Zeitgeist

No, vaccine mandates are pure evil Stalinist af. Vaccine passports are Orwellian and creepy, sick and sadistic. Total Charter violation.

I want to see someone who makes mince meet out of the sucky Trudeau fanboys when they start trying to slam the Conservatives on abortion rights, climate change, and identity politics. How refreshing it would be to hear a politician say they’re against it. Even Liberal Chrétien said he was against it but the courts decided abortion rights. I think with the right arguments carbon taxes are easily discredited. Have to come up with some kind of policy to “fight climate change.” “Green tax credit” and “Green Building Code” could work.

Maybe Leslyn Lewis is the right pick. Lewis or Polievre would be great.

Many of the truckers are like me, fully-vaccinated. This is about freedom, bitch. (I’m not calling you a bitch. I just like the effect.)

The grassroots real Canada is a country of unity and support, where differences are respected and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms is honoured. The Canada that the Trudeau elitists want you to believe in is oppressive and divisive, mandating behaviour in violation of your rights and freedoms. Disagree with the coercive measures and get labeled an extremist, disenfranchised, and ridiculed. The truth of course is that Muslims, Sikhs, Indigenous, Blacks, Jews, Christians, and people from all different walks of life, education levels, and income levels, are in support of the Freedom Convoy. I think of the Muslim girl in the video clip who said, “The government is trying to control us.” Yes they are and it’s not okay. It’s not what Canada is all about.

Your attitude illustrates why Canadians are screwed. The truckers may be the last hope. Expect totalitarian government to continue indefinitely. You think this way of life is free right now? It’s a substandard joke. Very undesirable place to be right now.

Yes and the pile-on against them by government and media is alarming. The public is under mass hypnosis for sure, as they were under Hitler. Repeat a message enough times, stoke fear and panic enough, take advantage of people’s exhaustion. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms are suspended indefinitely and there’s no guarantee of its return unless the public demands it. The truck convoy is trying to help us do that, but government and media are discrediting them, calling them extremists. The playbook is obvious.

Choose not to get vaccinated and watch your freedoms get drastically reduced. You’re being disingenuous, throwing ridiculous comments into the ring like a sand raider from Star Wars.

The Canadian state uses coercion to mandate healthcare, including loss of livelihood, loss of freedom of travel, loss of access to private businesses such as restaurants, arenas, etc. A coerced decision isn’t a free choice. This policy is a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

They can keep CPC and change the official name to Communist Party of Canada to out-left the Liberal-NDP alliance. Such a party would be well aligned with current mainstream parties and could absorb all of them. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is already ignored so might as well remove it. Beef up the vaccine passports to include a cheaper one-size fits all health program. The rich and anyone highly skilled will flee the country, bringing their money with them, but at that point the remaining ideologues in the central party can seize property, which was never constitutionally protected anyway. When the people protest, simply humiliate them as extremists and jail them. They don’t have any rights anyway. Further control people’s movements and behaviour through the digital passports and surveillance to prevent opposition. We’ve got the mechanisms in place. Don’t like it? Assisted suicide. It reduces greenhouse gasses.

Yeah I hope the protests multiply. These control freaks are destroying our democracy.

False equivalence. No offence but these are old weak arguments that have already been debated. You don’t appreciate how far-reaching mandates and restrictions are. You can’t enjoy many basic freedoms right now even if you’re vaccinated. The unvaccinated are treated like second class pariahs. You are living under digital totalitarianism. You haven’t absorbed the extent of the loss of freedoms. It’s not worth it. To fight Covid? We’re one of the most vaccinated countries. Our government oppresses its citizens. I’m disgusted by my own country right now.

No you’re a public health puritan no different from the kinds of despotic puritans we’ve seen throughout history: Spanish Inquisition, Bloody Mary, Salem Witch Trials, Bolshevik Revolution, McCarthyism, Maoism… A certain amount of death is part of life. You can’t make everyone perfectly safe, and the cost of trying to achieve that is too high. When you compromise basic freedoms to meet a goal of purity, you’ve already compromised the outcome. The eggs you are cracking to “end the pandemic” are the rights and freedoms that make Canada a free and strong country. Covid is here to stay. Drop the totalitarian Puritanism. We need to learn to live with Covid as we live with the flu. Don’t desecrate our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Then accept living under dictatorship.

That’s ridiculous. People who don’t get vaccinated can and do lose their jobs. They can’t travel on trains or planes or eat in a restaurant. A coerced decision isn’t a free decision. That’s basic. It’s why confessions that come through torture are inadmissible in court.

Forget anti-vax. It’s a matter of medical discretion. Should people be able to make decisions about their own healthcare without coercion? It’s a Charter-protected right. The Americans have always had valid criticism of socialized healthcare in this regard: If you can’t choose your doctor, make informed decisions about your own care (rather than let a committee/government tell you what you deserve), and access the best available treatments, your healthcare is second rate. It’s why many Americans fear universal healthcare. Ultimately our controlling approach to healthcare and our lack of ICU capacity makes us a less free country, because we’re compromising our Charter-protections to keep our healthcare system afloat.

The wave has come and is now diminishing with or without restrictions. The ICU’s aren’t full, and most of our staff shortages are the result of making asymptomatic people isolate. We have to stop worrying about whether or not people have or get Covid. It’s everywhere and has a mild impact on most people. Focus resources on providing the best treatments to really sick people and continue to promote protections, but lift mandates and let people use their judgment rather than letting government dictate. Britain, Denmark, most of the US, and soon France are lifting restrictions and mandates. It’s time.

You’re right. Not allowing them to access E.I. benefits is unlawful.

I think the the CPC should offer to merge with the PPC and make the following pitch to people who voted Liberal but don’t like restrictions: the CPC-PPC will restore liberal-democratic values and defend your Charter rights against government overreach. Present a more libertarian conservatism and drop the political correctness. People are dying to hear down to earth, relatable politicians. I actually think the Conservatives can be the workers’ party by focusing on cost of living, lower taxes for working people, and supporting essential workers.

They’re a bit inconvenienced. They haven’t lost their livelihoods and they can enter restaurants and enjoy most basic freedoms that the unvaccinated can’t (if they show their digital vaccine passport). End all mandates and restrictions. It’s the only viable answer.

Yup they’re putting the squeeze on the protesters.

You still don’t get it. Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been totally violated. Your protections are gone. The pandemic is being used as an excuse to oppress people. You can’t excuse the government from violating the rights of people you don’t like, because at some point you may need your rights to be protected. “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it.” The Brits and most Americans won’t stand for vaccine mandates. If we accept them we’re less free as citizens to make decisions for ourselves. This should be obvious. Our persistent mandates make Canada second rate. We must not treat unvaccinated people this way and we must not require that people prove that they are vaccinated to have basic freedoms. Of course!

Faith over fear.

You don’t appreciate the sacrifices young people made for two years mostly to keep people like you safe. For a while, until we got vaccines and better treatments, and when the forms of Covid were more serious, it made sense to make at least some of these sacrifices, perhaps most of them. Now that you have so many ways to protect yourself and 90% of adults have complied with the vaccination program, you don’t get to monopolize the future of all young people. They want the same normal freedoms that you had for most of your life. Who’s being selfish here? Be reasonable. There are Kindergarten kids who have spent half of their lives in masks. My daughter is in her graduation year. Her last two years of high school were a complete write-off. People are depressed and lack hope. Businesses have disappeared or are barely hanging on. We can’t continue living like this. It’s a flagrant violation of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and we’re becoming resigned to a substandard way of life.

Yeah I don’t think wearing masks and closing down periodically will make much difference to case rates for our heavily vaccinated population. End mandates and restrictions. Take extra care if you’re vulnerable. We’ll see periodic rises and falls in the case rates. We need to stop living under a cloud of fear, restrictions, and digital passports. Freedom has important value to our short lives. The people at the top who are setting all these policies don’t have to worry about managing them on the frontlines. They’re insulated by wealth and privilege. They can afford paying for endless testing for travel. They have space in their expensive homes if we lock down. They don’t care about the challenges and concerns of the unvaccinated or their Charter-protected rights. Right now Canada is a totalitarian country run by elitists.