Returning after a four-year absence, there is a sense that this is not the Canada I left. Maybe it is the pandemic, but it feels like there is something more.

I’ve been asking questions, pointing out absurdities, and people are staring at me as if I am from another planet. There is a climate of fear here, and a willingness to accept whatever the government says as gosepl truth. No-one wants to hear me ask why.

If the pandemic is so bad, why are people allowed to enter Canada by air, but not by land? I can fly to the United States and back for a vacation, but I can’t drive there.

If I fly, I am exposed to dozens, maybe hundreds of people on the trip, at the airport and in the plane. If I drive, the only interaction I would have would be with a border agent. Can someone tell me why flying is safer when you are worried about contracting a virus that spreads through human contact?

Speaking of borders, the Canadian government is looking to re-open the land border for fully vaccinated American travelers around the middle of August. Fully vaccinated European tourists will have to wait another month. Can someone explain to me the difference between a vaccinated American and a vaccinated European and why they should be treated differently?

Why are health authorities and politicians so concerned about the Delta variant. (And in passing I ask why it is okay to name a variant after an airline but not a country..) The vaccines are proven effective against it, and the majority of Canadians are vaccinated. The virus spreads easier than the original strain of COVID-19, but is not more deadly. Doesn’t it seem logical therefore that the variant will not have major effect? Case numbers have dropped by more than 90 per cent. Even as the variant becomes the dominant strain of COVID, the numbers continue to drop.

Or does this mean that politicians and health authorities have no faith in the vaccines they have thrust upon the populace?

There are economic questions also. But no-one seems to ask them.

How does the Canadian government propose to repay the hundreds of billions of dollars it borrowed to provide income support to the people who lost their jobs when government shut down society? How does it plan to deal with the mental health crisis and trauma brought about by that shutdown?

Canada’s pandemic preparedness plan was shown to be sadly lacking. Judging form the initial response to COVID-19, you would be forgiven for thinking there actually wasn’t a plan. What steps are being taken to ensure that the next time something like this happens the government isn’t foundering in the dark for three months trying to figure out what to do next?

I haven’t seen Oppostion politicians asking these questions. The media seems to be spreading the climate of fear rather than doing investigative reporting and fact-checking government figures.

No-one is asking if the unconstitutional restrictions on civil liberties were justified, or whether there was another way to do things. (There’s the preparedness issue again. Pandemic response was reactive, not proactive.)

Have we seen a shift in society? Is government now the unquestioned authority on everything? Is it wrong to question what the “experts” are saying?

Apparently it is in Canada in 2021.