By Pepper Parr
March 28th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
There are a few occasions when a member of city council takes a potion on an issue that is distinctly different – and at odds with the prevailing view.
Every member of Burlington’s city council is also a member of Regional Council.
The opening slide in a 15 minute presentation.
Recently ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan declared that he was opposed to the lifting of the masking bylaw and set out his view in a long presentation that included 38 Power Point slides.
While lengthy the presentation is worth a look – especially for those residents of ward 3 who are going to have to decide if Nisan is worth returning to office in October.
Click HERE for the presentation
Way to go Rory! This is leadership and independent thinking on display, telling well the reasoning and support for your motion and Mayor Meed Wards seconding, on providing masks to residents with lots of good reasons.
I didn’t see the Region getting anything ever of this perspective at this critical period from the Region Health Officer. Just another politically appointed Health bureaucrat doing what she is told.
Apparently, Councilors Someville and Burton are more interested in saving a few minutes of time, and quibbling about it, than learning something about Covid and masking from their colleague Rory Nisan. I was glad to see what the Clerk said about the 10 minutes having some flex, and that Chair Carr was wise enough to let you go, which you did. I think the kerfuffle raised blew as much more time as you took.
The decision you are making on the Regional masking mandate is a serious matter and I would think that you would be interested in learning about Rory’s reasoning than a few minutes. This was the public health science that does take time to cover sufficiently to get enough of the scope to understand what is happening.
Again, nothing from the Regions Health doctor. She has no shame in my opinion.
I hope your motion was approved – I didn’t look I’m afraid, as I was afraid to see if it failed.
Having attended the session virtually and having heard Councillor Nisan makes his pitch I have several comments. The first being, the Region allowed him to go over his 10-minute time allotment by 5 minutes. Something that I believe would not be permitted by anyone delegating at COB. A 38-slide presentation would normally take around 200-minutes to wade through, so sometimes less is more. Councillor Nisan gave a greatly condensed version of his mask position at the March 22 COB. We know that removing masks did not have unanimity and time will tell if Nisan was on point.