The COVID-19 pandemic

[danbrotherston]

My understanding is that sort of thing is tricky from a human rights standpoint; it's similar with guide dogs and other accommodations. You cannot be compelled to disclose anything related to a medical condition, even if the condition is not specified.

I don’t see the problem. For people who sincerely need this accommodation, getting some sort of credential from the medical system is not an unreasonable burden; and once they have it, they don’t need to tell anybody anything else other than that they do indeed have the credential.

There seems to be a school of thought which basically says that people needing an accommodation shouldn’t ever have to do anything to obtain it; but that is inconsistent with the whole concept of stuff being mandatory. And in our society, I don’t see how it can work to have everything being optional. Things like vaccines for school kids and obeying traffic laws can’t just be things that are only done by unusually civic-minded individuals.

This is absolutely the case, you see this in accessible parking placards, and in guide dogs, both of which have an authentication system in place, which only involves your MD authenticating your need, and nobody else knowing anything beyond the fact that you have the need...which is public knowledge anyway.

I'd be happy to see something similar, but I can understand that it's harder to implement on short notice.

I also think it's irrelevant. There are some assholes who will abuse the system, we have to live with assholes, but they're rare and don't matter...we've seen probably the few hundred people in our city who would do something shitty like that live on TV last night and on social media for the past few weeks.

What matters is that the majority follow this, and the majority will.  It comes down to two things in my mind, it's easier to conform. And some people just fundamentally need an authoritarian to tell them what to do.  This policy has been effective in Guelph according to the delegation there.

And at the end of the day, if for some reason KW has an unusually high proportion of assholes, well, we can deal with that then.