For a while I have been trying to cobble together a post on that virulent breed of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers that are currently blighting our social and political landscape, While attempting to write about this often-execrable horde, in all honesty I've wondered whether I have the psychic reserves to do justice to the topic. Therefore, today I am taking the easy way out by reproducing the thoughts of a number of letter-writers who manage to address it with incisiveness and conciseness.
Protesters force Trudeau to cancel rally, Aug. 28
Shame on all those who prevented our prime minister from speaking about issues facing Canada while on the campaign trail!
We need leaders who will take enact policies to protect us all.
A pandemic is a community’s problem and not an intrusion in individual liberty.
Judy Cathcart, Collingwood, Ont.
I thought Canadians were smarter than this. What has the social media wrought when people cannot now understand the role of science in our society?
I was a government scientist for 36 years. We are the only scientists paid to look after the citizens of our country. We aren’t there to make money for industry or scramble for grants to promote our own research interests at universities.
This is the foundation of the support the government has to look after the well being of our citizens.
Science works. Canada has contributed to the arsenal that medicine has to combat disease for decades.
Vaccines work. Some statistics suggest you may be more than 100 times more likely to die from COVID-19 if you are unvaccinated.
From smallpox to ebola, vaccines have reduced the impact of infectious diseases.
And scientific knowledge has reduced the degree to which ailments have affected citizens in many areas.
These same protesters will go to their doctors to get relief from many things, all based on the results of scientific studies and analysis.
Are we stupid? It certainly looks like it.
I fear we are entering a new dark age.
Tom McElroy, Professor Emeritus, York University
It’s time to talk about the hate facing Trudeau, Aug. 29
When you want to motivate people to hate a person or an ethnic group you use dehumanizing or universally rejected words.
In Rwanda the targeted group was referred to as cockroaches. They obviously were not.
Here, in Canada, a popular posting and a popular phrase people have used to start or end political discussions is to say Trudeau is a communist. He obviously is not.
Susan Delacourt is correct; it is time to talk about the hate facing Trudeau.
Social media is now being used to whip up emotions and get people to stage public temper tantrums.
It is not the end of the world if Trudeau, O’Toole, Singh or Paul become prime minister.
A growing minority is mimicking the fanaticism we saw play out on Jan. 6 in the U.S. insurrection.
Canadians need to make sure we are different by not letting animosity, antagonism and lame internet lies decide our country’s future.
Province to bring in vaccine passport, Aug. 28; Protesters force Trudeau to cancel rally, Aug. 28
The idea of insisting on vaccine passports is obviously a no-brainer for any organization that wishes to operate in a safe and healthy environment that is free from most if not all COVID-19 restrictions.
What must be astonishing to the vast majority of Canadians are all these decision-makers who appear to be wilfully risking the health and lives of their constituents by wilfully allowing vaccines to be an option within their sphere of influence.
Whether it’s Ontario’s Ford government, Erin O’Toole’s federal Conservatives or any of the umpteen organizations across the country who insist on “respecting” people who insist on the “right” to choose whether to serve and infect, rather than keeping those in their care safe and healthy.
The result will be more COVID-19 sickness and death within our communities, accompanied by renewed restrictions that will, once again, hurt the marginalized and small businesses the most.
What’s becoming clear is that there’s also a straight line that can be drawn from these half-baked decisions to that small, loud and wild eyed subsector of self-entitled Canadians following politicians around the country who somehow have got it into their heads that they have the right to infect anyone they please.
It’s quite clear that Canada does not offer that right to anyone and I hope it never will.
Vaccine passports are a good start, but why are there so many leaders in Canada continuing to offer nonvaccination as a choice for anyone who is eligible?
Jack Bergmans, Toronto
For those who subscribe to the Toronto Star, there is quite good a article by Hugh Segal that draws clear distinctions between political heckling and bullying, the latter, of course, the only apparent strategy of the anti-vax rabble.
