Whitehorse Daily Star

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Photo by Vince Fedoroff

RESTRICTIONS TIGHTENING – A Proof of Vaccination notice is displayed on the entrance to the Canada Games Centre in Whitehorse today. Recent restrictions limiting two households up to a maximum of 10 people are having an adverse effect on sporting events in the territory.

Yukon sports organizations seeking clarification on latest COVID restrictions

Yukon sports organizations are seeking clarification on the COVID-19 restrictions announced last Friday evening by the Yukon government and Dr. Catherine Elliott, the acting chief medical officer of health.

By Morris Prokop on January 18, 2022

Revised - Yukon sports organizations are seeking clarification on the COVID-19 restrictions announced last Friday evening by the Yukon government and Dr. Catherine Elliott, the acting chief medical officer of health.

According to their press release, the new “temporary” measures include “limiting all private and public gatherings to two households up to a maximum of 10 people, including recreational team sports; group fitness; group recreation and leisure activities.”

This, of course, severely limits what types of sporting activities can take place in the Yukon.

Elliott and the government had previously announced restrictions, including prohibiting games between teams, on Jan. 8.

According to Sport Yukon executive director Tracey Bilsky, at least 15 groups reached out to Sport Yukon on Monday for help interpreting the new COVID restrictions.

“Until they get clarification ... groups have been making decisions based on their interpretation,” Bilsky told the Star Tuesday.

“Some of them are interpreting the wording differently than others. At this point, some of them are just going to hold off until they find out.

“Minor Soccer cancelled their whole week because there’s so many parents, they needed to send out at least some kind of blanket statement until they can figure out what the order is going to be.

“Clarity and simplification – it’s really crucial right now, because these groups are exhausted,” Bilsky noted. “They really want to make things work.

“They know how important this is, especially for kids and their mental health and their ability to look forward.”

Bilsky explained why she thinks there’s so much confusion right now.

“I think because the language was a bit ambiguous. They’ve never brought households into sport before, so when you’re talking about team sport, and then you integrate households – I can’t think of one situation where that would work,” she said.

“So there were volunteers that were questioning what they were reading – there is also confusion over recreational sport and organized sport. Because in the past, the term ‘organized’ has been used before, so some groups thought, ‘we are an organized sport, so we must still be on the 50 per cent capacity rules, so we’ll continue to operate.’

“There just wasn’t enough information on Friday and no avenue for clarification over the weekend, which made it really difficult because a lot of organized sport for youth happens on the weekends.

“Putting it out on a Friday evening and then not having anywhere where people can gain that clarification – it created so many challenges and so much stress,” added Bilsky.

“Give the volunteers boards enough information so they can make quick decisions, because they really are having to respond to so many people.”

Seventy-eight volunteer-run sports organizations under Sport Yukon represent 15,000 to 20,000 people in the Yukon – nearly half the territory’s population.

“There were parents calling as well, saying, ‘if they’re allowed to go to school, why aren’t they allowed to hang out with those same kids after school?’ We don’t make that legislation. We can’t answer those types of questions,” related Bilsky.

“It’s a legitimate question. Why can’t a curling team not be able to prepare for the Scotties, but they can go out for dinner after and sit at the same table?

“So that’s when people’s logic kicks in and they just can’t make sense of it. So hopefully today, we’ll get more answers to these questions.”

The Whitehorse Women’s Hockey Association (WWHA) has called it quits for this season due to the latest round of restrictions. “Our season typically ends before Spring Break and it was thought that it was unlikely we would be playing again before then. The safety of our players and their families is paramount and the main reason we made this decision,” stated the WWHA board.

“That’s really disappointing. That’s such a vibrant organization, and I think they just got to a point where they thought it’s just not working for them anymore,” Bilsky said.

“And I worry that at this point, there have been so many adjustments, so many refunds, so many conversations that there are going to be groups that just throw their hands up, with the decision that might come down today and just say they’re done for the year. And that would be really hard.”

Needless to say, Sport Yukon isn’t too happy about the way Elliott and the government have handled this situation.

“They’re adjusting on the fly too, but in this one situation, this could have been done a lot better,” Bilsky said.

“I think that when you’re going to make an announcement as significant as that, and if it’s that important that it needs to go out on Friday ... then a press conference of some type needs to be held. Where members of the public can feed their questions through the media and get some answers.

“So it just doesn’t create the schmozzle that it did, over the weekend and including all day yesterday when we weren’t getting answers. I still haven’t had any response from anybody.”

Bilsky said she’d like to see a key change in how YG handles its communications.

“What I’d like is for an actual clear phone number – person for these organizations to speak to, because they’re so different, they’re so varied in what they offer.”

Bilsky said she’s worried about the impact COVID restrictions are having on sport in the Yukon.

“I think that’s the problem, is that I really do see – athletes are losing their steam, coaches are getting out of their sport; they can handle it for a while, but this will be a blow, and I think with the uncertainty of Omicron – if groups don’t know if they’re going to be able to come back in February, or if it’s going to be March, then I do worry about this whole generation of kids.

“At this point, everyone has to do the best we can with COVID - we understand that. We know sport doesn’t trump a lot of things when it comes to health, but the mental health of our community is suffering, so right now, we just need clarity and we need compassion and we need answers.”

Premier Sandy Silver and Elliott held a press conference Tuesday to update the COVID-19 situation in the Yukon.

When asked about the confusion regarding the latest restrictions, Dr. Elliot responded by admitting that there’s been a lot of questions on that topic.

“The rule of thumb is the two-household rule,” stated Elliot.

“When we look at indoor sports, one of the first things to consider is indoor-outdoor. Outdoor, there’s not a big change in the changes. When we look at indoor, it’s about two households in a unit. So that does mean that team sports will have to be postponed at this time for this period. But people can recreate with one other household in small groups.”

“This is a tough one, obviously,” added Silver.

“Considering just completely shutting down sports ... gyms are booked. Sports facilities are booked. At least having an opportunity to have some sport is important for mental health ... organizations have to decide ‘are we just going to shut things down?’ The times are booked, the ice is there, if we can get at least families out here and there for some activities I think that that’s extremely important.”

“Hopefully it’s weeks. Hopefully it’s not that long,” stated Silver.

“I get it. It’s tough. This one’s a tough one, for sure. But it definitely wasn’t a decision that Dr. Elliot and her team took lightly.”

Regarding addressing the issue of mental health, Silver stated “it’s affecting everybody. It really is. I really wish I had something eloquent to say to make people feel better ... we have a mental wellness summit coming up, which will be really important. We need to learn as a society after COVID. We really do.”

“This is weighing on people’s minds: what does that new normal look like? ... The light’s at the end of the tunnel. We just need you to dig deep, and it seems like we keep asking folks to dig deep and sometimes it feels pretty overwhelming. It feels like there is no light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes that light turns into another train. But I really see us getting past this very quickly,” added Silver.

Dr. Elliot added “We need to stick together right now. It’s really important to lend a helping hand where you can. It takes all of us. Knowing that people are doing the best they can in a tough situation in order to protect the wonderful life that we have here in Yukon, with all the challenges and lovely moments as well. And I think that’s really what it takes to keep us going. We’ve done this before and we’ve managed it. We’ll manage it this time.”

When asked about the discrepancies regarding COVID restrictions, Silver replied “We’re in a critical period here in the territory, as we brace for the impact of the Omicron variant. We’re in the midst of it right now. And we’ve seen what other jurisdictions across Canada and the world have experienced and we know it’s coming. These new public health measures are necessary ... to limit the strain on our health care system and to prevent it from being overwhelmed and they’re being done with the least social disruption that we possibly can do. We’re limiting close contacts, and we need people to get vaccinated. These are the most important things that Yukoners can do right now. We’re reaching out to Yukoners right now and saying ‘Look, as much as you possibly can, limit those gatherings. We’ll get over this, and, again, with the modelling we know, what’s happening in other places in Canada, we hope that this will be a very short wave.”

Comments (3)

Up 5 Down 3

Stop Now... on Jan 18, 2022 at 4:18 pm

This is a message to the elected representatives of the Yukon Legislative Assembly. Yukon is exercising "emergency powers." Regulators must be fully transparent with the public health data they're relying on to declare a public emergency, especially when temporarily suspending charter rights of persons. The expectation to provide factual and salient data is necessary to enact emergency powers and not just case count numbers. The citizens of Yukon have very limited access to specific/general data or transparency to know what protocols Yukon's Health Authorities are using to make decisions. It’s becoming more apparent that the Yukon government and its health authority may be in a state of conflict where government is favoring private interests (group insurance providers, pharmaceuticals) rather then our public’s best interest.
Take note, Health Canada's original interim health order (2020) passed by Parliament was based on the covid data from a foreign health agency the United States (FDA). When Health Canada introduced the vaccine they were not acting as an independent agency. Instead, they relied on the FDA's covid data/information (take a look what’s happening in the US courts right now), so under regulation, Health Canada is a "dependent agency". If the FDA's decisions are tainted by conflict or even regulatory hazard—by proxy, Health Canada will be a “regulatory capture agency” and by default, every Canadian jurisdiction will be in the same liability scenario. Yukon will blame Canada, Canada will blame the US and everybody loses, except for the corporation(s) that calculated the ratio of additional liability to revenue to pay for civil damages.
The vaccine doesn’t work and that’s becoming more clear each day that passes. Health protocols are being treated as protected information and our rights are being violated. Elected officials better get real, and fast. You think Covid is highly transmissible, you wait, the first wave of public accountability hasn’t hit yet, but when it does, it will be so colossal you won’t be able to use spring flood control, mine site liability issues or transport shortages to divert the public attention away from your unsound actions. Representative’s better take a hard look at themselves now, because your decisions are going to cost you re-election, professional credibility, personal integrity and to top it off, each of you will be pointing the finger at one another all the way to law courts.

Up 4 Down 4

Reneezing on Jan 18, 2022 at 4:16 pm

Covid was over 2 years ago… stop destroying children's lives.. blowing the whole economy, ruining peoples lives.
The burning ship sinks with all your government agendas. Let's start over…. !!

You with your clearly brilliant and effective efforts, that you just keep scrambling up and trying to reword, as something new so you can justify your job and all the OT many government workers are raking in…As if you are solving the problem...
The best part is, you don't even know what to say say anymore because it's so convoluted.

Is this the Canada people want to live in? When is enough, enough? For you?
The other day I heard a vaxer SHAME another vaxer for not being vaccinated enough!!.
One thing I give credit to, the lesser vaccinated person says back to over vaxer… something along the lines of it's none of your business how many vaccines I have had.

Now being vaccinated isn't even enough?
If scientists were always right…. Pesticides would still be cool.

Up 25 Down 2

thank you sport yukon on Jan 18, 2022 at 1:05 pm

Thank you everyone who is trying to seek clarification on these very ambiguous and unclear new restrictions, and for ongoing efforts to support Yukon kids and athletes during this time!

I anticipate that Yukon Government is about to look very, very stupid come 3 pm today in trying to clarify their spineless announcement from Friday. I truly hope the media challenges them today to be accountable and transparent in the manner they should be.

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