Most mask mandates are over and public officials are telling Canadians that wearing a mask is about “personal choice.” It’s nice to know we can now be trusted to make our own determinations about such things, but one question remains: Could – or should – it have been personal choice all along?

A Calgary Home Depot ignited a Twitter storm in March when someone posted an internal document instructing employees on how to identify social—or white—privilege.One line reads, “If you’re confident that the police exist to protect you, you have white privilege.”And if you don’t have to “explain that your spouse is of the same gender, you have heterosexual privilege.”

In a world of increasing complexities, it’s unsurprising but very disappointing that governments are confounding policy issues—and the convoluted solutions they create will inevitably generate more harm than good. Unfortunately, this is merely political theatre: the problems themselves don’t get solved at all. Do elected officials realize what they are voting on?