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By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Pandemic restrictions on theatres, churches need to be applied more consistently

Mar 5, 2021 | 12:11 PM

YOU HAVE TO FEEL FOR any business or non-profit organization that survives by gathering people together.

It has been a year now of business-not-as-usual. Very few organizations are built to survive a year of absolutely no revenue coming in.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry’s restrictions have been less stringent than those enacted in many Canadian provinces, consistently allowing restaurants and pubs to operate at reduced capacity with a series of modifications implemented to prevent virus spread.

For the most part, it’s worked. Virus spread is taking place predominantly in household settings with individuals or families who break the rules, not as commonly in businesses and organizations.

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Having said all that, the way restrictions are being applied is quite curious.

Dusan Magdolen of the Kamloops Film Society pointed that inconsistency out quite eloquently in a letter to local media this week.

The Film Society operates the Paramount Theatre downtown. Without the opportunity to fill up their spaces with people, the theatre had been taking private bookings.

Those bookings consisted of no more than six people, all in the same family unit, seated in either a 500-seat or a 270-seat theatre.

Yet the province has told the society that can’t happen.

To point out the inconsistency in the restrictions, the owners of the Rio Theatre in Vancouver have made a slight transformation – turning their facility into an ad hoc sports bar. In other words, instead of showing films, the theatre is showing sports.

That is allowed.

It shows that, materially, there is so little differentiating what is allowed and what is not, and those differentiating factors don’t make a lot of sense.

Churches have good reason to be confused, too.

If they can reduce capacity with layers of protection in place, if they can police their parishioners to be as safe as possible, why should they not be allowed to go ahead?

The situation has fed a suspicion of government that was already underlying in a lot of faith traditions.

The restrictions themselves are what they are – no one is having fun, but we understand their necessity.

Having those restrictions applied consistently would help a lot of people maintain faith in the provincial health officer and adhere to all of the other measures she has put in place to try to stop this virus from spreading further.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.