A few days ago I pointed out that Stephen Harper was trying to fan the flames of an Ebola panic.
Even though his response to the epidemic has been lethally inadequate.
And far from making us safer he has been decimating the ranks of those who would protect us from dangerous diseases.
But this is simply obscene.
The scene couldn't have been more ironic or more appalling. For even as the Ebola epidemic raged out of control, and Oxfam sent out a desperate call for more boots on the ground, in Africa.
On Saturday Oxfam took the unusual step of calling for troops to be sent to west Africa, along with funding and medical staff, to prevent the Ebola outbreak becoming the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation”. It accused countries that did not commit military personnel of “costing lives".
And leaders like Obama urged Americans not to surrender to fear and hysteria.
There was Stephen Harper, with a strange look on his face, receiving an award for helping stamp out polio, while cranking up the fear factor.
We are still awaiting our first case of Ebola.
And even though the risk of a major outbreak in Canada is almost negligible, in the emergency rooms of the nation, doctors, and nurses, are already struggling to contain an epidemic of fear.
Not just the irrational fears of their patients, but legitimate fears over their own safety.
Linda Haslam-Stroud, president of the Ontario Nurse’s Association, said Tuesday that her organization is particularly concerned that nurses are not being offered all the equipment they might need to protect them from contracting the virus, as a Texas nurse did last week.
And as might have been expected, the response of the Harper regime has so far been woefully lacking.
