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On Monday April 5, I was driving my pickup truck on Highway 11 near Port Sydney when I was pulled over by the OPP. I had no idea what I had done wrong and having practised social distancing for 25 days, I was extremely apprehensive.
I donned a mask and waited as the officer approached with no protection on at all. He stood within two feet of my window and demanded all my information while telling me my valid licence sticker was in the wrong place, and that it should be on the front of the truck.
He then wrote up a warning slip and now, being less than one foot away, handed me the slip of paper and stood talking to me. His actions have now exposed me to possibly hundreds of possible virus carriers and asymptomatic individuals.
As a senior citizen, I am also in a higher risk group. Needless to say, I was infuriated at the carelessness for public safety that was displayed by this officer for a trivial technical matter.
Hoping that it was just this officer, I called the Huntsville detachment and asked if they have a COVID-19 protocol. The staff sargent I talked to told me that they have masks and gloves but no requirement to use them.
He also told me that I have little to worry about as no one at that detachment has been sick! This seems to me to be a total lack of understanding about virus transmission and incubation periods.
I have to ask what our leadership has been doing about pandemic education of our police force? These officers are the people who are being asked to enforce social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On my warning for the sticker infraction it says 'Traffic safety and saving lives is top priority for the Ontario Provincial Police'. In my humble opinion they need to step up to that plate and figure out how to do their job in a way that doesn't make them a vector for spreading this damn curse called COVID-19.
Kim deLagran
Utterson
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