Letter to the editor

There are wing nuts everywhere. We all know that. This island is no exception.

In last week’s local paper the editor voiced some concern about the divisiveness of the freedumb convoy. (He didn’t call it that.) In this week’s paper there were two letters to the editor about the convoy. The first had some semblance of reason, the second was, in my humble opinion, batshit crazy.

“Biomedical dictatorship”? Holy shit.

No surprise that my writing time today was devoted to a response. I couldn’t bring myself to comment on the “distress” message of an upside down Canadian flag bearing a swastika. As for the “desecration” of the tomb of the unknown soldier, the person didn’t just stand on it, they danced on it shouting “FREEDOM!” as if this dimwit had any idea what the word meant to those who fought in World War Two. And, for the benefit of non-Canadians, Rex Murphy is this country’s answer to Sean Hannity.

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To the Editor

I am writing in response to the two letters in this week’s paper about the truck drivers currently holding our nation’s capital hostage. 

The first letter points out that not every participant holds the white supremacist views of the few seen carrying Confederate and Nazi flags and they should not all be tarred with the same brush. A reasonable point, although, as my grandfather used to say, if you lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.

Reading the second letter actually broke my heart a little. 

The US is our biggest trading partner and most of what crosses our border is most welcome – oranges from California or Florida, to name just one thing. What breaks my heart is the extent to which the malcontent dogma of our neighbour’s former orange president has also moved north.

The “freedumb convoy”, as some have dubbed it, is not made up of “courageous patriots”. Nor is it, as the letter writer suggests, supported by the majority of Canadians. The most recent Leger poll indicates that the majority of Canadians do not support either the message or the method. And two thirds agree with the statement “The convoy is a small minority of Canadians who are selfishly thinking only about themselves and not the thousands of Canadians who are suffering through delayed surgeries and postponed treatments because of the ongoing pandemic.” 

Like the actual majority of Canadians, I do not feel as if pandemic-related public safety measures are some sort of assault on my rights and freedoms. I wonder how many of the minority who claim this assault have actually read the Charter? It begins with this statement: “The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the rights and freedoms set out in it subject only to such reasonable limits [emphasis added] prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” Public health in the face of a raging pandemic strikes me as a “reasonable” limit.

Although we have all been encouraged to do so, no one in Canada is being forced to be vaccinated, so I am not surprised that eyebrows are raised when people who might otherwise fervently disagree are heard shouting “My body, my choice”.

There are more than 300,000 professional truck drivers in Canada, 90% of whom are fully vaccinated and going about their jobs. The majority of the remaining 10% have opted to take work that does not involve crossing the Canada US border in order to avoid quarantine. The minority of the minority could do the same, instead of parking in Ottawa, running their engines 24 hours a day.

Any unvaccinated truck driver who wishes to go to a restaurant, bar or sports event without the need of a vaccine passport can do so. All they have to do is move to Saskatchewan or Alberta* and take their chances. 

Anne M. Holmes

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* As of yesterday there are no longer any vaccine mandates in these two provinces. No mask requirements, no vaccine passports. Zip. Zilch.