The great school unmasking
Plus: Appointments aplenty, Brown's bid, door-knocking watch
ABOVE THE FOLD
— SCHOOLED: Masking will soon be a choice — but not for individual schools.
Education Minister STEPHEN LECCE cautioned rogue school boards to stick to the top doc’s timeline and drop mask mandates along with the rest of the province on March 21.
It comes after Hamilton’s school board voted to keep masks in place until April 15, and as Toronto’s board signalled that it would ask the province for an extension.
Premier DOUG FORD echoed the warning: “Let me be very clear to the school boards: They aren’t medical experts…Follow the direction of the chief medical officer, plain and simple.” He added that students still have the option to mask up, which the Premier says he himself will do in crowded situations.
Context: While local medical officers of health can use Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act to go further than the province when it comes to implementing pandemic measures — school boards don’t readily have the power to do so on their own.
Th…