On March 1, Ontario Premier Doug Ford decided it was time for the COVID-19 vaccination passport be retired. Finally, all Ontarians are equals yet again. Regardless of vax status, all Ontarians can go to cinemas and gyms or movie theatres and arenas without having to produce their “papers.” No more vax apartheid.

Well, not really…

Indeed, we recently decided to visit the Cinesphere movie theatre at the provincially owned Ontario Place. Can you imagine our shock when we were informed that we needed to show our vax pass and government ID as a condition of entry?

Apparently, the bureaucrats running Ontario Place are more knowledgeable when it comes to virology than Ontario’s chief medical officer of health. Hey, whatever happened to that old chestnut, follow the science?

And what makes this exclusionary attendance policy so outrageous is the fact that Ontario Place is owned by Ontario taxpayers. So, how is it that some taxpayers are welcomed into the IMAX cinema but others are frog-marched out the door? Aren’t all taxpayers equal shareholders? And wouldn’t you want to welcome as many customers as possible? The day we were dropped by the Cinesphere, there were only about 20 patrons inside the movie theatre.

And wouldn’t you know it? The barcode reader being used at Ontario Place was unable to read the temporary tattoo QR code that was affixed to my forehead. (I was inspired by the Bruce Willis character in the sci-fi flick, Twelve Monkeys. Bruce bore a tattoo of a barcode on his neck for identification purposes. Nobody got the joke, though…)

But kidding aside, Ontario Place is surely the one venue that Premier Ford could read the riot act to given that it’s provincially-owned. But he apparently does not give a rodent’s rectum. And the question remains: why?