Keep the pressure, since they will bring the tyranny back as soon as the pressure from the people stops! The Canadian province of Alberta will be ending its mandated vaccine passport system at midnight along with other coronavirus restrictions. Canada’s province of Saskatchewan is moving to lift Covid-19 mandates, as PM Justin Trudeau wants to keep rules despite trucker protest. Canada’s province of Saskatchewan says it will lift vaccine and mask mandates as the policies can no longer be justified.
Canada’s province of Saskatchewan announced on Tuesday it would stop requiring vaccine passes and masks. It comes as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has insisted on the effectiveness of Covid-19 mandates amid trucker protests gripping capital Ottawa.
The prairie province, situated between Alberta and Manitoba, said it would stop requiring vaccine passports starting next week and allow the mask mandate to expire at the end of February. It is the first Canadian province to offer a roadmap to ending the virus restrictions.
Praising the soon-to-be-phased-out restrictions for helping to stem the spread of the virus, premier Scott Moe, however, noted that they created “two classes of citizens,” arguing that “the benefits of this policy no longer outweighs the costs.”
Urging Canadians not to “judge” their neighbors over their vaccination status, Moe said that people should be entitled to decide whether to get vaccinated or not.
“This government is going to respect that right,” he added.
Moe is the head of the Saskatchewan Party, formed back in 1997 by defectors from both the Conservatives and the Liberals. His announcement comes amid increasing protests by truck drivers across Canada against vaccine mandates and other Covid-19 restrictions.
A group of truckers blockaded the busiest bridge between Canada and the US on Monday, between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. Truckers and farmers have been blockading a crossing between Alberta and Montana for nearly two weeks. A massive “Freedom Convoy” that drove across the country and converged on Ottawa on January 29 has remained in the Canadian capital ever since.
PM Trudeau has refused to meet with the truckers or hear their demands, referring to them as a “small, fringe minority” engaged in violence and hateful conduct.
In a speech to the parliament on Monday, he accused the truckers of “trying to blockade our economy, our democracy, and our fellow citizens’ daily lives,” and demanded that their protest “has to stop” because the people of Ottawa and Canadians in general “deserve to get their lives back.”
On Tuesday the PM defended the mandates and restrictions his government put in place during the pandemic, saying that they worked and will not be removed any time soon.
“I can understand frustrations with mandates, but mandates are the way to avoid further restrictions,” he told reporters.
Trudeau: "I can understand frustrations with mandates, but mandates are the way to avoid further restrictions" pic.twitter.com/wwsm0U3X3q
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 8, 2022
Meanwhile, a member of Trudeau’s own Liberal party has publicly disagreed with the PM. Joel Lightbound, a MP for Louis-Hébert in Quebec, urged the party to offer a “roadmap” out of the restrictions.
“We need to reevaluate all the measures,” Lightbound said on Tuesday. “That’s essentially my whole point, I think we need to have a clear roadmap for when restrictions will be lifted, and this roadmap must take into account what we’ve seen with the World Health Organization’s recommendation, what other countries are doing. It’s essential for Canadians to have that understanding of where we’re heading and under what conditions and circumstances measures will be lifted.”
During a press conference on Tuesday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney laid out his three-step plan to end coronavirus restrictions in the Canadian province. On the issue of vaccine passports, the premier said the QR code system for vaccinated citizens will still be in place for businesses that wish to enforce it, though they will not be required to do so.
When asked why he will continue to allow businesses to discriminate based on vaccinated status, the premier cited the “free market.”
On "free market" grounds, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney defends right of businesses to require proof of vaccination after the government's vaccine passport program ends tonight, but says he wants to move away from all of it. pic.twitter.com/hk9bpuI5pD
— Andrew Lawton (@AndrewLawton) February 9, 2022
Despite his allowing businesses to use the QR code system, the premier did say that he hopes coronavirus restrictions can be rolled back over the next few months as Canadians learn to live with the virus.
“Now is the time to begin learning to live with COVID,” said Kenney. “These restrictions have led to terrible division.”
“We cannot remain at a heightened state of emergency forever. We have to begin to heal,” he added.
On a more positive note, the premier did say that his three-stage approach will remove “nearly all restrictions for children, including the mask mandate in schools (kindergarten to Grade 12) over the coming weekend,” according to The Star.
“Kids aged 12 and under also won’t have to abide by the general mask mandate in Alberta, though the general mandate will still apply for everyone else,” added the outlet.
During the first stage, which begins at midnight, restaurants will still have to follow government-mandated closing times as well as dining capacity. Venues that can hold between 500 to 1,000 people will also still be subject to capacity limits.
If hospitalizations continue to decrease, Kenney said that the province will then move into stage two in three weeks when nearly all remaining coronavirus restrictions will be lifted, such as the general mask mandate, capacity limits, and work-from-home orders. After the final stage, Albertans would be relatively back to normal provided the healthcare system did not feel pressured.
Kenney makes it clear: he'll bring all of these measures back if he wants to.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) February 9, 2022