Saskatchewan鈥檚 top doctor was a victim last weekend of invasive, anger-fueled protestors who want life to return to normal.
When are these people going to realize that they鈥檙e part of the obstacle blocking us from reaching 鈥榥ormal鈥� again with their actions?
By this point, just over ten months into the pandemic, we should know this man clearly by now, even if it鈥檚 only by those rocking sweater vests that I鈥檓 sure he鈥檚 popularized in some fashion circles.聽 Dr. Saqib Shahab is Saskatchewan鈥檚 chief medical health officer, the person essentially manning the master switch solo on this whole sordid affair.
He鈥檚 humble, he鈥檚 likeable, and he seems very personable and down to Earth based on his on-screen appearances; character traits that you wouldn鈥檛 expect any other person in any other line of work to have when we鈥檙e almost a year into this COVID thing.聽 In other words, Dr. Shahab is essentially the last person on the planet who deserved the kind of treatment he received from some less-than-decent citizens of this province this past weekend.
But this isn鈥檛 exactly the first rodeo for those who decided to put a proverbial bull鈥檚 eye on the good doctor鈥檚 face and name, is it?聽 An anti-mask rally held in Regina not long before Christmas ran Shahab鈥檚 name through the mud; that is, when these mouth-breathing 鈥榮preadnecks鈥� weren鈥檛 busy joking about how to pronounce it in the first place.
Haha, get it?聽 The funny-sounding man from not around these parts has an equally funny-sounding name!聽 Good Lord鈥�
For his part, Shahab has been the epitome of calm through these controversies looking to bring him down, correctly pointing out that such behavior as shown in these two incidents says more about the people participating in them than it does about him or anyone else.聽 As for Premier Moe, his online statement spoke volumes not just in content and wording, but even due to it being published at a typically unheard-of time of 10:00 pm on a Saturday night.聽 Some people in the province may have been on their phones while not paying attention to something playing on Netflix or Amazon Prime and came across Moe鈥檚 statement.聽 Props to the Premier on grabbing a lot of that bored-and-browsing millennial crowd.
Credit also has to go to Moe for immediately calling this kind of behavior out and being unfiltered in his branding of this incident鈥檚 participants, or 鈥渋diots鈥� as the Premier called them.聽 Frankly, this is the kind of nuts-and-bolts leadership stance that many have been wanting to see from him.聽 Sometimes you just need to ignore the suit and tie, veto the recycled political speak, and just get on the level playing field with the rest of the population.
The amount of shame I felt when I read what had happened outside of Dr. Shahab鈥檚 home was, well, shameful.聽 I shouldn鈥檛 be forced to feel that way about my fellow Saskatchewinners (still trying to make this term fly) but alas, that鈥檚 the only way I can describe it.聽 If this whole damn pandemic has shown us anything concrete, it鈥檚 that there may never be another point in history where we鈥檝e acted more entitled and outright childish because we can鈥檛 do a few things (and they are few) that we enjoyed up until about ten months ago.
I can鈥檛 drink in a bar past 10:00 pm!聽 WAAHHH!聽 I can鈥檛 sit with more than three other people in a restaurant!聽 WAAHHH!聽 I have to wear this simple, unassuming mask when I鈥檓 in a store and for some reason that rational-thinking people can鈥檛 comprehend, I hate it!聽 WAAHHH!
I can鈥檛 go sit in a crowded casino and flush way too much money down the john that should probably be used for better and smarter financial decisions!聽 WAAHHH WAAAHHHH WAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!
I鈥檓 over-stating things here for dramatic effect, but this is a more-than-solid example of the kind of rhetoric permeating social media.聽 The thing that I just don鈥檛 get in some circles is this notion that there are Covid Cops who will physically stop you from enjoying the things that you used to do before the pandemic, albeit in a modified way for now.聽 Can you drink in a bar?聽 Of course you can, but last call is just a little earlier for now.聽 Can you go eat in a restaurant?聽 Of course you can, but those reservations for 鈥楽mith 鈥� Party of 12鈥� for your uncle鈥檚 birthday supper need to be modified and reduced by a third.聽 Do you have to wear a mask?聽 Yes, you do, and although I can appreciate those extreme and rather slim circumstances in which someone may be medically exempt from wearing one, the other portion of our society has no excuse.聽 Put the damn mask on, you鈥檙e ruining it for the rest of us.
Don鈥檛 bother to give me that thinly-veiled take on how we should still have 鈥渢he choice to make our own decisions and live our lives鈥� because that doesn鈥檛 cut the mustard with me.聽 We didn鈥檛 exactly get a 鈥渃hoice鈥� in this virus making its North American debut, did we?聽 But it sure came in strong and it鈥檚 like the dinner guest that won鈥檛 leave, so we鈥檙e forced to adapt.聽 By adapting, I mean we鈥檙e temporarily moving away or limiting what we do in our daily lives.聽 It鈥檚 not ideal and I don鈥檛 like it either, but much smarter people than me and probably most reading this column are the decision makers, so we have to have at least a little blind faith that they know what they鈥檙e doing.聽 I choose to believe there鈥檚 a light at the end of the tunnel and it鈥檚 getting just a wee bit brighter with each week that passes.
If there was any good at all to come out of this BS harassment of Dr. Shahab, it might be the headshaking we saw from people who reside on both sides of the political fence.聽 Those on the left saw that Moe鈥檚 statement needed to have unequivocal support, and many of those on the right were forthcoming in their own coal-raking of these protestors.
In the wake of this incident, those annoying lines that divided the left and right on so many other issues became just the right amount of blurred and some commonality was reached.聽 I can鈥檛 help but think that if everyone was this kind of reasonable at least a healthy amount of the time, there are so many other matters we could put in the rear-view mirror.
Too many of us need to rethink before we send out that next explosive tweet or that jagged Facebook post that serves no other purpose than to remind others where we sit when it comes to that damn political fence.
For this week, that鈥檚 been the Ruttle Report.
