{"id":27013,"date":"2020-07-16T17:32:45","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T21:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=27013"},"modified":"2020-07-23T21:14:52","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T01:14:52","slug":"masks-face-coverings-mandatory-this-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/masks-face-coverings-mandatory-this-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Masks, face coverings mandatory this Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Face masks and coverings will be mandatory in all indoor\npublic spaces across York Region this Friday, July 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision was made unanimously by Regional Council\nfollowing a day-long session last Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New rules will take effect at 12.01 a.m. on July 17 and,\nbarring any further changes from Regional Council, will remain in place until\nNovember 30.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEffective Friday\u2026business owners and operators in York\nRegion must have a policy in place to prohibit people from entering if they are\nnot wearing a face mask or covering,\u201d said the Region following last week\u2019s\nmeeting. \u201cCustomers, employees and visitors who enter enclosed public spaces\nmust wear a mask or face covering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premises covered under the new regulations include\nstores, malls, places of worship, community centres, recreation facilities,\nlibraries and art galleries, community agencies serving the public, common\nareas of hotels and other lodgings, places of entertainment, and open houses\nand presentation centres used in real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individual exemptions include children under the age of\nfive and individuals who are unable to wear face coverings due to medical\nreasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI supported the recommendation based on the advice of\nour Medical Officer of Health, who stated that \u2018widespread use of face\ncoverings can have a positive effect on the course of the epidemic,\u2019\u201d said\nMayor Tom Mrakas, Aurora\u2019s representative at the Regional table, following last\nweek\u2019s meeting. \u201cAs we move to Stage 3 of re-opening, we want to minimize a\nsecond wave to allow our economy to continue to recover from the shutdowns. Our\nrecent increase in daily cases should remind us all that this pandemic is not\nover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are in this together and it will take all of us\nworking collectively to get through this, and that is exactly what we must do\nas a community, province and country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prior to the Regional Council meeting, Mayor Mrakas took\nthe opportunity at Aurora\u2019s General Committee meeting on July 7 to gauge the\nsupport of local lawmakers on the issue of mandatory masks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Rachel Gilliland admitted it was a \u201ctouchy\nsubject\u201d with \u201cvalid points on either side\u201d, but voiced her general support for\nthe new measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the sake and safety of the Town and the residents in\nthe community, I think it is a very small sacrifice for the residents of our\nTown to wear a mask as we get through COVID-19,\u201d she said. \u201cWe want to support\nour businesses and our economy going forward and if that is a small sacrifice I\nhave to make to go into a store an wear a mask to ensure we continue on with\nour economy, I am in support of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exceptions, she said, should be made for people who have\nmedical conditions and breathing problems, issues she noted have already been\nvoiced to her by constituents. She also said she would like to see education\nrather than enforcement as the order of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Sandra Humfryes echoed these views, stating\nwearing a mask where social distancing is not possible \u201cis so critical right\nnow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe [mask rules] will help our economy open up a\nlittle safer and give us that security [of trying to keep] each other safe, to\nbe indoors, and to do things we haven\u2019t been able to do so freely,\u201d she said,\nacknowledging exemptions should be made for people who truly can\u2019t wear a face\ncovering. \u201cI do believe right now that this is the way to go in order to get\nthis economy going [and] for us to get back out there and do what we so freely\ndid before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Councillors Michael Thompson and Harold Kim, it was\nimportant that the measures instituted by the Region of York were in line with\nthose of surrounding areas such as the Regions of Durham and Peel, as well as\nthe City of Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am all for the encouragement and education of\nresidents to try and get them to voluntarily utilize masks so that the public\nis best healthy and safe,\u201d said Councillor Thompson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Councillor Kim: \u201cIn this COVID environment, you\nthink we would all be acting as one humanitarian body, but as everyone has\ncabin fever, it has become somewhat adversarial and unfortunate. My view is\nwhatever York Region decides has to be consistent in the Regions that are\nadjacent to ours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor John Gallo, however, said he was \u201csomewhat on\nthe fence\u201d regarding mandatory face coverings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that if our medical experts say this is the\nright thing to do, then I encourage it,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the same time, those who\ndon\u2019t feel comfortable wearing it, I certainly won\u2019t\u2026look at them in any\ndifferent way. I am a strong proponent of individual rights and, at the same time,\nI think we encourage people to wear masks, but\u2026if someone doesn\u2019t feel they\nwant to or need to, I don\u2019t have an issue with them not wearing it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner said she believed \u201cindividual\nrights\u201d are important but agreed with her colleagues that making masks\nmandatory was a \u201csmall sacrifice to make for public health and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think, of course, individual rights are important, but\nI think this, if you will excuse my expression, absolutely trumps individual\nrights as it is for our community health,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope it will be as\nfulsome a motion as possible so that we can be very clear about what is\nexpected. Education is important, but I think at this point in time people have\nbeen pretty much educated and it is whether they want to or don\u2019t want to, or\nwill or won\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that is what is going to be self-policing in a way, and I have seen a case of this where people actually took over and were very vocal when other people didn\u2019t comply. It was in a different situation, but I think as it is our health and our lives at stake maybe there will be some public policing on this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Face masks and coverings will be mandatory in all indoor public spaces across York Region this Friday, July 17. The decision was made unanimously by Regional Council following a day-long session last Thursday. New rules will take effect at 12.01 a.m. on July 17 and, barring any further changes from Regional Council, will remain in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-71H","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-26 02:13:19","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}