Greg Wycliffe - Student protests mask mandates at Wilfred Laurier

00:00:00.000 here we are happy friday everybody i'm a canadian and my name is greg and if you are in ontario like

00:00:07.460 myself you are super disappointed to see that uh mandates for masks are slowly creeping back in uh

00:00:16.140 you hate to see it but that's that's just what's happening here in ontario unfortunately and it's

00:00:22.180 awesome to see young people standing up against this sort of thing uh and you may have seen this

00:00:28.880 image floating around online uh this is a young university student named camille bacucci he is

00:00:37.240 making a mockery of these mask mandates at his university wilford laurier and i wanted to give

00:00:45.020 this guy a platform because i think what he's doing is very awesome and inspiring to the rest of the

00:00:49.660 country so without further ado let me introduce camille thank you so much for being with me on

00:00:56.400 the stream camille um you have a you have a test later today you said so thanks for taking the

00:01:01.580 time no worries um and uh i mean let's just start with that so you got a test later today is is it

00:01:09.000 inside do you are you would you be expected to wear a mask for that as well um not for this class we're

00:01:16.800 we're we're we're good in that um it is on campus though i haven't i've uh no i won't be expected to

00:01:25.200 wear a mask for this test that's um that's only for one of my classes i guess you you've seen what

00:01:32.060 i've what i've been doing to oppose the the whole mask uh obligation that the school's imposed on

00:01:37.880 everyone right right so uh it's not in this class so you're so basically it's it's different then

00:01:46.160 it changes based on the professor i suppose well yeah i mean at the end of the day it's uh it's up

00:01:52.500 to the professor to to do the bidding of the school i guess or to to impose the mandates and uh

00:01:58.680 the regulations that they've uh put in place okay yeah so at the end of the day yeah if the teacher

00:02:06.040 has their head screwed on right and realizes that uh he or she is is you know instructing or teaching

00:02:13.200 a class of adults not kindergartners then um they do respect our our freedom of uh of choice and

00:02:19.920 and medical choice i guess at the end i don't even know that you can call the masks medical choice um

00:02:24.940 but um a lot of teachers do respect um our our freedom of choice and and do not uh impose the the

00:02:33.920 or do not uh force the mandate on behalf of the school um i think they they realize that it's a

00:02:39.560 bit that's a bit much right that's well that's great to hear that's inspiring to hear and and let's

00:02:45.260 just kind of you know let's assume somebody might be listening to this and um you know they're not a

00:02:51.860 university student they they don't know what it's like um you know and they see these pictures of you

00:02:58.160 with a grapefruit on your face give us an idea especially like as the mandate was kind of coming

00:03:05.100 in in september i believe give us an idea of what it was like to be a university student

00:03:09.380 and explain like why you started to do this yeah um i guess it all it all stems back i guess to

00:03:18.760 to the past couple years i mean i'm in fourth year now but my second year was

00:03:23.260 just my second year university experience has kind of robbed me uh of all of us really um everything

00:03:29.520 was online there was uh yeah restrictions to go everywhere you need a vaccine passports and yeah

00:03:35.960 it's like it's like a distant memory now but i mean i don't think anyone should forget that they

00:03:40.380 they impose these vaccine passports on on on law-abided canadians which is like there's a whole other 0.86

00:03:47.180 issue but um but yeah everything was locked down we were getting fines for throwing parties um not

00:03:55.280 just i obviously many other students but there's it was crazy what we were seeing right so so that was

00:04:01.800 my second year um i don't know that you could call it a proper university experience or you know i don't

00:04:07.140 know what kind of experience you can really describe it as third year was a bit rougher um the school

00:04:14.880 decided to impose a vaccine mandate on on uh on the students at at wilfrid laurier um university which

00:04:22.740 which was um unfortunate i think not only not only on on it was unfortunate for the kids um for the

00:04:31.460 students but i think it was it's unfortunate that the school actually went through with something like

00:04:35.980 that i know there's a bunch of schools uh across not only ontario but canada that that

00:04:41.300 i don't think it even crossed their minds um to to kick healthy students out just for refusing to

00:04:48.740 take an experimental drug but um they they kicked out anyone who who refused to to give a proof of

00:04:57.380 vaccination which i i was among those people i i thought that you know uh the school wasn't privy to

00:05:05.480 that kind of medical information on my behalf and i i didn't think that it was necessary for me to

00:05:10.820 disclose um that kind of personal medical information so i refused to do so and i was informed um a week

00:05:17.260 after half my tuition was uh non-refundable that that uh yeah no really yeah i swear to god it's uh

00:05:27.080 it's crazy what they did they informed the students a week after tuition was half uh or half the tuition

00:05:32.420 was non-refundable and then proceeded to kick all this out that's so scummy so hold on you could you

00:05:39.380 couldn't even you couldn't even get your money back um i know every everyone i've talked to from the

00:05:46.680 instead of classifying based on vaccination status we'll say based on the people that refuse to disclose

00:05:54.100 this kind of information right i don't know anyone that got their money back um i went through the

00:05:59.080 tuition appeal process um multiple times because the first few times they just didn't answer me and

00:06:05.400 they refused to have a meeting with me um i went through it a few times and then eventually like

00:06:10.800 yeah like essentially you are under the tuition appeal process you are categorized as someone

00:06:15.840 who voluntarily dropped their their courses and uh that didn't that didn't go well with me so i

00:06:23.300 basically basically elevated it to the dean of students and then the school threatened legal

00:06:28.020 action and uh i actually i did get my money back but i know a lot of students didn't have the

00:06:32.900 benefit of doing that i think they probably just wanted me to shut up or you know get rid of me

00:06:37.480 saying you know what if only one kid's asking for his money back it's not going to be the end of

00:06:40.640 the world but um but yeah it's crazy that they were able to get away with robbing

00:06:46.100 how many students got kicked out but i'd say a thousand at least right yeah and and i i like i

00:06:52.960 appreciate your choice of words there robbing because it sounds like you really had to fight

00:06:59.220 to get your money back like it wasn't like a small kind of amount of effort you had to like call and

00:07:04.960 like follow up and follow up in order to get your uh your tuition money back um and and and before

00:07:12.620 i mean i i want to go back to actually no we'll go back to that later so the um but you're in school

00:07:19.820 now right so so how what what has happened since then in terms of like reinstating your uh your

00:07:27.200 educational career opportunity uh i'm assuming all this happened at uh waterloo or sorry sorry

00:07:33.840 uh wilford laurier yeah yeah the the same thing happened at waterloo though um right just for the

00:07:40.340 record yeah waterloo kicked their unvaccinated or uh we'll say this refused to disclose you know

00:07:45.840 what i mean it was both right it was not only the the students that refused to get jab but also the

00:07:54.540 students that thought that you know what this this kind of medical information is not uh i don't it's

00:08:00.020 i don't i don't think it's you know it's the school's business to know uh whether or not i i got

00:08:05.660 this vaccine um but yeah waterloo did the same thing i know western which is one of canada's

00:08:11.760 biggest universities they they still have uh the mandate of vaccine mandate but but um yeah if you

00:08:17.720 fast forward to this year um right before so i actually had to go through a whole process too once

00:08:22.320 i found out that there wasn't going to be uh the requirement for this semester although they do keep

00:08:28.400 the door open for it for this semester there wasn't going to be any uh any mandate on that end

00:08:33.220 i had to go through a whole process like they had basically removed me from the school and i was

00:08:38.460 like whoa whoa whoa like you guys unenrolled me like i didn't i not even like kicked me out right

00:08:44.000 like unenrolled me from my courses and it was two semesters i guess yeah two semesters long story short

00:08:49.880 it was a whole process like i guess they wanted to make it as difficult as possible for those same

00:08:54.500 students to re-enroll um but i got through it um and a few days before before uh the semester started

00:09:01.840 we found out that there would be um a fact uh sorry a mask mandate for for instructional uh

00:09:11.000 settings so so basically anywhere on campus where you spend more than 10 minutes at a time like the

00:09:16.880 library and in class and this is not only for students right it's for faculty too so they're

00:09:22.660 trying to in my mind incentivize or i guess they're placing the incentive on the people that uh

00:09:29.520 that need to to conform and obey right it's people that need their degrees and people that need to put 1.00

00:09:35.700 food on their tables um so it's i don't know i don't know and unethical to say the least i'd say

00:09:42.660 yeah and it sounds like you know you're someone who made it through all of these extra hoops and all

00:09:47.680 these extra obstacles and you're kind of inferring that like not everybody did make it like it was

00:09:52.680 almost like you know that maybe they thought it was easier just to kind of uh change a different

00:09:57.940 you know take a different career path or educational path um and i think you used the word uh like

00:10:05.840 incentivize or disincentivize and and i think that's that's exactly it um so uh so it's very i mean

00:10:15.880 that paints a very clear picture because you know when it comes to making a mockery of these uh of

00:10:21.700 these these math mandates at this point you're no stranger to quite frankly the bullshit that uh

00:10:29.420 that's been going on for the past few years so uh tell me tell me about like your first decision to

00:10:35.280 kind of uh make a statement or like was it the plastic bag that came first did you do it as a joke

00:10:41.600 like like how did this whole kind of initial uh situation of mocking the mask mandate start off

00:10:47.840 kick off for you yeah um i guess so first day of class or whatever first week of classes um i quickly

00:10:56.520 realized that not all teachers in fact only one of my teachers for the semester is is actually

00:11:02.000 enforcing this or doing the bidding of uh the school um the bidding i mean i i find a lack of better

00:11:10.540 words right i mean the school can't do this without the teachers trying uh without teachers enforcing

00:11:16.060 it themselves so i i know it's uh it might be a bit dramatic but uh it really it really is that i

00:11:21.660 mean the the teachers are do are doing their uh they're doing the dirty work for the school in my mind

00:11:28.140 i think in the mind of a lot of students and and uh witnesses or bystanders right you see this from

00:11:35.660 from the outside it doesn't look good on the school really it definitely doesn't look good on the

00:11:39.180 teachers that that uh that enforce these mandates but yeah i i i decided i was like okay like i've

00:11:46.060 never really worn the mask might as well throw it on whatever get my get my get my credit for the

00:11:52.460 course don't make a big deal out of it right um so i don't know i probably took because in the other

00:11:58.300 classes where i realized like i walked in all my classes without a mask and only in this one was i

00:12:03.340 told to put one on or i would get physically removed right like it's it's not yeah the other the

00:12:08.300 other teachers right they don't like i said they uh they respect my my right to make my own choices

00:12:13.900 as an adult um this teacher was a bit different so i threw it on try not uh try not to i guess make

00:12:20.620 a big fuss about it slowly i was i could not only do i doing it's one thing but doing it knowing that i'm

00:12:30.300 not i'm not i'm not you know the reason that they they want me to put a mask on is to uh to prevent the

00:12:38.780 spread of covid throughout the laureate community it's hard to do something knowing that it doesn't

00:12:45.420 necessarily it's not necessarily uh providing the the outcome that that it that the school is claiming

00:12:52.380 uh it does so right from the from the get-go it was problematic i got i mean uh i don't want to be

00:12:59.820 one of those babies but uh some some would say emotional distress maybe it was uh it was it was

00:13:06.380 i couldn't believe myself i couldn't believe what i was doing so slowly i started folding the mask in

00:13:11.100 half i guess one day the first my first like not first tweet but my first picture uh of me with the

00:13:17.980 the full mask i guess that was the day like i finally snapped i was just sitting in class like

00:13:22.540 all all pissy about the fact that i had to wear this thing i um i guess i threw it on my twitter and

00:13:28.780 it got uh it kind of didn't blow up obviously but it got a good response and i saw that i wasn't alone

00:13:35.260 like you know what i mean it is one thing and i have buddies in my class that that all hate doing

00:13:39.820 it but like i said we're incentivized um by uh holding the that degree in front of our faces and

00:13:45.900 having us run on the treadmill it's uh it's it's it's tough it's tough and i and that's why i don't

00:13:51.420 blame any of the at least the 75 that like would take the mask off if there was no mandate um i don't

00:13:58.700 blame them right it's it's if they use fear tactics they they they coerce you they they use so

00:14:06.300 they use the entire playbook against us to uh to get us to to do what they say without necessarily

00:14:11.900 thinking about it and i guess realizing this i i decided to to go in their playbook and and you

00:14:18.700 know use the use the semantic uh wording of the of the rules and and and you know use them to apply

00:14:29.020 them to the letter as opposed to how they want me to apply them so so i guess the next class i walk in

00:14:34.540 with with a ziploc bag on my face tied together with a few uh charging cables and uh it progressed

00:14:42.380 from there right i i i remember i was sitting my buddy's living room like in between my classes like

00:14:47.420 right before this class and they're like what are you doing like i was like oh i'm just gonna wear a

00:14:52.060 different mask every every day like people need to need to realize how useless these things are right

00:14:57.340 like if if if i'm not preventing transmission then why am i wearing this thing right if if i'm not

00:15:03.100 keeping the guy next to me quote unquote safe why am i wearing this thing um and my buddies and i

00:15:09.260 love getting into debates about this right because a lot of them do believe um i don't want to say

00:15:16.140 true false but do believe what they have been told by this is like ctv and our uh our good buddy justin

00:15:23.820 trudeau so so we have some great debates obviously we love each other but we do have some uh we have

00:15:29.500 some funny debates about on the matter um some may say hostile but uh it's all yeah it's all in good

00:15:37.820 fun obviously we we uh we always say say goodbye with a smile on our faces we see each other tomorrow

00:15:44.140 but um but yeah they're like they like the idea of it and i guess that was like a my micro my micro

00:15:50.940 sample of uh of of i guess the the support that i got like that they all thought it was it was a good

00:15:56.540 idea um if i wasn't breaking the rules um it was a good way of there's a good way of shining a light

00:16:03.500 on these measures and how crazy they were without portraying myself as a martyr which is the last

00:16:08.860 thing i want to do i i i don't i don't want to be a martyr i don't i don't think i'm a martyr and the

00:16:14.220 last thing i want to do is is be one um i want to succeed in life and uh hopefully no this comes to

00:16:20.300 haunt me but but but that's that that was that was i guess what they they got out of it they they

00:16:26.220 realized that it was a it was a good way of shining a light on on on these crazy mandates and um and

00:16:33.340 yeah i guess that that's how it all started and then it progressed obviously bucket and a grapefruit

00:16:37.660 and then yesterday i did the scuba the scuba gear and uh we'll see it's usually a spur of the moment

00:16:44.060 thing whenever i wake up uh feeling like i want to wear on my face that day but well i've uh i've gotten some

00:16:48.700 great recommendations and and we'll we'll see i guess what will come to next nice can we can we get

00:16:53.820 any any teasers or some some face coverings that you're excited about yeah yeah no for sure i uh

00:17:01.820 i'll definitely be i'll be wearing a hazmat suit one day like a full house nice very nice um i've

00:17:09.100 gone some i've gotten some other like i've got some funny some really funny ideas that i obviously can't

00:17:14.620 do because they're not following the the rules but like and i i want to paint a mask onto my face

00:17:20.620 so bad yeah so some someone sent me that my dms or i might have i might have like seen it in the

00:17:29.420 comments but i think that would be so funny i just don't think i think that one like i obviously when

00:17:34.940 i wear the ziploc bag on the first time uh she was like take that off like what are you doing like

00:17:39.980 that's not a mask i was like yeah uh professor like with all due respect you don't get to dictate

00:17:46.940 what is a mask and what isn't a mask like i'm already letting the school do that for me whatever

00:17:51.900 but this is definitely a mask it follows the follows the the mask regulate uh the mask mandate

00:17:58.140 to the letter like there's nothing you can say like um she was like okay well then i ask you please

00:18:04.060 to go put a mask on and so i was like why i just instead of like getting into a fight with her i was like

00:18:08.940 okay yeah i will but can you explain to me why you want me to wear a mask and she was like uh 0.99

00:18:13.100 because we're in a pandemic and i was like i was like sorry professor like uh we're not in a pandemic

00:18:19.820 anymore like you know we had a civil discourse um eventually res and like all discussions and

00:18:27.580 i encourage everyone to truly use their their their critical thinking faculties here when they're

00:18:32.540 dealing with people like this but just talk to them don't be hostile don't be defensive if you know

00:18:37.180 you're right you know what i mean it just takes it's like chess it just takes time to break the

00:18:41.500 the opponent down and and uh peacefully and verbally but at the end it was she was appealing to to

00:18:48.380 emotion it was it was it was it was a pure it was truly a logical fallacy it was amazing she saying okay

00:18:54.300 well then can you do it for me and that's when it was my i guess my checkmate i was like look like

00:18:58.940 you're forcing me to wear a mask no with all due respect no i won't do this for you and so you're

00:19:05.500 a philosophy major too it was it was this a philosophy class where this discussion happened

00:19:11.100 yes yeah oh my it's crazy it's crazy i know it's the fact that the philosophy department of all

00:19:17.500 departments is is like buying into this stuff is that's the most concerning part of anything as a

00:19:22.860 as a philosophy major yeah i know it's uh you you wouldn't think so right i wouldn't rule anything

00:19:29.180 out in 2022 based on what i've seen but uh but i do that that that is funny to emphasize you know

00:19:35.980 you weren't breaking any rules technically i think that the grapefruit the grapefruit mask

00:19:43.020 probably smells amazing compared to you know having the the cloth mask on your face like seriously

00:19:48.300 that's probably a lot more a lot more comfortable i would imagine um but uh yeah and i wanted to

00:19:55.660 emphasize that yeah yeah you're just you you are wanting to get your education and just you know

00:20:01.340 stay sane so it's only natural for you to kind of like playfully uh make a mockery of how silly these

00:20:08.860 rules are um i really did like your point too um this wasn't part of uh the questions i wanted to ask but

00:20:16.620 it's it's i think it is so true like you're having a big smile on your face you're kind of just asking

00:20:21.660 questions of like well you know like what's wrong with this i'm following the rules and i think that

00:20:25.980 really is the approach with people uh you know like to kind of let them get hostile you know like to

00:20:33.180 kind of try and yeah just kind of like be like i don't think i'm doing anything wrong and uh i think

00:20:39.420 that's the best way to approach it because i'm sorry you should have to explain yourself to me i don't

00:20:44.220 think i have to explain why i don't want to wear a mask at this point um you know the stuff is out

00:20:50.380 there at all or at all yeah it's uh no i agree and i think that the burden of proof or uh at least

00:20:59.580 in legal terms it's turned into a guilty until proven innocent somehow and i think that as someone

00:21:05.260 as someone who aspires to go to law school one day i think that uh they have it all wrong i think

00:21:09.980 uh the burden of proof needs to be on those making the accusations not on on those you know fighting

00:21:17.580 for their for their freedoms right so um yeah you said it perfectly it's uh that i think they've

00:21:25.180 twisted the whole situation making the making a mockery out of their their uh their dystopian

00:21:30.860 mandates i think is the best way for people to realize that this is like this is far from what

00:21:35.580 reality should look like honestly um we should be able to see each other smile see each other's

00:21:40.300 lips move when we talk have a have a good conversation without shutting down the other

00:21:45.580 side and you know what i don't know that that's what they want anymore right yeah man yeah um so

00:21:54.300 let's talk about the the various different reactions since you since you've started to kind

00:21:58.620 of make a mockery of these uh these mask mandates uh you know from your friends and family from peers as

00:22:04.540 a whole obviously you had this confrontation with with the professor uh have you had like

00:22:09.100 strangers coming up to you i'm sure you've had lots of strangers online cheer you on but um could

00:22:15.100 you maybe talk about some of the some of the more like negative consequences have there been people

00:22:18.540 who have said like oh you really shouldn't be doing this don't do that don't don't do that camille don't

00:22:24.460 do that um surprisingly and you know what i i'm not that surprised i think a lot of people would be but

00:22:32.860 no there's been no negative consequence my teacher doesn't even see like yesterday i walked in with

00:22:38.540 scuba gear on my face she didn't bat an eye like she i think she's prepared for it at this point and

00:22:44.220 not only that but yeah like the students i'm sure i'm sure many laureate students have seen this and

00:22:48.460 i've gotten like just walking through campus like from the library to class or vice versa or from my car

00:22:55.180 whatever to through campus um multiple multiple people like and this has only been going on for

00:23:01.580 two weeks now like have have pulled me aside and said hey like i saw your twitter i heard from a

00:23:06.140 buddy what you were doing like um are you camille first of all yeah oh my god like i love what you're

00:23:11.740 doing and and like keep it up like um i like i i don't want to wear this mask either whatever i'm only

00:23:17.900 doing it for x y and z and and it it it does it makes me obviously it's the support's unreal and

00:23:24.780 it kind of uh gives me a little hope right having obviously like yeah the the validation is is one

00:23:31.260 thing but like knowing you're not really alone in this fight is i think it's huge for morale but just

00:23:36.940 to keep me going obviously and like um who doesn't love a compliment right you'd be you'd have to be uh

00:23:43.500 you'd have to be lying i think not to but but yeah like being pulled aside on campus i think is huge

00:23:47.660 like inevitably people online are going to dm me and comment and like and share it but but i think

00:23:53.260 definitely the most the the the one the the interactions that resonate with me most are uh

00:23:58.140 have been interviews like this um you know conversations and then you know talking face

00:24:03.100 to face with people on campus and like realizing that i am as much as one side wants to paint me as

00:24:09.500 a villain like i'm i'm helping people and and i'm doing the right thing and uh i'm i'm fighting for

00:24:16.700 not only my freedom but for the for the freedom of of uh of this country i think in in my small in my

00:24:23.020 small way um and and yeah that feels good but no to answer to to fully answer your question no like

00:24:29.740 nobody's nobody's yeah you get comments and it's funny now at this point like if one person comments

00:24:35.420 like oh you're you're killing people like you'll have 25 people like i don't even have to answer 0.50

00:24:41.260 anymore 25 people say whatever um but not in person and that's the thing like i think one side is happy

00:24:48.300 to fight for their rights and one side is happy to shut other people down behind their phones and

00:24:54.140 that's why that's why i think we've seen or i've seen this uh this polarizing contrast of of uh of support

00:25:02.220 um it's there's there's no one i don't and i i don't think anyone actually would have the balls

00:25:07.260 to come up to me and say oh you're killing someone i think they know they've either they've seen my

00:25:11.260 interview or or they've heard about me or they've seen me in class and i think they know i'm very

00:25:16.620 well prepared for a rational debate which is something that a lot of a lot of people aren't um i can

00:25:21.980 talk i can talk and i i have uh i can support my arguments with with either research or or logic and

00:25:28.940 you know uh those are two very powerful things i think yeah yeah no i don't i don't know i look

00:25:36.620 forward to the day where i could get uh a little uh a little spot verbal spotting on campus but so

00:25:43.980 far so good yeah you're keen you're keen to get into it with somebody and i mean why wouldn't you it

00:25:51.340 it is so it is so silly um and i think why uh you know some of your tweets have really gone viral is

00:25:59.660 you are drawing attention to the mandates in a way that's very entertaining and accessible and it's it

00:26:06.860 really yeah it just makes a mockery of it it's like what are we doing here i thought i thought we were

00:26:12.300 past this um so you're a philosophy major you love to debate um the uh i wanted to ask did you see the

00:26:23.500 ethics professor from uh the canadian ethics professor when she kind of stood up and said i am uh

00:26:31.420 i am you know disagreeing with this but when it comes to the mandates the vaccine mandates

00:26:36.540 did you see that were you inspired by that when that happened you know i'm referring to here

00:26:40.460 you'll uh you'll have to refresh or jog my memory here okay okay i'll i'll look it up i'll look it

00:26:45.900 up in a second no worries um but uh i was gonna say you know you are really doing the country of

00:26:52.860 service as well because some of your masks or at least your grapefruit mask was biodegradable

00:27:00.700 right so exactly yeah so you're really really helping people out i think um

00:27:07.020 well it's so funny too right you see these people uh i'd say the same people trying to

00:27:13.580 tell other people to put a mask on to the same people that are uh preaching the whole oh you're

00:27:18.060 killing the planet stop using straws and and eat plants and bugs and don't have a steak if even if you

00:27:25.740 love steak uh i think those are the same you know those are the same people which is kind of ironic uh

00:27:31.020 uh the the i think uh i don't think there's too much disputing the amount of waste that these masks

00:27:37.420 create and uh i can't i can't say that i've walked down one street uh not only in waterloo but back home

00:27:44.460 in toronto as well without seeing at least a dozen masks on the street so hey maybe maybe uh maybe they're

00:27:51.020 killing the planet who knows yeah yeah i think so um i i thought i'd just bring this up on screen

00:27:59.900 real quick which is a quote from uh wilford laurier himself canada is free and freedom is its nationality

00:28:08.380 and you're at wilford laurier university and like it's it's just it's just kind of otherworldly like how

00:28:16.220 how i don't know how the values of canada have just like you know been eradicated in like under

00:28:23.340 three years it seems sometimes um have you have you been someone who's like followed politics much

00:28:31.100 before this or were you just kind of like a happy-go-lucky university university student before

00:28:35.660 all of this yeah i've uh i've always followed politics um my my parents would always like i so

00:28:43.740 mostly it was american french and algerian politics um obviously i was up to date on what was

00:28:49.900 happening in canada but um i've definitely gotten more into canadian politics since uh since trudeau

00:28:56.780 got elected um all right honestly when he got elected i think i was 17 or maybe 18. um i wasn't his

00:29:05.340 biggest uh critic right like i i i can't say i like the guy but i definitely i definitely bought

00:29:13.980 into some of the the bs he was trying to trying to trying to feed all of us um so so yeah i've always

00:29:21.740 been well-versed in politics um more international than than domestic but i'm uh i'd say over the past

00:29:27.740 three four years i've uh definitely been been paying much much more attention and i've been much more

00:29:33.740 uh interested in i guess the direction that are are concerned i guess you could say in the direction

00:29:38.860 that our country's going in um not just here but i i mean you can look at any you look at france too

00:29:44.860 with uh with who's there you look at you look at the us right now it's not looking too good either and

00:29:50.620 um so yeah i do i i enjoy politics i think i think it's very complex and uh i think political

00:29:57.180 political ideologies as well political political theory is very interesting so i think it's it's

00:30:02.300 multifaceted it's all really interesting to me yeah yeah and i i might be biased but i've felt

00:30:08.220 like especially recently politics is getting harder and harder to ignore you know it's it's it's literally

00:30:15.500 invading every part of our daily lives at this point yeah yeah for sure um so your background is

00:30:22.380 algerian i take it is that right or yeah and uh there was a kind of uh you know a little thing with

00:30:29.980 communism over there did did uh you know are either your parents algerian did like you know

00:30:35.900 is there a background there in terms of like you know the warning of communism that you were given

00:30:39.660 from your parents or um yeah both my parents were were born and raised there um okay yeah it was uh

00:30:49.580 i mean they immigrated here in 97 i was born in toronto um

00:30:53.180 um i would say that they they tried to stay apolitical with me and i think that was the best way to

00:30:59.900 raise me um they already had to deal with a boy a loud child uh opinionated child you could say but uh

00:31:08.060 they tried to stay apolitical and uh let me let me form my own my my own make my own decisions and uh

00:31:14.300 form my own opinion and i think that was i have one day i'm sure i'll be a father and i think that uh

00:31:19.660 that's that's how i aspire to uh to raise my children one day um probably i think it's the

00:31:24.380 right way don't try and shove anything down your your kids throats let let them be their own their 0.98

00:31:29.260 own person and uh yeah that's what my parents did but yeah not necessarily i mean they talked about

00:31:35.820 algeria and i think with what they would say um it makes you wary of giving one entity too much power

00:31:43.180 and maybe that was just my interpretation of it um i wouldn't say there was any bias i think

00:31:47.100 they love their country and i love algeria too i mean i'd visit every summer um maybe i was young

00:31:53.180 so uh i didn't necessarily have to care too much but but as i get older it is scary what's happening

00:31:58.860 over there yeah it's uh as far as i'm concerned without i want to be able to go back without uh

00:32:04.060 being arrested right away but i would classify it as and this is as much as as deep as i'll go probably

00:32:10.220 but it's it's more like a military dictatorship um so which yeah that's i guess that's what that's

00:32:18.860 what communism is right in a way but but yeah it's it's scary i don't know i don't i don't like i said

00:32:24.860 i want to go back without getting your ass i want i want to chat again with you so we won't get too much 0.94

00:32:30.140 into Algeria but my parents uh they tried to stay political for sure mm-hmm so i wanted to bring this

00:32:36.620 up for a moment because i think this is really interesting kind of speaks to the the craziness

00:32:40.780 that we're living in right now so this is a tweet from uh dr amit area and this guy recently won

00:32:47.580 believe it or not he won a uh he won an award for for excellence uh from the the college of family

00:32:57.820 ontario college of family physicians and in this tweet i'll read it for you can someone please explain

00:33:03.020 to me what it would take for ontario to bring back indoor mask mandates aren't the canceled surgeries

00:33:08.540 enough aren't the record high wait times and er's enough aren't the overwhelmed children's hospitals

00:33:13.260 enough isn't all of this suffering enough so essentially the question to you is like can you

00:33:19.820 believe that there's these award-winning doctors who are basically implying that the whole reason

00:33:26.940 hospitals are overwhelmed is because you didn't wear a mask camille that's why people are getting

00:33:33.340 sick because you didn't wear a mask like can you believe this like how you're you're younger than me

00:33:39.020 you're a young university student how do you you know how do you integrate stuff like this into your

00:33:44.620 reality you know like how can you believe this um yeah it's it's crazy i i'm almost out of

00:33:52.700 lost words i know who this guy is i've seen his tweets i uh try to give him a little earful whenever

00:33:57.820 i can but you you wonder how some of these people i mean all i'll say is they call us the science

00:34:05.740 deniers right it's uh it's a crazy world accuse your accuse your uh your opponent of of what you're

00:34:13.900 doing basically it's it's it's mind-blowing and i guess my response would be look the cdc themselves

00:34:22.220 said that masks do not prevent transmission and if masks do not prevent transmission then they

00:34:27.980 cannot prevent the spread of covid and that's just my you know my logical uh deduction as yeah as uh

00:34:34.780 as my some of my philosophy teachers would say and that's it right uh i don't think you have to think

00:34:39.340 about it too further too much further i'm yeah i'm not uh by the way i'm not uh well versed in medicine

00:34:47.260 or science um you know i know how to interpret certain uh pieces of information that are given

00:34:54.380 to me and come up with what i like to think is a rational uh decision or rational plausible outcome

00:35:02.380 and for this quote unquote md this doctor to say oh like let's bring back masks because i don't even

00:35:11.500 remember what he said it was probably wasn't too too damning because the cert because hospitals are

00:35:16.780 overrun it's i think i think uh i don't know i think that says a lot more about the public health

00:35:22.460 care system in canada than it does it does uh the the lack of mask wearing but at the end of the day

00:35:30.300 they'll change their narrative no matter if everyone wore masks they'll blame it on something else right

00:35:34.140 i'm i've been going to the hospital breaking legs since i was

00:35:36.860 seven eight years old i could tell you the wait times have never been pretty here so tell yeah i

00:35:43.420 don't i don't know i think i think uh there's more to it i think someone's telling him to say this

00:35:48.860 probably yeah yeah and on that same tweet i i tweeted another thing that he had tweeted and essentially

00:35:56.140 in july back in july he was saying this is what we need to do to put down wait times to improve our

00:36:03.020 health care system and it's funny that now that they're trying to bring back mask mandates it's

00:36:07.340 like that article he wrote back in july that doesn't exist it's like no no masks are the only thing now

00:36:12.620 that's the only thing that's gonna like save our health care system and it's like oh that's

00:36:16.220 that's kind of strange but um i wanted to bring up a tweet here uh about rallying the troops

00:36:24.300 you know rallying the troops uh and and i guess the question is the here here we go the face covering

00:36:30.700 will come off soon i'm evaluating my options with the goal of finding the best way to rally the

00:36:35.740 troops and get the masses to take well to get the masses to refuse this authoritarian measure altogether

00:36:43.100 might have been a typo there but i alone will be unable with support in numbers we can accomplish

00:36:49.020 anything so i'm getting the interpretation based on chatting with you that at uh wilford laurier you

00:36:55.900 guys are winning numbers wise you're basically implied that it's like like 15 25 still wear masks

00:37:02.300 and that's even like faculty members as well in terms of like not enforcing it so what's what's it

00:37:09.260 look like at wilford laurier and have you heard anything else from other universities from people

00:37:13.340 going to other schools that maybe are not as good um yeah so i've i'd say at laureates in in classes

00:37:21.020 where you have to wear a mask you have full compliance i mean and when i say have to it's

00:37:25.820 in classes where you have the teacher themselves enforcing these these mandates um in my other

00:37:31.980 classes like i said like 84 out of my five classes are you're good you don't have to wear a mask in them

00:37:39.340 and um you have maybe 20 20 25 percent of the class not even right like it's like we'll say a quarter

00:37:47.180 of the class that would wear the mask whether there was a mandate or not whether they were

00:37:51.580 alone in their car or not uh whether there was you know what i mean like it's uh these people will

00:37:58.220 wear the mask no matter what they've had so much fear thrown into their lives that and at this point

00:38:02.860 it's it it makes it easier for them and you know what hey you know do what you want and god bless you

00:38:09.900 either way right it's it's it's not my business to be telling you that you can't wear a mask and i've known

00:38:15.180 and that's not at all the intention and i think they try and you know misinterpret or or uh intentionally

00:38:22.380 misinterpret what what a lot of us are saying but yeah wear a mask if you want to wear one no one's

00:38:27.100 telling you not to we're just telling you the efficacy of it we're not telling you not to wear it

00:38:30.700 right um so yeah i would say i'd say i don't know that that we're winning yet um i'd like to i'd like

00:38:38.540 obviously i wish i could say that but but until until you have kids in the classes where you quote

00:38:44.940 unquote have to wear a mask start taking them off it's going to be it's going to be complicated

00:38:51.660 right it's uh the school wouldn't have any reason to to really take to remove these mandates and i

00:38:59.980 think that's the that's a that's the issue right it's uh it's it's once once you have the the support

00:39:07.020 and i know i know like i said people are coming up to me i have kids in my classes that that also want to

00:39:12.060 want to start fighting the the same fight without and by just taking it off entirely and i'm and i

00:39:17.020 tell them look like one sec like let's get some numbers and then do it once we're once we're

00:39:22.700 undeniable you know what i mean once there's too many of us to act for them to say oh you leave

00:39:28.460 security it's like yeah you know what you want to put zip ties on my on my wrists and drag me out of class

00:39:33.500 you'll yeah you're not good like i said i'm not a martyr i'm not going to do this alone um i think

00:39:42.860 inspiring or trying to to raise awareness on what's going on and how how insane these rules are will

00:39:49.100 will make more people uh open to the idea of uh fighting this power i guess i don't know that i would

00:39:56.620 say and i have been in touch with students from other schools um there is an overarching there

00:40:02.780 there will be a protest in the city of waterloo i'd say i'd say relatively soon without giving away any

00:40:09.020 dates um but yeah it's just about gathering support trying to uh build connections uh and and get and i

00:40:17.660 i guess meet people that are that are yeah that have the same goal right that uh that at the end

00:40:23.660 of the day just want want the the freedom of of not only themselves but of of their neighbor their

00:40:29.020 their kids uh and and everyone in between absolutely man well said well said that's exciting

00:40:36.140 so there are protests on the horizon uh i think you're absolutely right the power in numbers that's

00:40:41.740 definitely what it comes down to and um i wanted to ask you like you know you're real really into

00:40:48.060 politics um i've kind of been into politics for the past uh several years now here in canada and i've

00:40:55.340 noticed there's a lot of canadians who are like kind of like ah you know i don't want to get involved

00:41:02.700 i don't want to say anything and um is that changing with your with your demographic with people your

00:41:09.900 age or is there still a lot of a lot of people who like are trying to stay out of it and uh you

00:41:15.420 know what does that look like in terms of you know younger canadian students like not wanting to get

00:41:20.300 involved or are they wanting to get involved or is like is there a lot to be said about like kind

00:41:25.260 of complacency like i just don't want to you know i want to stay out of the way so i don't necessarily

00:41:32.940 see a problem with the with a sense of of uh being apolitical um what i think is a problem is is not

00:41:43.980 standing up and saying something when oops sorry oh bless you thank you uh there's not saying something

00:41:53.580 when our government you know overreaches and and and uh next unethical laws such as vaccine passport

00:42:07.180 right uh refusing my my charter right to mobility uh my making or uh or initiating or creating bills

00:42:18.220 that that limit my uh my freedom of expression and i think that's the problem the complacency

00:42:25.260 is problematic when it when it uh allows our government to to to get more power than they're

00:42:30.700 ever going to give back not being on the right or on the left i don't see an issue with that and i

00:42:37.260 think honestly if we were all moderate we would see i think a lot of a lot of the world would if we're

00:42:42.300 all libertarian like me i think i think you might see a little anarchy everywhere but but uh but i

00:42:48.300 think if everyone is a bit more moderate that's the problem everyone's if they're not apolitical

00:42:52.620 they're going from going to one extreme um and i've you see this a lot like even when i was in high

00:42:59.180 school you'd see like like i mean yeah you'd see people putting on their instagram stories like

00:43:06.300 like whatever the hot topic was and i think i think uh i think both sides do this i think the

00:43:13.180 right and the left do this they know that they can they can latch on to people's emotions and have

00:43:17.900 them push their narratives for them i mean like all the riots you saw in the us over the over the

00:43:23.260 course of covet i think that's uh that's a perfect example of that i mean you had people here

00:43:29.580 without getting too far into detail obviously but i i think i think uh it's easy to latch on to

00:43:34.860 to people's emotions and that's why it's important to stay as at least as moderate as you can allow

00:43:41.740 yourself to be absolutely uh camille i i really do appreciate your time i knew you got i know you got

00:43:48.380 a test later but i wanted to dive into philosophy because you are a philosophy student and i mean when

00:43:55.900 it comes to ethics let's let's you know what let's actually start with this with this uh headline here

00:44:00.860 this is from january 2022 uh right before the trucker convoy and if you remember being an

00:44:07.740 unvaccinated individual back then uh the powers that be were kind of coming down hard like look at

00:44:13.580 this headline here more than one in four canadians support jail time for the unvaccinated pull fines

00:44:20.780 that's from january 2022 this is published in the national post um you know philosophy ethics

00:44:30.860 um i i guess i want to ask like you've been a philosophy student throughout the the kind of

00:44:37.340 pandemic happening you know have you kind of almost felt like there's been like a failure of like your

00:44:43.820 own sort of like degree in terms of like you know are we really applying philosophical thought when it

00:44:50.220 comes to like discussing the ethics of this like something that i've personally found so frustrating over

00:44:54.940 the past three years is like where is the honest discussion about any of this but i i wanted to

00:45:01.660 guess i guess ask like you know when it comes to the you know the philosophical philosophical discussion

00:45:06.860 debating like the ethics of what's going on um have these conversations been happening in university

00:45:12.460 classrooms and and what do they sound like no these uh yeah we haven't we haven't everything's been

00:45:20.780 online and then obviously last year i wasn't necessarily allowed on campus but uh these

00:45:25.020 conversations aren't being had um even even in present day like teachers don't like talking about

00:45:31.340 covid um they don't like bring it up i have a few teachers obviously that are that are beauties and like

00:45:36.300 enjoy the jobs that i make at uh at the people that that i guess

00:45:41.740 did the did the bidding i know for a lack of more vocabulary um did the bidding for the for the

00:45:51.740 government like supported these unethical these unethical laws that that ostracized millions of 0.92

00:45:59.980 canadians from society um made us out to be lesser than or or some kind of villain um some kind of monster and

00:46:10.700 i don't know i think um and it's funny you said one in four i think i i said the same statistic

00:46:17.500 about the kids in in class that would wear the mask whether there was a mandate or not

00:46:21.900 i think it's about one in four and i think it was a it was a good i think it's a good representation of

00:46:27.260 canadian society as a whole um yeah we love our neighbor and we love our uh our country but but one in

00:46:35.420 four of us are communists i don't know i'm kidding kidding kidding kidding kidding but uh but but

00:46:46.540 yeah i think it's scary i think they've uh they've armed this quarter of people with so much hate for

00:46:53.500 and maybe you could maybe look at it philosophically you could say okay maybe these people have so much

00:46:59.900 love for their loved ones that that and the country that they've actually they actually are doing

00:47:07.180 what's right they're just misinformed and sure i i'll give you the benefit of that either way

00:47:13.100 uh these people are they're fighting not for canada not for canadians but for their

00:47:18.460 selves what they're scared of and what they've been pushed to what they've been pushed to to believe i

00:47:25.180 think and and and i don't know it's sad it's uh i have no ill will against them i don't know that i

00:47:31.900 could say i'd grab a beer with any of them but i would love to have a conversation and i and again i

00:47:36.940 try to in all my classes like i uh i don't instigate but i uh let's just say i promote this kind of uh

00:47:44.380 this kind of open and uh rational discussion and i'm always willing if anyone from laurie who disagrees with

00:47:50.300 me uh sees this and wants to have a chat let's do it let's do it as long as it yeah as long as it's

00:47:59.100 civil and respectful and rooted in in logic absolutely absolutely always open to it but yeah

00:48:06.780 i don't know it's scary it's sad i uh no ill will against these people i think they're victims just as

00:48:12.060 i don't know about justice but they're also victims um they're victims of a different circumstance

00:48:16.940 and uh i think our government knew that knew with this going in that they would have a large

00:48:21.660 percentage of the population that would propagate this stuff for them yeah yeah i honestly i i

00:48:29.580 started to call the news like um psychological terrorism going into the pandemic like it's brutal

00:48:34.940 man like you got like a little death ticker you got a little case count thing like that's got to

00:48:38.620 scare the crap out of people right yeah yeah no it's it's uh you gotta watching the news is more

00:48:44.620 entertainment for me at this point it's uh when you know what they're up to right it's kind of

00:48:49.100 funny like i was i was watching the senate the uh the the senate the u.s senate election uh i guess

00:48:55.580 midterms i was more interested in the senate obviously i knew the republicans were gonna get

00:48:59.820 the house but well i was well i was watching it on cnn uh and all my buddies like oh like why not put

00:49:07.500 something else on like this is i love listening to these people uh these people like the the the

00:49:15.420 what do you call them the buzzwords that they would use was was hilarious i must i've heard i heard the

00:49:21.500 word this person is an election denier easily 250 times in like in like a three hour span which is crazy

00:49:31.260 i mean it's uh it's entertainment so yeah like you said it's uh people don't realize that though they

00:49:36.940 still get their news from these places rather than knowing like both sides the the the crazy right-wing

00:49:43.340 networks and the crazy left-wing networks you can try and read in between the lines you might you'll

00:49:48.460 have a much better sense of what the actual issue on hand is right definitely so just to bring uh bring

00:49:55.820 this back up this is the ethics professor that i was talking about she's from western university

00:50:00.220 julie ponese i don't know if i'm pronouncing that right but yeah she was she basically made this 0.88

00:50:05.020 impassioned video when it came to the vax mandates and said hey i'm a philosophy uh professor and she

00:50:12.940 majors in ethics and she just in tears was like i can't do this i can't go along with this as a professor

00:50:20.540 of ethics uh did you hear about her story when this happened or i uh i don't think i did surprisingly

00:50:29.340 yeah yeah well i i brought her up because you guys have a lot in common in that you know

00:50:36.860 in canada if somebody stands up and makes a statement it has such a ripple effect uh which

00:50:43.900 i don't know if that speaks to like how timid canadians are but you know this uh this woman this 0.99

00:50:50.300 professor like she really inspired a lot of people just by standing up and for what she believes in and

00:50:55.420 you're doing the same thing and i think that's so so important uh because you inspire others so

00:51:01.820 before we go i just want to ask you know for any young people watching for any old people watching

00:51:07.580 you know what would you any words for them to encourage them to get involved i guess especially

00:51:12.780 at the university level if they're like a university student like you and they want to try to help

00:51:16.780 what would you suggest to these people um i would say always exercise your right to expression um

00:51:24.140 that's that's a big thing here i think they've suppressed us and our and our thoughts and our

00:51:27.900 voices told us what we can say can't think for so long but um i think they they almost expect the

00:51:35.260 expect full compliance out of us and i would say let us live our lives let it we're canadian citizens this

00:51:41.340 isn't a communist country this is uh this is in my mind the most beautiful country in the world this

00:51:46.220 country i was born in the country i love um a country that i want to see prosper and do well and uh

00:51:52.140 i know i know i think all canadians feel the same i'd say stand up for yourself um if you're in university

00:52:00.380 protest in your own peaceful way without without putting yourself at risk try and gather gather numbers

00:52:05.100 talk to people um if you're an older person i guess you could maybe send in send in the letters

00:52:12.940 call the school um but in your own life too i mean what i just said i think it applies to all facets of

00:52:17.820 life just standing up for yourself um and exercising your your your rights your freedoms that that aren't

00:52:24.860 decided by some kind of overarching leviathan um these are innate to human right these are innate to

00:52:31.100 humans these are our rights maybe not all humans at least canadians and i don't want to compare us

00:52:35.820 to all humans i mean we're we're better than we're better than every country in my mind and i think uh

00:52:41.100 having this sense having this kind of pride about our our country is what's going to get us out of

00:52:45.740 this um we need to hold ourselves accountable um and hold our government accountable above all so at the

00:52:52.780 end of the day just stand up for yourself stand up for your rights speak up exercise your your freedom

00:52:57.020 of expression your freedom all your freedoms and uh i think you'll you'll uh you'll have a much more

00:53:03.740 much more fulfilled life knowing that uh i guess you you did what you wanted without without inflicting

00:53:10.380 harm um that's what i intend to do well said well said um where can people find you should i just point

00:53:19.180 them towards your twitter is there anything else that uh people should do to get in touch with you

00:53:22.860 um yeah check out my twitter uh at kam underscore bach there it is um i'll i'll be posting all updates

00:53:32.300 over there probably um like i said you expect to see a lot more not only on the mask front but uh

00:53:39.020 um i i i don't plan on stopping until these these mandates are are dropped and uh i don't i don't give

00:53:45.980 up easy so or at all i'd say so so stay tuned um there's lots more to come and i i uh i look forward

00:53:53.820 to to hopefully i mean like i said this wasn't the intention at first but i i wouldn't i i feel like i

00:53:59.340 would be wasting um an opportunity if i wasn't continuing with this because i do see the amount of

00:54:04.700 the amount of good that i that it's doing for so many people and inspiring so many people i mean the

00:54:08.940 messages i'm getting inspires me um so stay tuned and uh you and i will stay in touch my friend

00:54:16.540 absolutely absolutely i look forward to uh the first time that you run for politics and win

00:54:23.180 uh thanks so much for your time camille and good luck on your test later this afternoon thank you

00:54:31.820 oh is it oh you'll ace it man you got this you got this in the bag we look we look forward to your

00:54:38.460 next next uh mockery mask to make a mock mockery of this mandate but uh thanks again uh for coming

00:54:46.140 on the show man and and we'll uh we'll talk to you soon for everybody watching you know make sure you

00:54:52.300 like share subscribe if you're new uh if you want to help support my work there's links in the

00:54:56.140 description down below you can become a member on youtube and facebook or patreon but uh yeah thanks

00:55:02.140 again camille and um thanks for inspiring canadians out there just for listening to their gut you know

00:55:08.380 and standing up for what they believe in thank you so much pleasure's all mine you're you're you're

00:55:14.300 awesome man um like i said we'll stay in touch and i appreciate the opportunity to come on here

00:55:19.260 yeah of course of course of course man we'll uh talk to you guys soon all right later bye

Greg Wycliffe - November 18, 2022

Student protests mask mandates at Wilfred Laurier

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