Omicron Hysteria

by Maj (ret'd) CORNELIU E. CHISU, CD, PMSC, FEC, CET, P. Eng. Former Member of Parliament Pickering-Scarborough East The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have had an evident impact on mental health. This is obvious in the latest actions of the Canadian and provincial governments which illustrate complete disarray and obvious confusion in dealing with the latest phases of the pandemic called Omicron. Because it is necessary to find excuses for bad management of the pandemic, governments are in desperate search of scapegoats for their evident ignorance and bad decisions made. So lately they have been concentrating on a witch hunt of the unvaccinated who represent around 12% of the population in Canada. They cannot have work, travel or go places as the pandemic continues to rage. Hey what is wrong with this picture? Who is spreading the virus then ????? They are now to be blamed for everything which is going wrong. Of course lockdowns made for the vaccinated make no sense at all, but what the heck. The unvaccinated are to be blamed for it. The degree of desperation of some provincial governments is reaching extremes. Let us see the latest from the belle province of Quebec. After imposing war type curfews in the province, Premier Francois Legault is coming down on the unvaccinated with even more restrictive measures. Quebec's plan to impose a tax on adults who choose to remain unvaccinated against Covid is already being called "constitutionally vulnerable" by critics, but woke experts say the province is well within its rights, and challenges are likely to fail. The so-called experts are certainly learning the ways and means of past century dictatorial nazicom regimes, which made up the rules as they went along; where justice was based solely on the will of the government. So expect worse! Now tax the bandits, get them, take their livelihood, force them to give up even their body because we want it. Is this the new innovative kind of Canadian democracy? Should Canada propose Premier Legault for the Nobel prize? Legal experts say provinces have a constitutional authority to levy direct taxes in order to pay for services like health care, and that it makes sense from a fairness perspective to force those who pose the most burden on the health care system to pay more for it. So the question is: Are the unvaccinated the only ones to be blamed? What about the drug addicts for example??? Oh, I forgot. We do not discriminate in practicing universal health care….. Academic luminaries inspired by the new ways of a neo Marxist ideology are explaining: "They're not taking away people's freedom, they're just requiring people to pay a price if they pose a risk," said David Duff, a professor in the University of British Columbia's Peter A. Allard School of Law. "If the health care system were financed through private insurance, which is priced on the basis of risk, one would expect to see higher premiums for the unvaccinated. This is a demonstrable risk." Except that in Canada you do not have that option. But never mind, our democracy is the best in the world and we can lecture other nations about it. With the intent of taxing the unvaccinated, the so-called experts try to justify this measure by saying that similar measures are in place in great democracies around the world such as Austria, Greece and Italy, who all intend to apply similar taxes on the unvaccinated. It seems that in his wisdom Premier Legault also has the intention to have vaccine passports recognized only for three doses of vaccination. What about the rest of Canadians who might like to visit Quebec? Will they be allowed to travel to Quebec or de facto face Quebec border control inside Canada? Our 'new confederation' is quite a sight!! Not exactly what Sir John A Macdonald envisaged. By the way this week was the 207th anniversary of his birthday and the woke press never mentioned it. It seems a shame that the man who made Canada possible has been put on the black list to the point that it is not even fashionable to mention his name. There remain some reasonable voices which oppose this approach of the Quebec government. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association issued a statement this week that predicted the "divisive measure will end up punishing and alienating those who may be most in need of public health supports and services." "We do not fine individuals who make poor diet and exercise choices, those who choose higher risk occupations or recreational activities," said acting general counsel Cara Zwibel. "Some essential services - like basic health care for those who are ill - transcend such individual choices." In an interview, Zwibel said the tax may also violate protections of individuals' bodily autonomy included in the Canadian and Quebec charters of rights and freedoms. "You have to ask, is it justified?" she said. "The burden is on the government to prove they have a pressing and substantial objective that (they) are trying to achieve and that this is a proportional response to that. And the government hasn't said what the objective is here." Never mind, the law professors of the woke Academia will always have explanations ready to justify the action of a woke government. At least for now Alberta and British Columbia will not follow Quebec's intent but I am not so convinced that Ford, the Premier of Ontario, will not follow suit. He still needs to do some polling. The federal government is silent in all this, except when federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos threw some hardballs at the issue suggesting that he personally supports mandatory COVID-19 vaccination and suggested this unprecedented action could soon become an imminent discussion with the provinces. One should also ask where Erin O'Toole stands on this issue. Maybe he will have something to say before flip flopping on the issue. With this unchartered and awkward enforcement and the medical challenges we face, we are wading into dangerous waters in how our democracy is being shaped. It's one thing to mandate vaccinations in teaching or transportation occupations which interact with the public, but quite different and more difficult to confront an unvaccinated home-office worker or force a mentally ill person to face a hearing on why they shouldn't be fined.Above all else, the current number of Omicron variant cases clearly points to this month as a viral supernova event, one that is now flaring into a medical monstrosity before it will likely collapse into a sniffling flu by summer. In conclusion we're all frustrated, impatient and infuriated with the endless waves of Covid we were supposedly protected against. But the route to calmer water is not using our private health information to inject needles into defiantly reluctant arms under threat of government-imposed taxes or fines. That is a costly policy doomed to fail. It is also medically questionable, logistically impossible and impractical, needlessly invoking the judiciary for prosecutions, likely unconstitutional, tyrannical, and let's face it, un-Canadian. That's the final word.