Reopening day in Ontario

And the premier is "99 per cent" sure we won't lock down again

Good Friday morning. This is Queen’s Park Observer.

ABOVE THE FOLD

At an in-person presser in downtown Toronto Thursday, Premier DOUG FORD was grilled on everything from the math curriculum controversy to vaccination mandates. Here’s what went down:

— On mandatory vaccines or passports for the inoculated: “Hard no,” Ford said. That goes for any industry, including health workers — though the province did weigh the legal and ethical issues for introducing vaccine policies for those groups, per the CBC.

It comes as Ontario enters Step 3 ahead of schedule today and businesses grapple with whether to ask patrons about their inoculation status (some strip clubs will screen for that, some gyms won’t).

“I think it’s our constitutional right to take it or not take it,” Ford said of vaccines. As for passports a la Quebec: “We aren’t doing it, simple as that,” Ford reiterated. “We aren’t going to have a split society.”

Ford again punted the vax pass to the feds and said he’d raise it on his Thu…