By Michael Krisa

The other day I was surfing through Facebook posts and had the misfortune of watching a video that to me was the epitome of arrogance. This video featured Manitoba’s top public health official, Dr. Brent Roussin, being asked questions during a press conference. His response made me clamp down hard to avoid vomiting in my own mouth, in fact I had to play the video several times to be sure I actually heard what I thought I heard!

He was asked if the City of Winnipeg had permission from the province to operate its gyms; which are exclusively for employees?

A couple of things to keep in mind 1) The entire city of Winnipeg city was in Level Red lockdown 2) These are not gyms that you, me or any member of the public would have access to, you know the kind for which you would pay a membership. These were specifically for Winnipeg government employees.

Now before I share his response, I suggest you loosen your collar, be comfortably seated and remove any loose objects from reach because like me, your blood pressure will skyrocket and you will want to throw stuff … seriously, put your pets outside!

Here is Dr. Brent Roussin’s response to that question: “Public health orders don’t apply to any levels of government … they weren’t given an exemption outside of the order, the order itself doesn’t apply to governments.”

What Manitoba’s top public health official basically said is that we; the city of Winnipeg elected officials, employees and staff are outside of these mandates, they don’t apply to us and we can do whatever we wish … but … you members of the general public can’t!

So while you’re locked inside your home and your local gym is on the verge of bankruptcy because it has been mandated to close, these flaccid, self-entitled bureaucrats get to do whatever they wish!

Let that sink in a little … they can do whatever they wish BUT You can’t.

Okay I know what you’re thinking and yes, it was asked as a follow up question by the Global News reporter: “So why can’t small apartments, condos or family gyms operate following the same guidelines used by the city?”

The response from Dr. Brent Roussin was something out of the Twilight Zone and completely contradicted his answer to the first question: “We expect governments to be able to regulate … and we’re not going to tell governments how they function.”

So let’s see if I’m understanding this … the Health Department, which is a function of the municipal government, issues a mandate but the city employees are exempt because mandates don’t apply to the government … BUT … when it comes to the opening of businesses, like gyms for instance, that’s up to the government to regulate because we can’t tell the government what to do … even though we are the government issuing the mandates.

Is it any wonder that people are getting fed up with endless lockdowns, restrictions, and senseless mandates when the government that is supposed to be leading us out of this mess, is the same government that appears to be in it for itself?

Mark Twain said it best … “There’s a fine line between Confidence and Arrogance … It’s called Humility. Confidence smiles. Arrogance smirks.”

Despite all the media rhetoric and government platitudes … we are NOT all in this together!

BTW here is the link to that video: https://youtu.be/yu4bHBYzMEQ
Email: DruthersReporter@gmail.com