B.C.'s Dr. Bonnie Henry takes her big stick to religion

National Post, 26 March 2021

It is impossible not to conclude that Henry’s office has been animated by a hostility to prayer and worship during the pandemic.

Let me put it provocatively, but accurately. During the October Crisis of 1970, when prime minister Pierre Trudeau employed the War Measures Act to suspend legal and civil liberties in response to an “apprehended insurrection,” religious liberties were better respected than they have been under Dr. Bonnie Henry’s pandemic protocols in British Columbia.

The provincial health officer’s endlessly repeated mantra is to “be kind.” It turns out that martial law was a kinder version of her medical law.

She has been widely hailed as an expert, a calming figure of public confidence. So great is her popularity that she, like Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, published a book about her management of the pandemic.

I haven’t read the book, but I wonder if Teddy Roosevelt made an appearance, as Dr. Henry certainly has applied TR’s foreign policy advice to her public health orders: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

She took her big stick to religious believers last November, banning all in-person religious services. All of them, everywhere, no matter what the local conditions, the size the house of worship, the nature of the congregation. Wherever two or three would gather in the Lord’s name, there was Dr. Henry in the midst of them telling them to go home.

That draconian and arbitrary order remained in place until just days ago, a complete abolishing of religious liberty in British Columbia for four months. Only days ago, in the face of court action this month, did Dr. Henry loosen her grip ever so slightly. Even then, she insists on keeping most people outside in their cars — windows rolled up, I expect — while only a few stragglers are permitted to enter.

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