TORONTO – The controversy shows no sign of subsiding after the government revoked the obligation to wear masks, as well as in numerous public facilities, even in schools in Ontario. 

Measures against the government, parents against the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB), virologists who disagree with the province’s move. Anxiety, concern, the hope that, as we said at the beginning of the pandemic “everything will be fine” have characterized after two years the first day “mask free”. The ingredients for an explosive mixture seem to be all there.

Meanwhile, although without any conviction, 30 school councils of Ontario’s public schools ‘frozen’ by a no that leaves no room for replies after the request to postpone the revocation of the masks, have decided to follow the government’s order. He decided to challenge the Ministry of Education instead the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board despite the call to order of the minister Stephen Lecce: to protect people fragile from a medical point of view, the provveditorato has decided to go ahead with the obligation of masks until April 1st. At this point open heaven, as they say. Some of Hamilton’s parents criticized the decision saying the policy is “useless” and “potentially illegal.” “The provincial government told my son that it was safe not to wear a mask in most environments anymore. The school board has no right to tell us otherwise,” thundered Alyssa Vankleek.

But once the mandate is revoked, the HWDSB will be difficult to force students to wear masks as Ontario schools do not have their own policies on this personal protective equipment. Prohibiting a student without a mask from attending school, according to the Ontario Education Act and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, could be considered a violation of the child’s rights.

An exception to this rule, however, can be found in the Health Protection and Promotion Act, which gives the municipality’s health officer the power to annul provincial government laws.

At this point the clash has come to life. Especially since the HWDSB did not want to say how it intends to behave with students and teachers who attend schools without masks.

The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is not on the government’s side, judging the decision premature, “a decision more than anything political”. “Ontario residents have relied on public health officials to be guided on the basis of science and evidence – said ETFO President Karen Brown – unfortunately, it seems that the rapidly approaching June elections are influencing the decisions of politicians to revoke the security measures put in place to control the spread of Covid-19”.

The high contagiousness of the Omicron BA.2 variant is a cause for apprehension among virologists, most of whom do not welcome the abolition of masks at this time. Among others, Armand Keating, clinical scientist and hematologist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, pointed out that “the increasing frequency of cases of the BA.2 variant, which is more transmissible, provides further support for a more cautious approach”.