Tone deaf and infuriating.
The federal press conference on Friday was breathtaking. I don’t think the media or the public even understood the broad implications of what was being announced, because there has been virtually no reaction to it. Maybe we are all stunned into silence.
I was confused too, until I watched the full press conference. As you know, I don’t stay silent on much.
Let me state it clearly for you: on Friday the federal government announced that you will be required to have a vaccine by Oct 31 to be able to fully participate in society.
This is an alarming escalation. That’s too polite. It’s insanity.
I have an alternative to chart a path out of this, but it will require some political will on the part of our Alberta Government. It won’t be easy.
If I do my job right in this newsletter I am either going to alienate 100 per cent of you or 100 per cent of you are going to agree.
So, be prepared to disagree with some points and soldier on to see if we can fight our way to a consensus.
We need some sweet reason to latch on to this discussion. Pronto.
First – you need to listen to the surreal press conference for yourself so you can see that the federal government has found a way to mandate a national vaccine passport by October 31, and there is no end date to the restrictions. I fell off my chair at the 6 minute mark when Transport Minister Omar Alghabra started speaking.
God Keep Our Land, Glorious and Free…
The national anthem does not say, God Keep Our Land, Glorious and Free from COVID-19.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms states our rights very clearly in Section 6.
- (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.
(2) Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right: to move to and take up residence in any province; and to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province.
Listening to the press conference, I wonder if the media even understood what the government announced. The questions all seemed to be framed around the public servants who work in the federal government and Parliament. The media didn’t seem to understand it applies to them too.
The government made it absolutely clear they are going to make it mandatory in federally regulated private businesses. And they said that because so many businesses are regulated at the provincial level, they are working through Health Canada to squeeze it in through the backdoor in provincially regulated places too, starting with universities.
So every member of the mainstream broadcast media was just told that being vaccinated was a condition of their employment and they didn’t even react to it. What does that tell you?
To be clear, the Canada Labour Code (the Code) regulates the following industries and workplaces: • air transportation, including airlines, airports, aerodromes and aircraft operations • banks, including authorized foreign banks • grain elevators, feed and seed mills, feed warehouses and grain-seed cleaning plants • first Nations band councils (including certain community services on reserve) • most federal Crown corporations, for example, Canada Post Corporation • port services, marine shipping, ferries, tunnels, canals, bridges and pipelines (oil and gas) that cross international or provincial borders • radio and television broadcasting • railways that cross provincial or international borders and some short-line railways • road transportation services, including trucks and buses, that cross provincial or international borders • telecommunications, such as, telephone, Internet, telegraph and cable systems • uranium mining and processing and atomic energy • any business that is vital, essential or integral to the operation of one of the above activities Are you now understanding the implications of what was announced Friday?
What does “any business that is vital, essential or integral to the operation of one of the above activities” mean?
If all air transport and cross-border truck transport is regulated and its workers must have vaccine passports, does that mean all businesses that provide cargo to be transported do too?
If all grain elevators and feed and seed mills are regulated and must have vaccine passports, does that mean all farmers and ranchers do too?
If all oil and gas pipelines that cross borders are federally regulated and must have vaccine passports, does that mean all oil and gas workers do too?
Until when?
When does this end?
From what I could tell from the press conference. Never. There is no end date. As long as there are “variants”, this will be the requirement.
Where in the world is this coming from? Quebec...
Yes, that’s right, Quebec. And where are they getting these ideas from? Yes, that’s right, France. Might I remind you on September 13, 1759 the British under General James Wolfe defeated the French forces under Louis-Joseph de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham. Sometimes you’d never know that France was defeated in Canada, would you?
Why are we, in Canada, the glorious and free, taking our cues from France? Our Prime Minister represents a seat in Montreal. Can there be any doubt that this is where he wants the entire country to be headed? Do you want to see where Quebec is going?
Look at what is happening in France…
You are required to show a “health pass” to enter any space with more than 50 people. It is a six month prison sentence if you are “caught” in a place without the pass, and business owners will get a 45,000 Euro fine and one year prison sentence if they don’t comply with the pass and force all their employees to get the jab.
The past five weeks there has been 200K plus people show up to protest these measures in France.
But here is the difference. In France, their health pass is scheduled to end on November 15 – unless it is renewed by a Parliamentary vote.
Bringing it closer to home, in Quebec…
As of September 1, Quebeckers will be required to show a vaccine passport to enter what is called “non-essential businesses” such as public events, bars, restaurants and gyms.
Quebec didn’t even bother to run its vaccine passport through what they call their “National Assembly”. So when does it come to an end? Beats me.
Interestingly, patrons will be required to prove vaccination, but employees will not. And why? “While clients of certain non-essential services, like bars, will need to be vaccinated and have a QR code to prove it, the same will not be required of staff. Dubé says that mandating vaccines for staff would break labour laws.”
So is legal to force employees to be vaccinated or not? Beats me.
In Quebec, radio host Eric Duhaime has started a petition campaign against Quebec’s health pass that already has 140K signatories. Montrealers protested in large numbers on Saturday.
So Ottawa announced mandatory vaccines for public servants, mandatory vaccines for federally regulated (and related?) industries, a travel passport for planes, trains and cruise ships. How is this not against labour law? How is this not against the Canadian charter? This didn’t pass through the Parliament either. When will it come to an end? It won’t even be implemented until October 31. So what does that tell you?
I don’t like to be alarmist, I really don’t...
But I must point out we are now entering into a campaign writ period where any third party advertiser has to be registered with the government if they are going to speak publicly about a federal policy.
Who even knew this was coming? Who is going to fight against it?
The Chambers of Commerce across the country marched in lockstep earlier this week to ask the government to do this. There is no time for opponents to organize and react – the election will be over September 20. Failing to register as a PAC is an Elections Canada violation that carries of fine of $50,000. (You’ll be happy to know, dear reader, I registered as an individual third party advertiser just before sending this to you so I could keep writing to you during this campaign.)
I don’t really like talking about “the jab” because the issue has become so polarizing. Those who have the jab (the majority), now think they have the right to bully the minority (who don’t) into being forced to or denied the right to fully participate in society.
My highest value is freedom. I will not accept that this is what our society is becoming.
This is a hard line for me...
Health information is private. I do not want anyone forced to reveal any health information they don’t wish to reveal. Imagine if we had this conversation in the 80s when the world was freaking out about HIV. Imagine if you had to prove your HIV-free status to be allowed basic freedoms. It is appalling to even think about. It is just as appalling the government is doing this to our fellow citizens now.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has forced us into the conversation. After 18 months of telling us we were conspiracy theorists for suggesting the government’s agenda was to impose vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination, it appears the federal government is going to have a national vaccine passport and mandatory vaccination, regardless of what our province wants to do.
There was a CTV flash poll on issue of passports for travellers that was very telling.
Even though that 76.7 per cent of the 12 plus crowd have first dose (and 66 per cent are double-dosed) 73 per cent of people who responded to this poll do not want to have to show proof of vaccine every time you get on a train or plane or cruise ship.
Let’s just think this through for a minute to try to figure out how it would work.
So you want to fly to see friends or family in Toronto.
Is one dose sufficient to fly or do you need two doses?
Are we accepting Astra Zeneca? Or just mRNA vaccines?
Many people got a mix. Other countries aren’t accepting a mix, are we?
Children under 12 aren’t permitted to have the vaccine (because they haven’t yet confirmed that it’s safe) so does that mean parents can’t travel with their kids?
What about those whose doctors have told patients they can’t take the vaccine because of preexisting conditions that make them susceptible to heart problems or blood clots or allergic reaction. Can they get an exemption?
What’s the process for that?
If children under 12 who aren’t vaccinated are allowed to travel, and people who are exempted from vaccination are allowed to travel, then it isn’t a bullet proof system then is it?
And if I’m still allowed to drive cross border, then what, exactly is the government trying to achieve? Unless of course, the next step is to set up border check points so every car and truck going to and from each province has to be stopped and each passenger’s vaccine status verified.
Now that we know truck transport will be required to prove vaccination status, maybe that’s next.
What kind of society is Justin Trudeau trying to create exactly?
And why – the hell – are the majority of people going along with this?
This is how totalitarian regimes take root. They take advantage of fear and begin by pushing an idea you think you can agree with on the surface. But then to create logical consistency with the first intrusion, other intrusions must follow. And once you start asking the police to enforce edicts, with fines and jail, you’ve now created a nation of snitches and specialized secret police and political prisoners.
There is another answer…
I would encourage you to watch this two hour doctors' round table before it gets deplatformed.
It was circulated by the controversial Dr Robert Mercola, who is now only posting things on his site temporarily, so it may not last long.
What I liked the most about the round table is the clear disagreement between panellists. This is something we are not accustomed to seeing in the medical profession any more. There is a fair bit of hysteria in the comments of some of the panellists, which I would urge you to examine critically.
The most reasonable voice I thought was Dr Richard M Fleming who developed an inflammation theory on inflammothrombotic response in 1994. There were wide ranging views on the vaccine and whether there was enough evidence of vaccine injury to call for a halt to the clinical trials.
The upshot of what they could all agree on was this. They are going to issue a call to stop vaccination for those under the age of 35. Some wanted to go further, but it seems this is where the line seems to be where recipients have a greater harm from vaccine injury than they do from COVID-19. Here are the stats from the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting system.
To understand how unusual it is to ignore these kinds of statistics, take a look at this report on 10 drugs that got Federal Drug Administration approval pulled after deaths or injuries were reported. As you know, I don’t oppose vaccines, but I don't think vaccines are necessarily for everyone, especially if the risk of vaccine injury is higher than the risk of the disease it is trying to prevent, which is the case for younger people. I agree with choice, including the choice to not be vaccinated at all or to wait for a more traditional vaccine to be approved like Novavax.
The more important recommendation is to end government interference with the practice of medicine, and allow physicians to treat patients with therapeutics.
Listen to this from Dr Fleming:
“… The reason why people die with COVID is because they're not receiving treatment, so I would argue that we need to make certain that people, the physicians, are allowed to treat without government interference and that we put a hold on the dissemination of the vaccines at this point in time, until we can further investigate them safely.”
Dr. Sam White followed up with this:
“We could end the fear overnight by allowing access to therapeutics and changing the mainstream media narrative that there's no need for masks. There's no need for lock downs. This is more treatable than flu, as far as I'm concerned, we're just not allowed to do any treatment. If the public knew that it changes the narrative overnight.”
The only way Alberta is going to be allowed to be free and to chart our own course is to have the government announce an independent Task Force Reporting Directly to the Health Minister to recommend a list of therapeutics for outpatient treatment and to stop allowing AHS and the College of Physicians and Surgeons (and Google, Twitter and Facebook) to suppress this information.
What do we know about Sars-Cov-2?...
New variants are developing all the time.
The vaccines we have do not stop you from getting COVID, they boost your immunity to assist you in fighting it.
Fully vaccinated people are still ending up in hospital and ICU.
The obvious and only conclusion is this: We can’t stop this virus. We have to use vaccines to try to give immunity boosters to the most vulnerable, and we need therapeutics for people who end up getting it anyway.
Chris Scott, the owner of The Whistle Stop Cafe, has launched a blockbuster lawsuit against the Alberta government, Alberta Health Services, and the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw. This lawsuit focuses on the fundamental freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and the freedom of association, which were all carelessly cast aside by the Alberta government to elicit full compliance with the state's cruel COVID lockdowns. The suit details the numerous breaches of Chris' rights when the province harassed him for months, issued him multiple tickets and summonses, seized his property, and sought court orders to close his business and restrict his right to protest the lockdown. We've followed Chris' story from the moment he first defied Alberta's lockdown in January (which kicked off Alberta's diner rebellion), the subsequent legal standoffs with the province's lockdown enforcers, and up to his arrest for holding a 1,000+ person protest opposing the government's targeted harassment of his cafe. The government tried to ruin Chris, but they failed, mainly due to the impeccable legal representation from his lawyer Chad Williamson of Williamson Law. Chad took some time to update us on this ambitious legal challenge and what a win could mean for Chris and the people of Alberta.