{"id":56776,"date":"2021-03-20T10:22:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T14:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=56776"},"modified":"2021-03-20T10:25:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T14:25:57","slug":"end-the-doctatorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=56776","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;End the doctatorship&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>LILLEY: End the doctatorship, elected politicians must be in charge<\/h1>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Brian Lilley<br \/>\nToronto Sun<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_56778\" style=\"width: 542px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-56778\" class=\"size-full wp-image-56778\" src=\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-20-at-10.24.39-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"532\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-20-at-10.24.39-AM.png 532w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Screen-Shot-2021-03-20-at-10.24.39-AM-300x226.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 532px) 100vw, 532px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-56778\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. David Williams, Chief Medical Officer of Health, provides updates on the province\u2019s ongoing response to the coronavirus. SunMedia<\/p><\/div>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group\">When all of this is said and done \u2014 when COVID-19 and the restrictions brought in by politicians no longer dictate our days \u2014 there\u2019s one major change we need to make to our public health laws and regulations.We need to strip public health doctors of some of their arbitrary powers to ensure we never live under a doctatorship again.<\/p>\n<div id=\"featured-video\" class=\"featured-video youtube js-widget-youtube\">\n<div><\/div>\n<section id=\"video-container\" class=\"player-wrapper\" data-channel-id=\"\" data-host=\"torontosun.com\" data-video-id=\"9PGZB5_Xl20\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"player\" class=\"youtube-iframe\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9PGZB5_Xl20?origin=https%3A%2F%2Ftorontosun.com&amp;playsinline=1&amp;embed_config=%7B%22adsConfig%22%3A%7B%22adTagParameters%22%3A%7B%22iu%22%3A%22%2F3081%2FSMCO_ENUR_TSUN_EN_WEB%2Fopinion%2Fcolumnists%2Fstory%22%2C%22cust_params%22%3A%22aid%253Df6ca889b-bde0-47f1-985e-8d703fab19cc%252C1004913%2526author%253DBrian%2520Lilley%2526no_pol%253Dtrue%2526page%253Dstory%2526pr%253Dtsun%2526sensitive%253Dy%2526sct%253Dpolitics_canada%252Cwar%2526negative%253Dy%2526nkb%253DGM%252CJLR%252Cscotia%252CQuestTradeNegative%252CBLM%252Ccovid%252Cloblaw%252CQuestTradePositive%252CPPC%2526asrc%253Dtsun%2526et%253Dsm%2526ck%253Dopinion%2526sck%253Dcolumnists%2526kuid%253D%2526cheetah%253Dy%22%2C%22ppid%22%3Anull%7D%2C%22nonPersonalizedAd%22%3Atrue%7D%2C%22autonavRelatedVideos%22%3Atrue%2C%22relatedChannels%22%3A%5B%22%22%5D%7D&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;widgetid=1\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-evt-val=\"{&quot;control_fields&quot;: {&quot;mparticle&quot;: {&quot;keys&quot;: {&quot;Video Autoplay&quot;: &quot;Video Autoplay&quot;, &quot;Video Location&quot;: &quot;Video Location&quot;, &quot;Video Platform&quot;: &quot;Video Platform&quot;, &quot;Video ID&quot;: &quot;Video ID&quot;}, &quot;extra_keys&quot;: [&quot;All Sub Sections&quot;]}}, &quot;Video Autoplay&quot;: &quot;true&quot;, &quot;Video Location&quot;: &quot;story featured video&quot;, &quot;Video Platform&quot;: &quot;YouTube&quot;, &quot;Video ID&quot;: &quot;9PGZB5_Xl20&quot;}\" data-host=\"torontosun.com\" data-video-id=\"9PGZB5_Xl20\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9194588_333=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p>Thanks to politicians wanting to ensure that every decision they make has cover, they, and we in the media, have elevated the position of public health doctors to that of omnipotent god instead of what they really are, medical advisors.<\/p>\n<p>In a democracy such as ours, there is no way that unelected doctors should wield so much power and authority, enough to force us to close schools, businesses, change our entire way of life. Yet, that is where we are in Ontario thanks to a system deeply in need of reform.<\/p>\n<p>If you doubt for a minute that doctors are really the ones in charge in Ontario, look no further than what Premier Doug Ford said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got to get the green light from (Ontario\u2019s chief medical officer) Dr. (David) Williams and the local medical officers of health,\u201d Ford said when I asked him about the possibility of allowing youth sports to return in Ontario to the degree it has elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group\">The doctor makes the decision; he doesn\u2019t advise. He makes the decision for the premier. That is wrong.When I followed up by asking Ford about his responsibility, things got worse.\u201cI\u2019m going to be very frank. There\u2019s no politician in this country that is going to disagree with their chief medical officer. They just aren\u2019t going to do it. They might as well throw a rope around their neck and jump off a bridge. They\u2019re done,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n<p>The premier also added that if he allowed some things to open up in Ontario that the local medical officer disagreed with, then the local medical officer could simply \u201cslap a Section 22 down.\u201d That section of the Health Promotion and Protection Act allows the local medical officer to impose conditions contrary to the provincial rules.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"x_OutlineElement x_Ltr x_BCX0 x_SCXW203974298\">\n<p class=\"x_Paragraph x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"x_TextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"x_NormalTextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\">Whether it is Dr. Williams or Dr. Steini Brown, head of the science table, the Ontario government is paralyzed by any utterance of a doctor even as others say they are wrong. In Toronto<\/span><\/span><span class=\"x_TextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"x_NormalTextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\">,<\/span><\/span><span class=\"x_TextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"x_NormalTextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\">\u00a0Dr. Eileen de Villa<\/span><\/span><span class=\"x_TextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\"><span class=\"x_NormalTextRun x_SCXW203974298 x_BCX0\">\u00a0appears to run the city, arguing against the mayor\u2019s recommendation of moving to a new zone. The same has happened in Peel with Dr. Lawrence Loh.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>It has happened before.<\/p>\n<p>Now some argue that we must listen to the doctors and that politicians should have no say in these matters. First off, that is not democratic and goes against the basis of our system. Secondly, if you think all doctors think alike, then you aren\u2019t paying attention.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"article-content__content-group\">\n<div class=\"embedded-video\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ytplayer17\" class=\"ytplayer\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aHaGctoll5A?embed_config={'relatedChannels': [],'autonav':true}&amp;autoplay=0&amp;playsinline=1&amp;enablejsapi=1\" width=\"480px\" height=\"360px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-evt-val=\"{&quot;control_fields&quot;: {&quot;mparticle&quot;: {&quot;keys&quot;: {&quot;Video Autoplay&quot;: &quot;Video Autoplay&quot;, &quot;Video Location&quot;: &quot;Video Location&quot;, &quot;Video Platform&quot;: &quot;Video Platform&quot;, &quot;Video ID&quot;: &quot;Video ID&quot;}, &quot;extra_keys&quot;: [&quot;All Sub Sections&quot;]}}, &quot;Video Autoplay&quot;: &quot;false&quot;, &quot;Video Location&quot;: &quot;story paragraph 17&quot;, &quot;Video Platform&quot;: &quot;YouTube&quot;, &quot;Video ID&quot;: &quot;aHaGctoll5A&quot;}\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-9194588_333=\"true\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"> <\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>There have been local medical officers who have disagreed with Williams. There are doctors claiming we are in a third wave and need to lockdown harder while others, like York Region medical officer Dr. Karim Kurji, say that we are not in a third wave.<\/p>\n<p>At the federal level, we just saw the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), reverse course under political pressure and say that the AstraZeneca vaccine is acceptable for Canadians over 65. The more than 15 doctors on NACI had disagreed for weeks with the doctors and scientists at Health Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors are not all-powerful, all-knowing beings who must be obeyed lest we anger the COVID gods. They are people like the rest of us with a specialization in health.<\/p>\n<p>Somehow, we have decided that they should run the entire economy, our entire society.<\/p>\n<p>Doctors need to be listened to, their advice should be considered at every turn, but they should not be in charge \u2014 not unless we want to start electing our medical officers at the same time as we elect MPPs and mayors.<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/torontosun.com\/opinion\/columnists\/lilley-end-the-doctatorship-elected-politicians-must-be-in-charge?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Toronto%20Sun%20Daily%20Headlines%202021-03-18&amp;utm_term=TORSUN_HeadlineNews\">https:\/\/torontosun.com\/opinion\/columnists\/lilley-end-the-doctatorship-elected-politicians-must-be-in-charge?utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Toronto%20Sun%20<br \/>\nDaily%20Headlines%202021-03-18&amp;utm_term=TORSUN_HeadlineNews<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LILLEY: End the doctatorship, elected politicians must be in charge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}