I've never trusted the Canadian government, given how much they've stolen from us and lied to us over the decades. I knew something was up with the Covid-1984 business the moment talking heads in the media started yapping about it. I had friends tell me horror stories about Covid, so I wasn't entirely sure, but I still leaned toward the position the government is lying to us and my friends are brainwashed sheep, just like the rest of the soulless North American hive mind.
My belief the pandemic was 95% false went to 100% because of two things:
The government did a complete 180 degree turn on their position the virus is harmless, masks are completely unnecessary and you're a xenophobe and racist if you want to close the borders. They now advocate the exact opposite. To me, this sounds like they changed their minds once they were convinced of the political advantages of Covid-1984 from an authoritarian control and surveillance perspective.
The other thing that did it for me was the BLM rioting. Nobody bothered with social distancing and masking during the riots simply because the cause was a politically correct one supported by leftist elites. When pro-Trumpers rioted on Capitol Hill, leftists were worried about the spread and transmission of Covid-1984, but obviously only because of ideological disagreement (otherwise, how else could we account for the double standards?)
JFL at naive, innocent sheep who think the government cares about your health. Your government doesn't give a fuck about you.
We knew even before lockdowns in March how corona diseases compared to other diseases. I was with some old ladies on March 12th who said they were scared (after watching the news). I showed them a graph comparing covid to other diseases, such as ebola, influenza, common cold, etc. Even early on we had the data to show us that covid is only marginally more dangerous than the flu. Their eyes glazed over and they ignored me.
I knew then that we were fighting media driven hysteria and cognitive dissonance.