So this week we heard the not-so-surprising revelation that a lot of the reports going into the "ProtectNWT" complaint line are turning out to be false or unprovable.
Raise your hand if you didn't see this coming.
Of course some people are going to use an anonymous tip line to advance their own overreactions. History is rife with examples of such, ranging from accusations of being a traitor in the French Revolution to being a Communist in the United States during the McCarthy era. More recently, in 2015 a proposed 'barbaric practices' report line became a very divisive election issue for the very same concerns.
I honestly can only think of one instance where these lines actually do more good than harm, and those are lines for reporting crimes such as CrimeStoppers or Report a Poacher, but even those require thorough investigations to ensure the tip is legitimate.
Tippers don't necessarily have the same criteria as investigators. Just a month ago I was writing about how the search for Richard Binder Jr. was hampered by anonymous tips putting him at various locations throughout town, which led police to not search across the river where he actually was.
Obviously we can't say what the intents behind those tips were, but the end result was a tragedy.
What I find interesting about the current situation is that Dr. Kami Kandola is clearly very aware of how government policy has played out historically. Hence her adamant stance on not releasing anything that would identify patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
I thoroughly agree with this practice, again because there's a solid lesson from history that it is a good policy. Not only do patients not deserve to have the stigma of the virus follow them around, not unlike the stigma of surviving an assault, but it shields them from potential wrath of the mob.
When people are scared and feel powerless to do anything — as we all do right now — they can often lash out, horde supplies and start looking out for themselves, which is the complete opposite of how we beat this thing.
A popular idea recently published in our pages is requiring anyone coming into the territory to self-isolate before they get on the plane. This might have some effect, but I don't think it would be as noticeable as supporters of the idea think.
For one, I don't think citing Nunavut as having zero cases as of writing is really relevant — they're more remote than we are. Inevitably a Trojan horse is going to find its way through their defenses. Last week Erwin Elias said it was not a matter of if the virus comes to the north, but when, and he was absolutely right. If it can get to Greenland, it can be anywhere.
I get that people are scared and don't know what to do — we're all scared. And the sad reality is there isn't much you can do as an individual besides what has been shown to work by science — self isolate, minimize contact with other people and try to give the health care system a fighting chance.
When we get out of the tunnel, there will be plenty of things we can implement to reduce the chances of another COVID. But that's for later. Right now let's protect our elders.