Action4Canada - November 04, 2022


Town Councillor Ousted for Not Getting Vaxxed and Life Threatened!

Hosted by
Tanya Gaw
Mentioned
Grant Councillor Abbott
Sexually Assaulted Students Silenced, Defender Wrongfully Accused BC Father Garret Carr： Safe and Inclusive for Whom？

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

162.63

Word count

1,797

Sentence count

100


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I talk about my experience with not being allowed to participate as a Counsellor in a town council meeting because I refused to have a vaccination. The town did not allow me to participate in the meetings because I was not fully vaccinated. I have a Human Rights Claim open in regards to my disability.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I have a human rights claim open in regards to my disability, which doesn't seem obvious.
00:00:12.340 I have a speech and language disability.
00:00:19.080 I had to be pushed into doing an appeal, which I did, and I got some help from you guys to fund that.
00:00:30.000 Now, the funniest thing about that is that I'm not a paid counsellor.
00:00:38.700 I'm not an employee.
00:00:39.780 I'm not a volunteer.
00:00:43.080 I'm a citizen.
00:00:44.420 I'm an elected citizen or a citizen's elect, I should say.
00:00:49.260 And that's different than most counsellors across Canada because they're actually employees in many cases.
00:00:55.500 They get paid a salary and they do this thing every day.
00:00:58.520 But what makes my situation unique is that I don't fall under any workplace occupational health and safety type classifications because I don't work there.
00:01:09.860 I'm given a stipend, I think is the pronunciation of the word, where you are given a small amount of money.
00:01:15.780 In my case, $500 every three months to basically say, thanks, here's some money for gas, here's some money for paper, appreciate your time.
00:01:23.000 But in terms of having an employee relationship, it's not what the case is.
00:01:28.040 So they had said that they would not allow me to participate as a counsellor in the meetings because I was not fully vaccinated.
00:01:39.960 I couldn't actually do the things that a counsellor is supposed to do from their point of view, not being fully vaccinated.
00:01:46.620 So they had decided that they would not consider me as having a reason to not attend.
00:01:55.020 So they blocked me out.
00:01:57.680 Coincidentally, they had been doing online broadcasts with the previous council during COVID when there was lockdown.
00:02:05.860 So there was a affinity to go online and do this similar thing.
00:02:16.920 In February, everything went online and they would not let me press the microphone button in order for it to speak.
00:02:25.320 It was something that they had said I couldn't do before I was put online and couldn't participate as a counsellor anymore.
00:02:35.920 But when I actually came to the point in which I was at home online, I didn't press the button to speak on a microphone.
00:02:42.840 Just out of respect, it didn't want to cause a big fuss and have people shut down the meeting because Grant was trying to speak.
00:02:48.820 I'd let the meetings go.
00:02:50.180 But I was still providing correspondence during these three months.
00:02:53.160 And each of these three months, the town was referring to me as Councillor Abbott and reading and reviewing all of my concerns as a counsellor.
00:03:02.220 So once the three months had expired and April came around, I knew that that was the official date.
00:03:10.240 But it took two or three weeks to get my paper delivered from the town saying that I was no longer a counsellor and that I had to offer me that I can appeal.
00:03:20.460 But I had to appeal if I were to want to maintain my seat.
00:03:25.000 Otherwise, I'm no longer a counsellor.
00:03:26.940 Funny thing was that in February, the province of Newfoundland made an announcement that they were going to stop the vaccination pass and all mandates as of April.
00:03:39.200 So once April came around, it was no longer necessary.
00:03:43.040 So in theory, the town didn't need to enforce this policy on me if it was all about being fair because the province was saying it was no longer necessary for the vax pass in the upcoming months, which coincides with me no longer participating due to me not being able to have the vax pass.
00:04:02.880 So any reasonable person concerned about being fair would say, well, this doesn't make sense anymore.
00:04:08.020 Let's review the policy and let's change it and allow Grant to participate because it's no longer suggested anymore from the government agencies.
00:04:17.540 But that didn't happen.
00:04:18.640 The mayor actually had a quote with CBC that, if I were to paraphrase, basically said if Grant were to comply, then he would be able to participate again.
00:04:32.900 And the concept of that article was I refuse to have a vaccination.
00:04:37.240 So the answer was if I were to get vaccinated, then I could become a counsellor again.
00:04:41.740 So unfortunately, I had to be pushed into doing an appeal, which I did, but I am doing this for the good cause and for the greater good.
00:04:56.800 And I'd like to be able to go all the way with it and see it to the end.
00:05:00.500 So we've done a good job in getting to where we are.
00:05:04.860 The lawyers believe that we have a good case because, like I said, I don't fall under these classifications to be mandated.
00:05:12.700 I have a human rights claim open in regards to my disability, which doesn't seem obvious.
00:05:19.580 I have a speech and language disability.
00:05:22.460 It may be obvious because I'm talking more than listening.
00:05:25.320 I'm trying to keep my story on track and stuff, but that plays into how I interact with other people.
00:05:34.780 And as long as people are aware of that and have accommodations for me, then I can fully function because I'm able to collect myself and make mistakes and correct myself and such if those kind of problems were to occur.
00:05:50.240 I've been harassed.
00:05:51.280 I've had bullets through my windows.
00:05:52.520 I've had an apology by the town online to the public and posted on Facebook telling me how bad of a person I was.
00:06:04.820 I've had a protest outside my house with my children watching the protests going on, put off by two councillors and hosted by the Lions Club.
00:06:12.700 I asked the Lions Club to basically let me know if they agreed with that before I were to have this meeting,
00:06:20.680 given the opportunity to say, well, no, we don't agree with that and we apologize, not to get anybody in trouble, but to get just to get straight on the up and up.
00:06:30.480 They failed to do it.
00:06:31.660 So unfortunately, I have to admit that the Lions Club was responsible in hosting this petition.
00:06:37.520 It was a cold day.
00:06:38.160 They opened the doors and let people in and let people come and go and support them during that period of time.
00:06:44.860 They're supposed to be an unbiased, community-based organization.
00:06:46.900 And they were going around with signs saying that I was harassing the community and that I must resign,
00:06:52.700 and all because I was embarrassing them by standing up and saying that I'm not getting the vaccination.
00:06:58.060 Well, throughout this whole process, I've been communicating ad nauseum with the town
00:07:11.840 and trying to let them know what could happen, what shouldn't happen, and what the results would be if they were to take either path.
00:07:19.140 I don't like playing games, as I said, so I've been very verbose in writing as to what my intentions were and where I would like it to go.
00:07:29.720 Unfortunately, I've been embarrassed and my name's been dragged through the mud.
00:07:35.020 My community has questions about who I am and what my motives are and who's right and who's not right
00:07:41.040 and whether I should be doing this or whether or not I should.
00:07:43.740 And the opportunity was given to the town council and the mayor to fix this.
00:07:51.800 And I've been given opportunity to put a settlement towards them through a human resources investigation
00:07:58.000 that the investigator said that I was not in fault for.
00:08:01.100 He thought that I was totally at fault when he began the investigation, but all of this information I want to share.
00:08:10.460 I want everybody to know what exactly has happened in and out, upside down, so that they can know the truth.
00:08:17.660 A quote that I think I created and that I really stand behind is that I'd rather be uncomfortable with the truth than uncomfortable with a lie.
00:08:24.380 So if I were to accept what people were to have said about me and what they believe about me
00:08:30.220 and from all the good that I've been trying to put forward to my community and as a good guy, I really think I'm a good guy.
00:08:38.240 I don't try to hurt people and my motives are to help.
00:08:41.340 All of my careers have been customer service, sales, and that kind of thing.
00:08:44.900 And it's in my bones to help.
00:08:47.740 And I believe that's what I'm put on the earth for is to help and to spread the good news and positive vibes.
00:08:54.380 And unfortunately, it didn't go that way.
00:08:57.600 So at this point, there's no way to turn back.
00:09:00.620 I expect the town council to resign so that I could go back to being a councillor and we have another election to have the councillors replaced.
00:09:11.420 They actually went ahead and tried to schedule a nomination and an election to replace me just a few days ago.
00:09:18.820 And my lawyers had to go and put an injunction in which they agreed on to not do the election up until such point that this appeal has been seen to completion.
00:09:32.740 And it's just an example of where this has been going from day one.
00:09:36.480 They haven't been given any legal advice proper in the beginning.
00:09:39.860 They made lots of mistakes.
00:09:41.180 I challenged it.
00:09:42.060 I said, I'm not agreeing with it.
00:09:43.220 But they decided to go ahead and do the things that they had said they wanted to do.
00:09:48.540 I warned them that if you do that, I'm going to fight and see it to the end.
00:09:52.440 And I'm stemmed by transparency and accountability.
00:09:56.160 And I'm going to make sure that that happens, whether I have responsibility for it or whether they have responsibility for it.
00:10:02.500 Everything is going to be out and in the open at the end.
00:10:06.960 And once people realize what exactly has happened and see it for themselves, I hope that their heart speaks for them and they're able to get this all behind us and we can make the community better as one, with unity.
00:10:21.260 Who are we to not question this?
00:10:29.760 We have the self-autonomy to make these choices.
00:10:32.420 And not you, but who are you to ask me to do this just because you say so?
00:10:40.240 I've got a little spot on the back of my head.
00:10:42.480 I've had it for about four years.
00:10:43.440 If you're able to come and help me out with that and tell me why I have the spot on the back of my head, then maybe I'll have you have a chat with my doctor and then you and the doctor can talk it out and they can figure out what's best for my health.
00:10:55.040 And then I'll take your advice.
00:10:56.780 You know what I mean?
00:10:57.700 But up until such point, me and my doctor and my family will make the decisions for me.
00:11:02.660 Thank you.