Mounties Enforce The New Normal In Manitoba

As reported here, "Under new lockdown restrictions in Manitoba, no more than five people can gather in one location, including if they remain in their cars." However, a church in Steinbach, MB elected to hold a drive-in service in violation of the order. The RCMP, of all agencies, then blocked the highway leading to the church parking lot to prevent this.

From episodes like this, it seems like Canada is an order of magnitude crazier than the US on COVID restrictions, and the US is pretty crazy. But in the US, police agencies began to recognize even last spring that hauling moms off in cuffs for taking their kids to the playground was a bad look, and they dropped it. Now, poliec agencies back off this sort of thing, with the chiefs saying in one way or another that they don't enforce health orders.

Manitoba borders the US states of Minnesota and North Dakota and has had 16,483 COVID cases total, with 301 deaths. for a case fatality rate of about 0.02%. Manitoba's population is 1.359 million, which I believe gives a 2020 COVID death rate of about 22 per 100,000, which is roughly comparable to the overall 2018 Canadian death rate from seasonal flu and pneumonia of 23 per 100,000.

But this results in the national police being called in to block church attendance. Poor Steinbach, which with a population of less than 20,000 is the third largest city in Manitoba, seems to have become a focus for provincial indignation. "Steinbach late to recognize COVID-19 threat, some residents say," reads the CBC headline.

The Mounties blocked vehicle access to an anti-lockdown protest there Nov 14, while health officials issued fines to inividual protesters, apparently for not wearing masks or social distancing. In the US, enforcement of mask and social distance rules at protests is nugatory, and in fact, the epidemiological effect of non-socially distanced protests hasn't been publicized, if it's been measured at all.

Press coverage of COVID case rates in Canada appears to be even more hysterical than in the US. But we're looking at a global phenomenon that I'm beginning to think is basically a moral panic. I'll have more to say about this.