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SNOBELEN: Canadians deserve answers to governments’ COVID responses

It’s about time to ask, “Why?”

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The good people of Minnesota have suffered a lot of political blows recently. It seems that living in a state that elected a governor from the wrong political party has consequences.

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President Donald Trump’s government certainly didn’t hesitate to swamp Minneapolis with thousands of ICE agents to underscore the large Somalian population in that city. Apparently, illegal immigration is a bigger problem in Minnesota than in Texas. Who knew?

SNOBELEN: Canadians deserve answers to governments’ COVID responses Back to video

To add insult to injury, the fraud scandal involving some members of the Somali community continues to spiral. It’s hard to tell hype from reality in the claims that taxpayers have been defrauded by as much as $9 billion, but clearly, there was an organized effort to steal COVID-era relief funds.

Back in 2021, a multi-million-dollar fraud on federally funded COVID relief programs resulted in 92 criminal charges, with 62 convictions to date. That theft alone is estimated to involve $250 million. That ain’t small change.

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The recent announcement that none other than Vice-President JD Vance will assume new responsibilities as the Anti-Fraud czar has a strong odour of politics. Time will tell if his scope includes all fraud or just the kind that is politically advantageous.

COVID response was expensive, ill-advised

In any event, it would be nice if Canada took a little more aggressive approach to protecting taxpayers and learn, at long last, from the excesses of the pandemic. We could start with the fraud committed by people who took advantage of government largesse and collected Canada Emergency Response Benefits (CERB) to which they were not entitled.

Canada’s response to COVID was long, expensive and often ill-advised. Some overreaction was understandable. The pandemic spread fear around the world. But Canada closed schools and businesses longer than most and we will be paying the price for many bad decisions and twisted communications for a long time.

It’s about time to ask, “Why?”

Why did governments across Canada overreact? Why was the federal government unable to put reasonable controls on the issuing of CERB and other COVID-era relief programs? How often were the “experts” that governments relied on wrong? Why did we keep schools closed, to the long-term detriment of students, long after it was clear the young were not at risk?

Learn from painful, exhaustive period

The list of COVID-era questions is long. The twisted journey to procuring vaccines deserves some attention, as does the long list of communications gaffes that run the gamut from performative theatre (10 customers in a restaurant, closed playgrounds, etc.) to overpromises on the efficacy of vaccines.

We need to take a hard look at all of this — not to fix the blame, but to learn from a painful and exhaustive period. An inquiry into our pandemic response needs to be outside of the influence of those protecting professional standing or political advantage.

Heck, maybe we need a COVID czar.

At the outset of COVID, fear spread faster than the virus and our politicians reacted to that fear. Faced with tough decisions, they deferred decision-making to experts. The experts gave them good and bad advice in about equal measure.

An impartial review of the decisions made by governments during the long pandemic might give us some guidance on the best use of expert advice and the practical limits of science to make predictions.

While we are at it, a COVID czar might inquire, politely, how 78 CRA employees received CERB benefits and why people who fraudulently collected benefits have avoided criminal charges. Canadians deserve some answers.

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