Canadians are eager to move on from the government's response to COVID-19, the purported novel respiratory virus. Many still face the effects of lingering mandates, including financial ruin.

That is true at Mackenzie Hospital in Richmond Hill, Ontario, where emotional support masking continues to be enforced. Yet another example of overreaching nanny state interventions.

It’s been four years since knee-jerk hysteria overshadowed reason, logic, and evidence-based science, but that hasn’t stopped institutions like hospitals and optometry clinics from enforcing irrational mask mandates. They compel individuals to deprive themselves of oxygen and re-breathe their lung excrement under the unfounded guise of protecting vulnerable populations.

Judging by the COVID-19 information section of Mackenzie Health, even they state their science is different.

"While masks may no longer be required in other indoor public settings, patients and their families trust us to care for them when they are at their most vulnerable and we must ensure that patients receive care in a safe environment. That’s why masks will continue to be required in high-volume and high-risk areas including the Emergency Department, Urgent Care Centre, Chemotherapy Clinic and Dialysis units. Mackenzie Health remains a mask-friendly environment and we encourage everyone to wear a mask if they feel more comfortable doing so. Masks continue to be available for everyone at all main entrances and at the elevator banks on each floor of our hospitals."

Indeed, the hospital has its very own mask dispensing machines to quickly and conveniently pull from a pile of (questionably sanitary) surgical masks. These masks have repeatedly been criticized by virologist Dr. Byram Bridle for their inadequate filtering capacity against invisible coronaviruses and other respiratory pathogens.

Someone by the name of Alminah, from Patient Relations at Mackenzie Hospital, informed an inquiring hospital visitor to "consult the statements and reports Public Health Ontario and the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health issued throughout the course of the pandemic." Meanwhile, there are widespread claims of improper mask usage among staff and visitors of the hospital.

Regardless, Mackenzie Hospital turned a blind eye to the government's decision not to implement sweeping mask mandates past early 2022. When the government teased about masking recommendations that fall season, Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's chief medical officer, was seen mingling maskless at a socialite event just days after advising Ontarians to mask up indoors.

Days after Ontario's CMOH recommends all Ontarians mask up indoors, he is seen mingling maskless at Toronto socialite event

Say no to the hypocrisy of the bureaocracy and useless facial decorations @ https://t.co/4s9Qixz4ZK pic.twitter.com/UX8uDckT3u

— Tamara Ugolini 🇨🇦 (@TamaraUgo) November 18, 2022

A media inquiry into Mackenzie Health's mask mandate seeks clarification on several points:

1) What specific evidence and reports from Public Health Ontario (PHO) and the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) justify the mandate?

2) How does Mackenzie Health enforce and uphold exemptions to masking, as outlined previously by PHO and CMOH?

3) What types of masks are mandated under their policy — cloth, paper, N95s — and is there a documented policy guiding this mandate?

4) The most robust, empirical analysis of community masking found limited efficacy of medical/surgical masks in reducing respiratory viral infections, so why is the science different at Mackenzie Health?

5) How does Mackenzie Health update its policies in response to evolving scientific understanding, ensuring they align with the latest peer-reviewed broad analysis and maintain a high standard of scientific justification?

The most up-to-date analysis on epidemic outcomes, following government responses to COVID-19, came out last month. It concluded that "strong claims about the impact of government responses on the COVID-19 burden lack empirical support."

In the grand performative theatre of pseudo-science, Mackenzie Health was unable to provide any evidence justifying their ongoing mask charade.