Editor:
After reading Wanda Nowicki’s letter (“Mask up on public transport,” Sept. 25) and Alicia Passmore’s rebuttal (“Some can’t wear a mask, Oct. 2), I wonder if they are referring to the same bus trip?
BC Transit policy is clear – unless a passenger meets the written exemption criteria, that passenger must wear a mask. Hopefully we will never get to the point of active enforcement. However, as we are all in this together, an intelligent, mature reaction to any question about non-compliance is to respond, explain, and confirm, as opposed to merely ignore. Bus drivers are responsible for their passengers’ safety, every mile, every stop. This is all part of the “social contract.”
Perhaps scientists will eventually determine that all this mask wearing was pointless, in which case the joke will have been on us masked sheep. Until then, there will be a minority of people who cannot wear a mask for medical reasons, a minority who refuse to wear one based on “principle” or “belief,” and a majority who will wear a mask and expect others to do so.
A big thank you to everyone who works every day serving the public while attempting to keep us all safe.
Alan Donenfeld, Gibsons
