Mixed reaction to lifting of mask mandate

THUNDER BAY – The lifting of Ontario’s mask mandate in most indoor settings on March 21 is drawing a mixed reaction at local schools and businesses.

Many cautiously welcome the change, calling it a sign of a return to normal amid improving COVID indicators.

Some public health experts, teachers' unions, and disability advocates have criticized the Ford government’s move, however, saying it comes without clear scientific backing and could backfire.

As of March 21, mask use will be optional in most venues, including schools, restaurants, gyms, movie theatres, and shops including grocery stores.

They'll be required in places like public transit, hospitals, and long-term care homes until April 27, when Ontario's emergency order is set to expire.

Rich Seeley, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) District 6A president, said the union was “a little disappointed” at the pace of reopening.

“As a federation, we would have preferred to see maybe a week or two beyond the March Break, given the fact there will be people travelling and coming back,” he said.

He added he’d hoped to see a move to extend the mandate in Northern Ontario, given the longer winter season here.

The head of Ontario’s own COVID-19 Science Advisory Table, Dr. Peter Jüni, indicated the group of experts wasn’t even consulted on the decision, and said it was “not supported by science” and “just too early,” Seeley noted.

“It seems this was more of a political decision than a scientific decision – that’s what the Science Table seems to be implying," he said.

A group of children's hospitals including SickKids in Toronto had encouraged the province to keep masks in schools for at least two weeks after March Break.

Unions including the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) have also spoken out against the plan.

On the other hand, high vaccination rates among teachers and high school students make Seeley “cautiously optimistic" removing masks won't "create any large-scale problems.”

Premier Doug Ford has framed the decision largely as a response to pandemic fatigue and the need to “move forward”

“It's going to be up to the people of Ontario, if you want to keep the mask on, keep it on,” he said Wednesday. “If you want to take it off, take it off. But we have to move forward from this.”

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, said vanishingly few young children have landed in ICU due to the virus, and over 90 per cent of high school students are fully vaccinated.

Some OSSTF members, like those with compromised immune systems and support staff who work closely with younger students, may be less comfortable, Seeley said.

“However, we certainly acknowledge among society and our members themselves, people do desperately want to get back to some kind of normal,” he said.

It’s a prospect welcomed enthusiastically by some students at St. Patrick High School.

“It’s good to know we’re getting back to normal, getting rid of the masks,” said one Thursday. “We want to keep people healthy [and] keep the cases down, but we obviously want to get back to normal.”

“I think it’s awesome,” said another. “I’m done with COVID. I just want to go back to normal, live a normal life.”

When the mask mandate lifts in less than two weeks, it will be the closest thing to “normal” local schools have seen since COVID arrived, Sealy said. Other remaining restrictions like cohorting and daily on-site screening will also be lifted by then, along with isolation rules.

“Some people will still be wearing masks, that’s probably the only difference you’re going to see from pre-pandemic days,” he said. “Sports and clubs will be full-bore, there’s no more cohorting at lunchtime… So yeah, it looks like schools are pretty much back to the way they were previously.”

In Westfort, J.B. Evans Fashions and Footwear owner Andrew Moro was looking forward to the prospect of a return to normal, but said it’s clear that will be a gradual process, not a switch that will flip after provincial rules change.

"We will continue to wear [masks] as customers want us to,” he said. “If a customer comes in masked and we’re helping them, we’ll wear a mask. It’s all about comfort level.”

At his business, staff faced few challenges over the masking rules while they were in place, he said.

“It’s very little – I’d say one per cent of customers came in and didn’t like the fact they had to wear a mask.”

One customer browsing the racks said March 21 will come as a relief.

“I think me, my kids, and my husband were all ready for some normalcy again,” she said. “Being able to see people’s smiles again – we need that as humans, we need to be able to see each other’s emotions.”

“This is a nice way to get that back – if you’d like to wear a mask, you’re welcome to wear one, and if you don’t, then you don’t.”

She said the prospect of social tensions over the issue was a concern.

“I think we’re all a little nervous about that. If people are asking for it, I’ll be respectful of that, that’s fine with me. But also, I want people to respect me if I don’t want to put them on my kids.”

It’s a message echoed by Seeley, who said the change will require compassion and understanding.

“There’s certainly going to be a variety of approaches taken in our schools, between students and staff alike,” he said. “It’s going to require some patience on everyone’s part, I think.”

With files from Cory Nordstrom, TBT News.