Commentary

South of Belleville, even questioning Dr. Bonnie Henry's decision-making is seen as problematic

by Charlie Smith on April 7th, 2022 at 7:30 AM
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      I'm not psychic! I swear, I'm not psychic!

      When I wrote a column last weekend trying to explain why B.C. journalists are so deferential to Dr. Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix, it was not intended to explain what unfolded before our eyes just a few days later.

      But lo and behold, when B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau broke the legislative cone of silence by questioning Henry's response to the pandemic, the focus was not so much on what she actually said and why she said it.

      Rather, it was mostly about the fact that she had the temerity to criticize a provincial public health officer who's paid a very high salary to save lives by offering the best advice based on science.

      B.C. hasn't been doing very well in that regard in 2022. There's been a 24-percent jump in COVID-19 fatalities in the first three months and two days of this year over the 2,423 deaths recorded in all of 2020 and 2021.

      The grand poobah in the legislative press gallery, Keith Baldrey, characterized Furstenau's words as an "attack". Then he did zero substantive follow-up to investigate whether there was any merit to what she was saying.

      This is despite Furstenau essentially using the same talking points as the White House about Long COVID, masks, and airborne transmissions in her recent news release.

      Then another Bonnie Henry devotee, CHEK-TV's Rob Shaw, described Furstenau's invocation of some White House common sense on the pandemic as "appealing to the fringe".

      Is Shaw going to write a column now explaining why Biden  and his chief of staff, Ron Klain, are zero-COVID extremists?

      The next one to step up to the plate was the premier's press secretary, George Smith.

      He's a former federal NDP spin doctor who later worked for Attorney General David Eby.

      Smith's putdown included a meme from the show Friends. Wow! That's a great way to change the subject.

      I've written several articles with links to scientific papers supporting the points made by the Biden administration and Furstenau. Those who are curious about these areas can read this and this and this.

      Meanwhile, outside of the legislative precinct, one of those critics of Henry, Juanita Jackson, tweeted on April 6 that a family member has been placed in a room with three possibly COVID-positive patients.

      "The staff told them that they all didn't need masks," Jackson stated. "Visitors come and go in surgical."

      There's a phrase they use in Washington to describe insular thinking by the political classes: Inside the Beltway.

      Perhaps in B.C., we need a term like this to sum up the mindset inside the legislative precinct in Victoria. How about "South of Belleville"?

      After all, Belleville Street is the road that runs just north of the B.C. legislature, which is near the southernmost point of the entire province.

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