At a press conference on Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford pleaded for protesters to not go to his personal residence but to protest at Queen’s Park instead of “scaring” the kids in his neighbourhood.
“My street is packed with little kids and when protesters show up at 10 in the morning every Saturday, the kids don’t go out and play,” Ford said. “My neighbours, they’re frustrated.”
“They didn’t sign up for this, I signed up for it, I signed up to be the premier. Just come down to Queen’s Park.”
When pressed about adding restrictions to restaurants in the province, Ford had a simple message, “COVID sucks.”
“It’s just a terrible, terrible thing and it’s not fair to any single person,” the premier said, adding that the province is helping restaurants with “everything they possibly can.”
Ford went on to confirm he and finance minister Rod Phillips “gave back” $10,000 of their MPP salaries to support Ontarians who are struggling financially.
Premier Doug Ford with a message to anti-mask, anti-restriction protestors who have been showing up at his home every week.
"You want to protest me, God bless you…but just please leave my neighbours and their kids alone, please." Asks them to go to Queen's Park. #onpoli
— Lucas Meyer (@meyer_lucas) October 19, 2020
CASES AND OUTBREAKS
Canada has officially exceeded 200,000 COVID-19 cases across the country, with the majority of cases in Quebec and Ontario.
Back in June, Canada reached 100,000 cases, after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the country at the end of January.
In a statement from Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, warned that as the number of cases continues to rise, the number of people suffering severe illness is also increasing, with an average of 893 people with COVID-19 being treated in Canadian hospitals during the most recent seven-day period.
“As hospitalizations and deaths tend to lag behind increased disease activity by one to several weeks, the concern is that we have yet to see the extent of severe impacts associated with the ongoing increase in COVID-19 disease activity,” the statement reads. “Our primary goal for the pandemic response remains to minimise severe illness and deaths due to COVID-19.”
