Anti-COVID Mandate challenges…. More than a little confused here.

 I’m not often as confused or perplexed by the actions of others as I currently am in regards to the “freedom” rally/Convoy.  I mean the total number of people we have lost in Canada due to covid is 35K and we have had more than 3 MILLION people infected, many of whom now suffer from what is called “Long Covid” or the effects have really taken their toll on them. Also, the world has seen over 399 MILLION cases of Covid and we have seen nearly 6 Million deaths! I personally know around a dozen people who have had it and I have lost 6 people from Covid. Covid has infested our lives for over two years now, and I get it…we are all fatigued by it.  We don’t want to hear about it, we don’t want to talk about it, we don’t want to be lectured or told how its important to do what ever it is we need to do to contain and maintain it.  I also think we lost our perspective a bit in other ways.

The whole “Lock down” and “Mandates” were set up to help the health care system not fall apart in most countries, I don’t think it was actually set up to stop the outbreak, we knew that it was not going to be stoppable as it had the same transmutability of a flu like virus and not like one of the others we had faced. I mean we had SARS and others we had battled the last few decades, but this was uniquely transmittable and dangerous.  Lots of people came out early on and said “It’s the flu” or “its like the flu” and while they may have had some merit to that assessment, it became so much more. 

 

So, we fast forward to a few weeks back. We have lived through two lock downs (in Manitoba where I live) and mask mandates that are still in effect, as well as a vaccine mandate for many things, mostly those involving activities where people from different homes were to be around each other. We first did not have vaccines and it was all we had to protect the general public. In a short period of time, we had people YELLING that they wanted a vaccine and not to have to wear masks or segregate from one and other, they wanted life back to NORMAL damn it!

Finally, the government came out and said “We got a vaccine” and people rejoiced…for like five minutes, then people started saying that they were not going to put that “Stuff” in their bodies, it was “Experimental” and or various other silly things…Im still upset I do not get 5G right now! People who had received mumps, rubella, chicken pocks and a variety of other childhood vaccines were not suddenly against vaccines.  I know of one person who had traveled to the far east a few years back and who had received yellow fever vaccine and they were so dead set against this new vaccine it was laughable.

 

A big shift had occurred just prior to 2016 in the states as well that was starting to make its way up north of the boarder, as do most things…like Starbucks and McDonalds. The chasm created by polarizing popularity politics was starting to create ripples here and while we have always had a Right and Left in Canada both sides seemed farther apart than before.  Our Liberal party, who is about as central as you can get when you look at Canadian politics (meaning not that central but kinda) was under fire by the far right and the far left. Never left enough for the NDP and far left advocates and not even close enough to the center for the Cons or the far right they were in power at a very horrible time seeing a COVID landed square in their laps to mandate, control and counter. 

The major issues that came because of the polarization, that was honestly sort of an issue before or we would not have separate political parties….was first the attack on the Media and the realization that some media outlets were more left or right than others. It got so bad that recently at the “Freedom rally” in Ottawa and Toronto media were told they would be killed after some kind of fascist trial.  It was kind of scary when people who insist on being able to speak their mind threaten those that are reporting and using the freedom of the press. People want someone to blame for the issues and you can’t blame a microbe sized virus! So, they blame the media, government or even the front-line workers. Its ridiculous and childish, but its common right now.

The far right seems to be fringy and a very small, but super vocal minority. They also have the ability to manipulate different media to get a message out that is confusing enough that those on the fence take notice and THINK they are saying what they are thinking, but the reality is that the message is masking a lot of hate and an agenda to take over. The new brown shirts are getting their message out and the ignorant and naive are lapping it up. But what is this specific protest about and who is in control of it?

 

                The first thing to make note of is that the mandates are supported by most people. The specific ones that the convoy are against would be the mandates against employees not being vaccinated in Union and federal supported/related shops, which of course stretches out to truck drivers. Its super important to note that ALL challenges against the mandate have failed and were shot down using logical reason. In a decision brought against Hydro one by the Union for the requirement of all workers to be vaccinated, the courts did not hear the case, they sent it to arbitration….who stated that “Hydro One is complying with  their obligations under the Occupational health and safety act to make reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of their employees and the public that they serve”. Two other major cases ended the same way.  Local 847 vs Maple leaf sport and entertainment and UFCW Canada local 175 vs Bunge Canada.  Many more have just been tossed out of court and not even gone to arbitration…none have been successful. Why do I bring this up? Its one of the great lies that the Anti Vaxers are saying…”Our rights out weigh the mandate”…um, no they don’t.

                Wayne MacKay, professor emeritus at Dalhousie school of Law says “people are starting to chafe under the ongoing nature of them (the mandates)”,” Ultimately, given the charter limitations, these restrictions are by their nature temporary, not permanent”. Most people are concerned with their rights under the charter, but as I have discussed in a previous blog…they have no idea what the charter actually says and have never read it themselves.  MacKay also added “You don’t have the right to put others at risk, you don’t have the individual right to harm or put others in jeopardy”. This is the key reason all of the court challenges have failed.

 

                Back to the Convoy! Here are a few facts that need to be known! The Convoy suggests that the reason they are doing all this is to protest against the mandate for truckers who need to be vaccinated to cross into the states so they can prevent supply chain disruption, thus protecting us from not having food and goods. The CTA however has reported that only a small number of truckers who actually cross into the states would be impacted by this mandate as about 85% of the truckers who are traveling cross to the states and back have reported to be vaccinated already. Also, of those actually in the convoy or at the boarders clogging up the crossings, only a few ever did cross boarder driving. The majority are interprovincial drivers. This lead the head of the trucking industries biggest union to assess that those who are participating in the convoy are their with “a separate agenda beyond a disagreement over cross boarder vaccine requirements”. Its also important to note the irony that those who are trying to stop the possible issues with supply chain availability are actually causing it.

                Let’s actually put aside the elements of the protest that included white nationalism, separatists, racists, islamophobia and the crazy idiots who follow QANON or MAGA supporters. We will even allow ourselves not to focus on the fact that the far-right elements are even parts of the organization machine that got this thing going and a big agenda of violence, illegal acts and support of the desecration that had occurred to Terry Fox, the war Memorial and the tomb of the unknown soldier, and we will ignore the more flagrant illegal acts that they have spurred on. One of the common threads that I have seen in this whole thing is the fact that most people assume they understand the reasons behind the convoy and they don’t really understand it at all, but the level of hate is so high that they just want to support them and put their own ideologies into the convoy and see if they will stick.

                First off it was not the Canadian government that first came out with the mandates, it was the US…they just gave a lot longer window for the drivers to get vaccinated or be barred, also it’s the US boarder that is turning them away, not the Canadian side.  The Mandate we have is no drivers can enter Canada with out a vaccine with out quarantining upon entry for up to 14 days. However, as anyone that has EVER actually entered the states, it’s the US customers you cross through on your way to the US. The US mandate is also against Canadian truckers exclusively. The Canadian government then enacted the equal measures for American drivers. We also implemented that all federal employees must be vaccinated as well as are all federally regulated industries.

                The goal post however has moved, and continues to move depending on your group focus. Some only want the mandates gone for trave, others include the need for vaccine proof at other events and times. Some want all the laid off workers who refused to get the poke to be rehired and some of the goals also extended to toppling the current government…yes, that got crazy fast!  Its sort of a “what your view is dictates your goals” situation.

 

                One of the more spoken about fixture of the convoy is the support that they are getting for things like fuel and food. It seems extremism is very financially lucrative right now!  Most of the organizers are saying that the funds are coming from small donations from locals and Canadians, but the truth is out their and it is not that. A LARGE portion of the donations are actually coming from the states and from extreme far right groups. Nearly a third of the donations at this point are from anonymous sources and use false names. A great deal of the groups identified in the states for supporting the convoy are also Trump supporter groups or associated with far right groups.

                Facebook posts have stated that nearly a million trucks will show up or another says 50,000. One suggested that you can see it from space, which is such a load its not even funny. Did you know you can not even see the great wall of China from space, a common misconception/story/fable. One source said that it could enter the Guinness book of records as the longest truck convoy, which would be hilarious seeing as their were only around 3,000 trucks who made the trip from across Canada and currently there are numbers of about 250 still present. By trucks I of course mean semi trucks, not the many pick up trucks that accompanied them.

                Lets not make light of who was actually at the head of this thing too.  I mean its not a pissed off trucker who decided to drive cross country! It’s a QANON supporter, who called for the arrest of Justin Trudeau for alleged Treason.  A conspiracy theorist link to QANON Again, who calls herself the “Queen of Canada”who asked her followers to shoot healthcare workers. A supporter of Wexit (separation of the west….mainly Alberta….From Canada) and none of them were truckers. Also, in the group are groups like Action 4 Canada, No more lockdowns, Soldiers of Odin and several other sub groups all traveling with the convoy or now camped out in Ottawa…why is this important?  Well they are knowns groups that are anti LGBTQ, Islamophobic, Conspiracy theorists, and the cherry on top…Neo Nazis. Nice!

                A great number of American interest groups are now interfering with our domestic affairs and inciting these types of groups. One person said that they were not going to be violent, however on February 7^th a supporter of the event from Ohio was arrested on his way to the encampments in Ottawa with a home made bomb that he intended to place at the Ottawa Police Services Head quarters building. Rocks have been thrown at reporters and a mob of people showed up at a homeless shelter demanding food as they planned to do this to feed the supporters who did some with them.

                One of the things that really upsets supporters is that support for the convoy is not universal in Canada, in fact after a extensive poll done between January 31^st and February 2^nd 68% of adults stated they did not support the convoy and had little in common with their beliefs or ideologies of the demonstrators. Furthermore, 57% said they felt that the protest was offensive and inappropriate! But being Canadian a good margin, 43% said that they felt it as appropriate and they had a right to state their views…even if they were not those of the 43% who said they a had a right to speak their mind.

 

So, what is it all going to lead to…what is the outcome of this convoy?

                I really hope you did not think that the convoy was going to lead to massive changes in the way that government does things! I mean a group of people, who are not the majority, trying to make changes by being the noisiest? The truth is that the biggest changes that this could lead to is how the police deal with situations like this across Canada.  We have never really faced a crowd of angry mobs or protesters like this before and most of the information we have is that Ottawa Police did their best, but not good enough.

                As much as I don’t like Trudeau, I would have to say the way he has dealt with the mob was average or as expected from him. If it had been a “Shoe on the other food” situation and the MOB was a left leaning group and the government was conservative, well rubber bullets would have been line one of the way they were dealt with, so the crowd can thank god that the spineless were in power when they decided “revolt”. 

                Other changes, I think that in all honesty this brought us closer to the issues that the states is having right now. We used to be the sober older relative to the states, always kind to each other and unless it had to do with hockey, we basically let each other off the hook and did not try and assault each other, that has changed. We now have to contend with fringe elements in the west (and east) who feel rhetoric is not working and they must FORCE their views on us using more annoying and possibly violent means. Respect and intelligence is replaced with ad Hominin attacks and other personal attacks. If they cant beat you with truth and logic they will try and go after your personality, past or something else insulting. Other than that…nothing immediately will change.

 

Now that some mandates are coming down, some are actually stepping up to argue they should remain.

                So, here is the ironic and annoying part of this whole thing…the mandates are coming down regardless of the silly truck rally in Ottawa. They were always meant to be limited and temporary and some provinces, Saskatchewan first, are dropping all the mandates. Some in the medial field are actually stepping up and going to the premiers and MP’s and saying that this is to soon and we will need to reinstitute them sooner than later.

                Personally, I go with what the current medial suggestions are, I wear a mask when in public and probably will for some time to come and I am very happy I got my shots to help protect my family, myself and others. AND honestly anyone that says “Traitor” to me for doing so is not patriotic and they are very self centered and not worthy of my time.

 

What really blows me away!

                That last comment may sound like Im mad, Im not. But what really blows my mind is when people who have gotten the vaccine support the convoy or those that have had COVID or know people who have had covid support them. Its mind blowing that some can lose a family member and still say ignorant things…but that’s just me…all heart and logic.