Mark Saunders' 'zero tolerance' coronavirus policy expires in time for mass protests

In April of this year, respected Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders laid down the law, telling media that there would be a "zero tolerance" policy on social distancing violations moving forward.

"What we’re going to be doing is moving towards a zero tolerance, with some common sense factors to it, effective [April 11],” said Saunders at a High Park press conference via CP24.

"At the end of the day, health is the number one issue why we’re doing this," Saunders continued. "We know that we have a role to play in trying to flatten that curve for COVID-19 and we are going to use the necessary steps to do just that."

Only two short months later, and still amidst a state of emergency in the province, Saunders took the the street, maskless, to kneel with a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Toronto.

"My Command and I met protesters [sic] today and we took a knee. We see you and we are listening," wrote Saunders in the June 5 tweet. "The Toronto Police fully supports peaceful and safe protests this weekend and always."

While the gesture is meaningful, it does bring up the question: When did we cure coronavirus?

The coronavirus crisis was the impetus for social, economic, religious, educational, and travel restrictions that have each lasted for months. Ontario, and Canada at large, hemorrhaged jobs. Nursing home residents perished due to a pairing of vulnerability and neglect.

Yet Ontarians were told to stay put, stay inside, stay masked, stay apart, to keep not only themselves safe, but everyone else.

Now that's all been discarded. And just like with coronavirus restrictions, neither logic nor reason seem to have played a part in the sudden lifting of restrictions for one activity—protesting—and literally no others.

Ontario is nowhere close to out of the woods when it comes to the deadly virus. According to CBC News: "Ontario's daily number of reported new cases dipped below 300 only twice. The daily average in that period has been 371. The average number of new cases daily has trended upward for the past week."

Meanwhile out west, British Columbia has not reported over 30 cases in a day since May 6, nearly a full month ago.

It's a conveniently timed ease of restrictions, and one that will likely not avoid consequences. It's not even clear if the move to take a knee went over well with protestors at the event, as several were seen holding signs that read "FTP" or "F*ck the Police," directly in Saunders' face.