A risk-averse premier, an epic cabinet meeting, a wave of anger: The inside story of Doug Ford’s disastrous announcement

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

After a marathon cabinet meeting over two days, Premier Doug Ford and his ministers emerged April 16 to unveil a slew of controversial measures designed to limit Ontarians' mobility and curb the spread of COVID-19.

These included closing playgrounds and enhancing police powers for random spot checks, but not shuttering a host of non-essential workplaces that were closed at this time last year.

Exactly 23 hours later - after unprecedented defiance from police and outrage from civil liberties groups and parents - Ford tweeted that our regulations will be amended" to ensure children could play and motorists could drive freely without fear of carding.

However, golf courses, basketball and tennis courts, soccer fields, and other outdoor recreational facilities remain shuttered. On Friday in Toronto, people were ignoring the edict and hopping fences to play on locked city tennis courts.

The irony is that the risk-averse premier had been hoping not to tick off anybody with the new restrictions, according to sources privy to the nine and a half-hour cabinet meeting on April 16 and a morning session the next day.

Insiders, speaking to the Star confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations, paint a picture of a cabinet aware serious measures had to be taken but unwilling, or unable, to make difficult choices even as hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions were setting troubling records daily.

Ford had been told repeatedly by Dr. David Williams, the chief medical officer of health, and Steini Brown, dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and co-chair of the government's science table, that the new, highly contagious variants of COVID-19 were spreading fast and overwhelming the health-care system.

We have to keep people at home just like we did a year ago, the scientists implored the premier.

Limit mobility and that might slow this rapid growth, they said.

Close non-essential workplaces, target hot spots for vaccines, and prevent ill people from going to work by giving them sick pay, the advisers added.

Armed with that counsel and mindful the science table had long urged a tougher stance, Ford went to his cabinet on April 15 and instructed them to finalize a plan to be unveiled the next day.

From 1 p.m. until 10:30 p.m., the virtual meeting droned on without political staff and bureaucrats present.

(The premier) went around the table and said to each (minister), what are you going to do,' and just about everyone said they didn't want to piss off their stakeholders," said one insider privy to the discussions.

It was like how a camel is a horse designed by a committee and group think sets in," the insider said.

You guys all think (the premier) is some raging conservative ideologue; he's not. The guy's a populist who wants to be liked," another source said. He doesn't want to disappoint anyone."

Indeed, Ford's options for action were constrained by his unwillingness to offend or overrule his cabinet ministers.

We spent more time talking about closing golf courses than we did about expanding police powers," added another participant.

(Attorney General) Doug Downey was pretty much the only one who said, uh, are we sure want to do this,'" the second source said.

Downey was especially alarmed at reinstating the unpopular carding" of Ontarians and warned it could be vulnerable to a Charter challenge.

Another insider admitted cabinet mistakenly treated the attorney general as just another voice at the table" instead of as the government's lawyer.

Doug Downey told them not to do anything (that would impinge upon) civil liberties."

But Solicitor General Sylvia Jones and Health Minister Christine Elliott, herself a lawyer by training, assured their colleagues such serious measures were needed - even though public opinion research specifically said Ontarians strongly opposed such restrictions to civil liberties.

They said it was all about limiting mobility. But there are other ways to do that," said another insider, noting there was resistance to a paid sick-leave program and to closing all non-essential workplaces.

The government has since retreated on the former - Ford and Labour Minister Monte McNaughton will soon unveil a plan to pay workers who stay home sick - but continue to resist the latter.

Rural ministers are really vocal on not doing more to hurt businesses," said a source.

So instead cabinet agreed to move forward on closed playgrounds and expanded police powers.

At a caucus meeting the next day, one furious young Conservative MPP said: what the f- is this? I don't agree with this."

Then, the following day, Tory MPP Christina Mitas (Scarborough Centre) wrote a private letter to her caucus colleagues stressing that it is clear there is no support" for these measures.

There is a lot of anger out there," the first-term MPP said in a missive first obtained by Global News.

Mitas implored fellow Tories to consider reversing our decisions on limiting outdoor activities and giving broad, unclear powers to law enforcement agencies."

It is never too late to do the right thing," she said, echoing the sentiments of many of her caucus colleagues.

Former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne, who has been relatively restrained in her criticism of the Progressive Conservatives' pandemic performance, said clearly, the decision-making process has broken down."

Stressing she has some empathy for" her struggling successor, Wynne said the status quo isn't tenable.

What has been done is not working and the decision-making process is not working. So even if the premier institutes a cabinet shuffle, something has to change," said the respected Don Valley West MPP.

Different voices need to be heeded, not just heard."

In his public mea culpa Thursday from the backyard at the home of his late mother, where he is quarantining due to a workplace COVID-19 exposure, Ford said we moved fast to put in measures in place to reduce mobility, but we moved too fast."

We got it wrong. We made a mistake, these decisions that left a lot of people very concerned. I'm sorry, and I apologize to each and every one of you," he told Ontarians.

I know that many people continue to be unhappy right now. I understand and I accept the responsibility for that."

In another irony, government house leader Paul Calandra said the problem was there were still too many people on the roads - when the Tories could have done more to limit mobility by closing non-essential workplaces.

His remarks ring hollow," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.

With the province refusing to move on that front, both Peel Region and Toronto said they would force businesses with more than five cases in the previous two weeks to close for 10 days to sever chains of transmission.

A leading epidemiologist said Ontario's precarious situation can be traced to lessons not learned from the first two waves and from the United Kingdom's experience before Christmas when plans to open up the economy were suddenly dashed as the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant surged exponentially.

By mid-February, public health expert Brown presented modelling that warned variants would become dominant in March and could take off, leaving little room for error."

Yet that's exactly what happened in the last couple of weeks and led to the current hospital surge, said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.

They actually had the crystal ball that predicts the future," he added, saying the cabinet's questionable decisions a week ago should alarm Ontarians even more because they were made in plain view of GTA hospitals filling rapidly with younger and sicker COVID-19 patients.

There's a really horrific broken telephone thing going on and that is the science advisory table will say here are the things you need to do' and the cabinet will say we're not doing these things," Furness said.

Reducing mobility, OK. But we're not going to close construction. Let's make a list of things we're not going to do. OK, what's left? Oh, if we close playgrounds no one's going to complain about that. I don't think anyone around that cabinet table could possibly have looked at each other with a straight face and said, yeah, that'll solve it.'"

Adding insult to injury, Brown's science table released a briefing note Tuesday, chiding the government for going too far limiting outdoor activities and civil liberties and not far enough on paid sick days and closing essential workplaces.

Internal medicine specialist Dr. Irfan Dhalla said Ford's apology for moving too fast" on playground closures and police powers is in stark contrast to his foot-dragging - last fall, before Christmas, and again this spring - in imposing more restrictions as case numbers soared.

Following the scientific consensus as recommended by Ford's science table for months could have blunted the third wave, said Dhalla, a vice-president at St. Michael's Hospital.

It's very worrying ... when it becomes clear the cabinet isn't making science-based decisions."

Using the lessons learned will be crucial in reopening the economy safely after the third wave subsides, with increasing vaccination levels adding a significant comfort level but emerging variants presenting challenges from a virus that exploits every opening, added Dhalla.

That means high levels of testing and prompt, nimble action to smother outbreaks in areas that are vulnerable or where vaccination levels are low - all of which will require a better job of contact tracing and case management than Ontario has been able to manage with its heavy case loads.

We need to make sure we are on top of the disease. We need to be following every chain of transmission," said Dhalla. We need to have awareness of the cases that are coming into the province from outside the country. We need to be doing surveillance so that if there are new strains we detect them early."

Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

Rob Ferguson is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario politics for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @robferguson1