The views expressed by M. Lalonde, unopposed by the editor and hence seemingly endorsed by your organization, are clearly damaging to public safety and only encourage COVID 19 deniers like himself to promote their views which, it allowed to become common place, will endanger the health and safety of our society.
In addition, the writer, who presumably has no medical training or expertise, since he mentions none, has the hubris to take to task the regional medical officer of health, Dr. Roumeliotis, in what could be construed as a defamatory attack for doing nothing more than what he was hired to do, offering the public the best advice of the medical community to protect ourselves and each other. In passing, he also defames public servants, teachers and politicians, demonstrating his own personal biases and nothing more.
At this critical time in the course of the pandemic, when our communities are tentatively and cautiously entering phase three of reopening, it is all the more important to remain vigilant against the kinds of careless attitudes advocated in this letter, not to give them voice.
Freedom of speech is only a right when it is exercised without doing harm to our fellow citizens. This letter should never have been published and I trust a retraction by your company will be rapidly issued so that you are not tainted as supporters of such dangerous views.
Christopher Morry
Rockland, Ontario
Editor’s note : The Letters to the Editor section of any and all newspapers is where local readers, and others if space permits, can express an opinion on a particular issue, and falls under the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in Canada through the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The sole condition that any newspaper has regarding any letter from to the editor is that it contains no libel or slander. Publication of a Letter to the Editor is neither an endorsement nor an indication of support from a newspaper of any reader’s opinion expressed in the letter. Anyone who disagrees with the opinion expressed in a letter to the editor is both welcome and encouraged to send their own letter to the letter.
