My blood pressure is several points higher than normal right now as I just finished listening to the press conference where the federal government announced an end to its vaccine mandates (mostly, and for now). Key points:
No more vaccine mandate for domestic or international air or train travel (vaccine mandates remain for cruise ships because people are in close quarters for long periods of time. Science!)
Masks remain for air and train travel
No more vaccine mandates for federal employees. Those who have been suspended without pay will be contacted to come back to work. BUT, vaccine mandates could come back in the fall so…they could be suspended without pay again for months. Science!
Vaccine mandates remain for cross-border truckers. Omar Alghabra tried to shift some of the blame for this to the US
Vaccine mandates remain for non-Canadian visitors and immigrants
The ArriveCan app remains for entry to Canada
(Added after posting this): I may have missed them stating this in the press conference, but unvaccinated will still be required to quarantine for two weeks after entering Canada
The ministers continually reiterated that this was a “suspension” not a total lifting of the mandates. Based on “evolving science”, the shifting covid situation, and the political winds how they feel that day, vaccine mandates could come back in the fall. They mentioned several times the “nicer weather” and “giving Canadians a break” over the summer.
As has continually been the case, when pressed on exactly what metrics they relied on to make this decision, and what metrics they would rely on in order to impose mandates again, the ministers lied and equivocated and BSd and waffled and talked and talked and talked without ever once answering the question. It’s quite clear that there is no “science” involved in this discussion and decision-making process whatsoever, and they will not be pinned down on hard numbers because they want to keep covid as a means of exercising power over Canadians and if they have to be accountable to hard measures, they will lose their means of power. They also just plain don’t want to be caught flat-footed admitting they just made it all up.
It’s like magic incantations, this covid stuff. You will never be able to understand it, but they, the wise magicians, have access the world of the COVID spirits and they, by their dark arts, can analyze it and tell us all what to do.
The press conference sounded like a Big Pharma commercial. Over and over they repeated that the reason we’re here today making this decision is the high number of Canadians who have gotten vaccinated (though that hasn’t changed for many months), how vaccines are the best way to protect yourself against severe covid, long covid, death with covid, persecution by your government. How if you haven’t been vaccinated, you should get vaccinated. If you’ve only had two doses, now it’s time to get a third. They aren’t even lying anymore about how it will stop transmission, though. Seriously, they all sounded like a bunch of vaccine zombies. “GET THE VACCCCIIIIIIINNNNNEEEEEEEE…, THE VACCINE WILL SAVE US ALL.”
You know how you can tell when someone’s not speaking sincerely, when they’re making up what they’re saying, when they’re lying and BSing, vs. when they’re speaking honestly and straight from the heart? Yeah, these people are a bunch of lying liars and this conference was a total string of absolute lies. They were paraded out to try to somehow justify this decision without revealing the real reasons for it or walking back anything they’ve done so far. In fact, the first guy who spoke defiantly said they “didn’t regret” anything at all.
So why was it actually done? It seems increasing pressure from travel organizations, airlines, Liberal MPs who apparently as a majority are now against the restrictions, and Trudeau getting caught sneaking back into the country with covid are some of the real reasons.
It’s pretty horrifying to me that we have such a bunch of absolutely dishonest, unethical, immoral, self-centred, conniving people like this running an entire country and directing other people’s lives. They shouldn’t be in charge of a country carnival, let alone a country.
This post is not my usual thought-out writing; it’s a visceral reaction. God help us all. I really think that as many Canadians who can manage to get out of the country, should do so. Unless they’ve swallowed all the lies and enjoy being dictated to by a coterie of the most absolutely incompetent, dishonest people it’s possible to find.
Oh, Susanna... I'm sorry you put yourself through that, but thank you for the précis. Your magic incantations paragraph is spot on. I also agree with your sentiments in the last paragraph. Two things strike me as particularly spiteful: masks still required for train & air travel--although planes in 2020 were perfectly safe according to these same people--and mandates for the cross-border truckers. Unfortunately, this gov't has learned they can get away with an awful lot. I'm waiting for the JCCF to update their statement on this development as it pertains to the Hon. Brian A. Peckford's lawsuit.
On the same breath, they announced that they are defining "up-to-date" on jabs to be the only kosher JAB STATUS going forward and, come fall, the mandates will return, but this time requiring to be jabbed no later than whatever they decide it is at any future point in time, but surely not less than 6 months ago and not less than 3 jabs. So!