CFC Treasurer
I am thinking the organizer of any Canadian Championship would agree on Covid-19 precautions with the CFC Executive, in advance of the tournament. Masks could possibly be agreed upon a few weeks beforehand, something like a vaccine requirement would need more advance notice.
CFC Voting Member
I suspect that I haven't done a good enough job yet in wording my request: I am hoping that the CFC Executive explicitly defines a minimum set of COVID-19 criteria for our national championships (which will cross multiple provincial health jurisdictions). "Minimum" implies the practical reality that some locations will entail "higher" requirements. These may be from regional health units, from provincial regulations, even perhaps the fully privately-owned playing venue. So, do people agree or disagree that this is something the CFC Executive should undertake? I offer to provide my input to such an initiative. My concern is that if the CFC does not take a leadership position, then events in provinces like Ontario might suffer from players who won't attend due to concerns their health isn't protected.Originally Posted by Fred McKim
CFC Voting Member
My first reaction to this would be the CFC could either:
1. Take the stance that its minimum set of COVID-19 criteria would be the same as the province with the strictest regulations because if CFC's stance is less than that, it would not meet the requirements of the province with the strictest regulations. However, in those provinces' with less strict regulations, what power does CFC have to enforce this (or the organizers) other than CFC refusing to CFC rate these events.
- I am not as familiar with the current requirements in all provinces, so would chess tournament organizers have the right to mandate a stricter set of COVID-19 criteria than what their province has mandated? Likely the answer is "no", e.g., vaccine passports -- either your province has a mechanism in place for this or it doesn't.
OR
2. Take the stance that its minimum set of COVID-19 criteria is the same as what each individual chess tournament organizers' province is mandating, and refer these organizers to their local province's website, etc.
Aris: Are you asking what CFC should be mandating; or are you asking what CFC should be recommending (but know cannot legally enforce)?
- And again, the only authority that I see that CFC has is it can refuse to CFC rate a tournament if that organizer does not adhere to CFC's mandate and/or recommendations.
CFC Treasurer
At the moment there are no Covid-19 restrictions in public spaces in NB. Accordingly the organizer of the NB Tornado G/60 Championship this past weekend, had an event that resembled any pre-Covid event (except for one masked player out of 28). A previous tournament one month earlier, had everyone masked.
CFC Voting Member
Obviously, at a minimum, each tournament organizer needs to adhere to what their own province's COVID-19 restrictions are -- so CFC doesn't need to do anything about that. I think the question is, does CFC feel that it is important enough, or care enough about the health and welfare of all our CFC Players, that we want the CFC to lawfully use whatever authority it has to enforce what we deem to be good safety COVID-19 practices. If so, the decision making process could look something like this:
Step 1: Does CFC think it should recommend stricter guidelines than what individual provinces are mandating?
a. If no, end of discussion.
b. If yes, one way would be CFC can choose not to CFC rate events that do not adhere to its recommendations.
Step 2: If yes, to above, then what would those stricter guidelines be?
- It might be more effective to create a small committee to draft up these guidelines/recommendations and then present to CFC Executives/CFC Voting Members for approval vs. trying to hammer out these guidelines/recommendations via group postings during this AGM; or some other more efficient way to get this done.
Step 3: Communicate these recommendations to tournament organizers either via CFC Forum, CFC website, CFC Facebook, shout it out from the rooftops, etc.
Like Aris, I also would like to offer my input for this initiative, as I think this is a vital, and in some case a potentially life-threatening, issue that CFC can help make a positive impact on the lives of all it's CFC Members, both young and older.
Richard: Is FQE allowing Players under 12 yrs old to play in the Sept 5 OTB youth tournament, and if so, what precautions are being taken with this unvaccinated group?
CFC Voting Member
So there have already been some cross-health-jurisdiction entities that have mandated restrictions across their operations. Then, if a jurisdiction has even higher restrictions, then those of course also have to be enforced. That's the kind of leadership position from the CFC that I am asking about here. I'm not 100% SURE this is doable/desirable, but I'm hoping that most of us agree it's both. Let's use a more tangible example. Richard (Quebec) indicated that their events would enforce vaccinated players (>12 years). That's nice for the Organizers/Arbiters because they seem to have that already stated by their provincial government and by their provincial chess association. I salute both of them for this! Then say the next weekend, I try to run a national event IN ONTARIO, where such supportive regulations have NOT been implemented by the provincial government. Well, now it becomes more challenging for me to have the same health restrictions that Quebec had the previous weekend. There will be challenges issued (albeit probably by a minority). On the other hand, if the CFC has already declared that it expects all national events to require vaccinated (again >12 years for now), well then an Ontario Organizer can easily say "following national CFC directives".
I hope this paints a better picture of advantages of CFC national directives (and which will be MINIMUMS!)
CFC Voting Member
I agree with Aris that this would be an important rôle for the CFC executive to undertake.
CFC Voting Member
Provinces determine health regulations. I would disagree with CFC going beyond a provincial mandate.
CFC President
I have had many discussions about covid with my siblings one of whom is an orthopaedic surgeon who is on the Covid committee of two different hospitals in the Dallas, Texas area and another who is a family doctor in the Windsor area. Two other siblings are dentists. My sister was a physiotherapist. One niece is a homeopathic doctor. A nephew and a niece are in medical school. I am the black sheep of the family with an MBA, a couple of undergrad degrees and an electrical-electronics engineering technology diploma and being president of the CFC.
I would look to FIDE which has more access to experts to develop the response to COVID. For me to offer anything beyond what the governments and health experts are telling us would have to be very strongly science based. We don't have the expertise to make that determination. I am skeptical of the utility of plastic barriers and wiping down surfaces as most of the reported studies do not support their efficacy. Plastic barriers may be detrimental because they restrict air flow. Even masks are only useful to the extent that they stop people from coughing in each others faces. The virus is airborne. Most masks allow the virus through them. The masks that don't allow the virus through them have their own issues. The original variant was not that easy to catch. You needed a prolonged exposure. The new variants are less deadly but more easily transmissible.
We are in an evolving situation where we just have to pay attention to what governments and health authorities are telling us. This situation is novel and evolving for them also. Guidelines from one month to the next can be contradictory as they acquire more information and try to apply that information to navigate their current understanding of the current reality.
CFC Voting Member
ok, lemme try to jumpstart this initiative with these 2 ideas:
1) over 12 years vaccinated!
2) others quick-tested onsite?
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