It took under 3 hours For Roman Baber, the MPP for York Centre to be removed from the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario after releasing his letter to Premier Ford recommending an end to lockdowns in the province.
Roman Baber released the letter today recommending the following as an exit strategy back to “normal life;”
Exit Strategy – Roman Baber letter
- End the lockdown and let Ontarians go back to normal life. That’s the best thing for their health
- Focus on LTC and proper IPAC instead of imprisoning 15 million Ontarians. With vaccinations of all LTC residents In Ontario’s “red zones” by Jan.21st there’s much less justification for the lockdown
- Build additional hospital capacity such as the facility at Joseph Brant and train ICU nurses
- Restore healthcare by ending emergency protocols (except LTC). Ontarians need health care back
- End the spread of fear and panic. It’s unjustified and causes considerable stress, especially on children
The letter also has a section titled “lockdowns vs Covid”
It reads “”hot zones” like Toronto and Peel have been in lockdown since Thanksgiving without success. Covid is real but the fear of Covid is exaggerated. While every death is tragic, after 10 months we learned that Covid is not nearly as deadly as first thought – it has a 99.8% survival rate. According to the CDC’s latest estimates, Covid’s fatality rate by age is as follows;”
| Age | Infection Fatality Rate |
| 0-19 | 0.00003% |
| 20-49 | 0.0002% |
| 50-69 | 0.005% |
| 70+ | 0.054% |
The letter continues;
“Regretfully since the start of the pandemic about 5000 Ontarians died from/with Covid. Approximately 80% of all Covid deaths occurred in group living settings. Of all 5000 deaths, over 3000 died in long term care where victims on average were in their last year of life. We should focus on and fix LTC. Approximately 3500 (70%) of all Ontarians who died were over the age of 80. While we mourn every death, only 200 people or 4% were under age 60 and ZERO children died from Covid-19 in Ontario.”
The letter addressed hospital and ICU capacity
| Time period | December 2017 | December 2018 | December 2019 | December 2020 | January 5th, 2021 |
| Hospital occupancy % | 94.5% | 94.8% | 95.0% | 84.4% | 87.6% |
“Ontario’s hospital capacity is better than pre-pandemic” the letter reads. Mr. Baber also stated that he was given the information on ICU capacity by the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The letter also outlined Mr. Baber’s concern for the lockdowns effects on children
“The lockdown is having catastrophic effects on Ontario’s children.” Mr. Baber indicated that his constituents have been calling to tell him that the lockdowns have caused their children to develop anxiety. “We are scaring children even though they are 100% safe,” Mr. Baber wrote. Mr. Baber also advised the Ford government to follow SickKids Hospital’s advice against mandatory masking for children in schools.
“Premier, we should stop scaring children. This generation of kids will grow up with an anxiety disorder and will be afraid of normal life. Kids need to be kids again, back in school with their friends. They should not believe that coming close to another child could result in someone’s death. It’s false and unwarranted,” wrote Mr. Baber.
Mr. Baber wrote on the “artificial lack of capacity” in ICU’s
Mr. Baber wrote to the Premier that “the lack of capacity is created artificially by rationing health care resources in response to modelling by the command table, except the table’s modelling is almost always wrong.”
He continued;
“The worst projection was made in the Fall prep plan. On September 30 the table warned us that if Ontario maintained Michigan’s case trajectory, by end of October we will have over 250 patients in ICU. Although Ontario maintained Michigan’s case trajectory, the actual number of patients on October 31st was 73 or 3.5 times less than predicted.”
We agree with Mr. Baber when he said;
“The medicine is killing the patient. Ontario’s hospital and ICU capacity are better than the last 3 years.”
It’s time to end the lockdowns and stop hurting Ontarians Premier. It’s time to end the charade and come clean about the government’s mishandling of Covid – maybe if you do, you can still save face with the voters.
Only 16% of ICU occupied by Covid patients
According to the letter, as of January 5th, 2021 the ICU occupancy rate was 81.6% (Jan 1 – Jan13)- with Covid responsible for just 16% of the 81.6% of ICU beds occupied.
Mr. Baber echoed Diverge Media’s sentiments about this being a regular issue during this time of year when he said;
“Urban area hospitals are always at capacity this time of year – that’s why we campaigned on ending hallway medicine.”
Lockdowns Vs Covid
Examples Mr. Baber gave of the lockdowns being deadlier than Covid
(a) Cancer screenings at Princess Margaret are back to 60% with oncologists fearing a “tsunami of cancer.”
(b) Ontario’s overdose rate is trending 50% above normal. The growth of Ontarians who died of overdose in 2020 may be higher than the number of people who died from Covid outside of LTC.
(c) According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, in September 2020, 10% of adults reported: “recent thoughts or feelings of suicide” (x4 normal). Among Canadians aged 19-35, the rate is 20%.
(d) SickKids is calling the increase in eating disorders in young people an “unprecedented crisis.”
(e) Tens of thousands of businesses shut down. The unemployment rate is near double and 320,000 have not regained work. We are faced with a catastrophic wave of bankruptcies and foreclosures.
(f) The government is criticizing normal human behaviour and putting law-abiding citizens in legal jeopardy. Public Health can’t change human behaviour. My heart breaks for the family of Damien Moses.
Free speech and independent thought are no longer welcome in the PC party of Ontario – let’s hope things are different federally, but it’s unlikely. The removal of Mr. Baber from the Ontario PC party tells voters that discussion on issues that differ from the accepted party narrative is forbidden – failure to shut your mouth and regurgitate party talking points will likely lead to your termination from the PC party.
*Correction made Tuesday January the 19th 2021.*
Diverge Media is independent Canadian media that is dedicated to bringing you the stories that matter. We do not, and will not ever accept government funding for our work. Therefore, we rely 100% on the generous donations from our readers/viewers to help us continue our work. If you would like to support us – please do so by donating in the form below.
divergemedia.ca 