still an Islamic dictatorship. Since when can we trust dictatorships? Ms. Hajdu should know better.
Why does she appear to be changing the coronavirus timeline facts after the facts? Perhaps Bambi misunderstood all this.
However, Minister Hajdu said that she has “confidence on those public health officials working so closely on this issue since late December-Early January”.
Whose public health officials is she talking about?
The Chinese (or Iranian?), those from the WHO, or the federal Canadian ones ??
If any of the above, they have failed the Canadian public big time… Is she saying this, so we can eventually (post-pandemic) blame our public health experts only, and not her?
If she meant our provincial experts, they should be commended from Day 1, as they seemed to have done what needs to be done!
Yes, mistakes may or did happen but at least they took this problem MUCH more seriously than our federal government, MUCH faster, and a more CONGRUENT way (e.g., our federal government tells us one thing about airports and the reality on the ground is another thing completely; Bambi has two-three posts on the topic).
When they said they will lock-down long-term nursing homes, they truly did so.
When they said they have a plan to do testing in those nursing homes, they seemed to have done so.
When they said, they will send their own public health officials to airports when Mr. Trudeau was refusing to close the borders, they truly did. Even NS did it (with a Liberal government on top of that!). Even Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante did it too, hand in hand with Québec government (she is usually close politically and ideologically speaking to Mr. Trudeau and Ms. Hajdu who used the term “global citizens” in her interview above).
Will or did mistakes happen? Yes, sure/sadly… but this is only human. It is bound to happen, despite any best efforts.
However, our provincial officials seem to be for real. They work and they adjust and re-adjust. They do not rely on a media machinery (propaganda) to convince us of their efficacy. They just do their job. Thank you.
Bambi wishes our current federal government would put the same time and energy on their actual work than on their PR efforts, with the complicity of some journalists (especially those who lost their last drop of critical sense, perhaps to keep their pay or sanity).
Anyhow, what Ms. Hajdu is saying at the beginning of the interview to justify Canada’s response does not make any sense, at least to Bambi: “I can tell you we took the best advice possible at the time. Certainly we know countries that did other things and had worse outcomes. And other countries did yet other things with different outcomes“.
We do not have to be a political genius to notice the pattern of how the virus has spread in other countries (even if the advice she said she was getting from epidemiology at the time said otherwise. What epidemiologists is she talking about, by the way? Who advises her, we would like to know, as citizens?).
Canada had several weeks to learn: (1) From Europe (France, Italy, etc.) and other countries (Iran, South Korea, Taiwan, even from Lebanon, at least with citizen repatriating operations, much better than what Canada is doing/not doing!); and (2) closer to home, from the United States’ tragedy.
Canada does not have any excuse.
The reality is that the Canadian response sucked, especially at the beginning (and perhaps still now).
Sometimes, Mr. Trudeau et al. seem to repeat wise words or words about actions said/done by provinces or territories. He/they appear clever and they take credit for this wisdom.
Perhaps some specific Minister or public servants are working hard and efficiently, thanks to them. However, Ms. Hajdu does not seem to be one of them.
All this being said thus far, Bambi stopped listening at the tape at 3:36 minutes since its start. It is a waste of her time. If you have time to kill during the pandemic and want to open your own eyes, please help yourself.
As far as Bambi is concerned, how can she trust the judgment of a politician who spent 1.1 million to build/renovate her office, when she was a Minister of Status of Women:
Or when she heard her declare at a union meeting that “Mr. Trudeau is a great leader” (that was funny to hear/watch). Does she truly believe it ??
How can we take our politicians seriously when they say things that are so far away from the reality?
On which planet do they live… or they think we do?
Bambi is not a political expert. However, she has some common and critical sense left in her.
According to her, Mr. Trudeau is not only a bad leader. He may be the worst PM Canada has ever had, but that’s her own opinion and you do not have to agree.
This does not mean that the official opposition is any better necessarily.
What bothers her in life is pretentious folks. We can be pretentious, if we are competent. It may be slightly disturbing to her but not as much as the following scenario: When we have been incompetent, we should perhaps learn to become a bit more modest in life.
Sadly, what helps Mr. Trudeau’s team perpetuating this narrative in the media is that Canadians are passive by nature AND our media is far from being financially (and thus, intellectually) independent.
We do not find many journalists or the citizens who push our governments for action, as they do in other places (Bambi will name Lebanon). They do not revolt or do not force their governments to act faster to protect them. Lebanon is doing an excellent job in its fight against the coronavirus. However, they have been a bit slow at first, also for political or ideological reasons like Mr. Trudeau (Iran to Hezbollah is a bit like what China or Globalism is to Trudeau, if she may draw an analogy).
Even the Hezbollah opened its eyes and changed even its ideology faster/more efficiently than Mr. Trudeau et al. Let’s give them the following credit, even if Bambi dislikes them.
Unless she has missed this in the news, they did not change the facts after the facts. They took responsibility for the criticisms of the population. They seem to have moved on to focus on fighting Covid-19.
So, no, Ms. Hajdu and your boss Mr. Trudeau, you do not have any excuse but to stop the political blahblahblah and focus on keeping us safe ONLY!
