Greg Wycliffe - November 21, 2022


Student speaks out against mandates in Canadian Universities


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

166.22691

Word count

1,134

Sentence count

63

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode, I introduce myself, my story, and my opposition to the mask mandates at my school, and why I believe they need to be rescinded. I also talk about the Canadian government's assault on our constitutional rights and why we need to fight back against them.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I'm a freedom and Canada-loving student, born and raised in this beautiful city.
00:00:04.500 Some of you may have seen my recent protests involving the mask mandates at my school,
00:00:08.720 so I'm here to tell you a little story and a little bit about myself and what I stand for.
00:00:13.840 Just over a year ago, on September 29th, 2021, I was informed by my school,
00:00:19.760 Wilfrid Laurier University, that I had one week to provide them with my proof of COVID vaccination
00:00:25.000 under the threat of being unenrolled from my courses.
00:00:28.020 Unfortunately, as a matter of principle, I wasn't willing to disclose this personal information,
00:00:34.560 so I was kicked out of school.
00:00:37.580 Now, my main issue was with this form of medical discrimination,
00:00:41.540 which had no logical, ethical, or scientific basis.
00:00:46.440 They enacted a never-before-seen measure by presenting the students with an ultimatum.
00:00:51.500 Either they can betray their conscience and take an experimental drug,
00:00:55.280 or they can throw away a year of their lives.
00:00:58.960 I was in the position of being on pace to finish a four-year bachelor in philosophy
00:01:02.740 on top of economics and political science minors in only three years.
00:01:07.160 I worked like a dog over my summers, taking full course loads,
00:01:10.540 in the hopes of graduating a year early so I could get a head start on law school.
00:01:15.220 This goal of mine was spoiled by the authoritarian policies put in place by the dean and the board of Laurier.
00:01:21.160 I think we can all agree that the Canadian universities who enacted mandates like these
00:01:27.280 failed the duty that they have towards their students.
00:01:32.220 This is just to give you some background on the university I'm attending.
00:01:36.800 Believe it or not, the absurdity went even further.
00:01:40.620 Fast forward a year, all provincial mask mandates were dropped,
00:01:44.140 yet nonetheless, before the semester began,
00:01:47.840 students and faculty were informed that everyone on campus
00:01:50.420 would have to wear a face covering in instructional settings.
00:01:54.600 I couldn't believe that they were going to continue enforcing these mandates
00:01:57.780 on those who were incentivized to conform and obey,
00:02:01.200 faculty that needed to put food on their dinner tables,
00:02:04.480 and students who need to graduate.
00:02:07.080 If you ask me, the provincial and federal governments played their hand perfectly.
00:02:11.480 They quickly realized that we weren't a bunch of idiots,
00:02:15.000 so they began targeting the most vulnerable of the bunch,
00:02:18.000 the amazing children of this country,
00:02:19.960 who, by the way, had zero risk of developing any serious illness from COVID.
00:02:25.600 They're destroying the Canadian family as we know it. 0.99
00:02:28.720 They're normalizing a society where children speak to their schools instead of their parents,
00:02:33.480 one that doesn't value what you can learn at home from those who love you,
00:02:37.820 a robbery of our culture, 0.77
00:02:38.980 a society that places an incentive on being a victim rather than a victor.
00:02:44.760 They want Canadian children, the future of this country,
00:02:47.920 to embrace authority instead of questioning it and holding it accountable.
00:02:52.260 The goal, being a society that abides by the law even when it's unethical.
00:02:57.620 Obeying without questioning and rewarding those who follow blindly
00:03:01.680 with privileges that the rest of us cannot receive.
00:03:04.120 Now, this might sound unrealistic,
00:03:07.320 but try to picture a world where you need a passport to go to the restaurant
00:03:11.760 or to go to the funeral of a loved one.
00:03:15.080 It's exponentially easier to control someone if you condition them early,
00:03:19.620 especially at a stage in their lives where they're supposed to question things
00:03:23.480 and form their own opinions,
00:03:25.500 training them to be obedient little soldiers.
00:03:27.980 An obsession with a sense of control or a desire for power is human nature.
00:03:34.200 It's nothing new.
00:03:35.440 This can be found within us and is externalized everywhere.
00:03:39.320 Whether we're seeking more control of our own lives,
00:03:42.380 whether you're at home listening to your parents or guiding the children
00:03:45.440 that you have a duty to raise the right way,
00:03:47.920 whether you're at work with a boss giving you orders,
00:03:50.360 Canada is quickly turning into a place
00:03:53.500 that is controlled by an overarching, seemingly all-powerful authority
00:03:57.960 telling us what we can and cannot do with our lives.
00:04:02.020 To quote Imid Shohan,
00:04:03.880 the man who obeys will be obeyed in his turn.
00:04:07.640 Now, this nihilist thinker is not praising this sense of authority.
00:04:11.680 He's condemning it,
00:04:13.320 pointing out the notion that almost every facet of our life
00:04:16.780 is intertwined with power.
00:04:18.140 Now, I believe that this power should be held within the social construct,
00:04:23.160 within our society,
00:04:24.800 by the people,
00:04:25.860 and for the people.
00:04:27.380 We need to be extremely wary of who holds this power,
00:04:31.700 not necessarily at home and at work,
00:04:34.100 but specifically with regards to our government.
00:04:37.500 Nobody should be told what to do with their minds or their bodies.
00:04:41.500 Human rights are one thing that obviously need to be protected,
00:04:45.120 but what happened to our charter rights?
00:04:47.280 What the federal government has done to our right to speak freely,
00:04:51.300 our right to assemble,
00:04:52.960 and our right to mobility is disgusting.
00:04:56.100 We were all witness to Trudeau's invoking of the Emergencies Act,
00:05:00.520 labeling the patriotic truckers who put everything on the line
00:05:04.060 to protest these draconian mandates as terrorists, for goodness sake.
00:05:08.460 Anyone who supported them was a misogynist,
00:05:12.320 a racist,
00:05:13.560 a bigot, 0.50
00:05:14.780 a science denier.
00:05:17.000 According to our federal government,
00:05:19.320 we are all of those things.
00:05:21.600 We are this so-called fringe minority.
00:05:24.940 And you know what?
00:05:26.260 We're proud of it.
00:05:27.080 I might be young,
00:05:31.100 but I sure as hell I'm not dumb.
00:05:34.000 Trudeau wants to segregate us.
00:05:36.160 He wants us gone.
00:05:38.160 He can try for the rest of his life,
00:05:40.340 but I can promise you one thing,
00:05:42.460 he will not succeed.
00:05:44.480 People like us care about this country.
00:05:47.300 We can all pat ourselves on the back
00:05:49.340 because we can say that we did the right thing.
00:05:52.020 We stood up and we honored all the fallen soldiers
00:05:55.040 that died fighting for the freedom of this country.
00:05:57.960 The same freedom that our government claims to want for all of us.
00:06:02.240 One day,
00:06:03.120 I'll be able to look my kids in the eyes
00:06:05.160 and tell them I didn't roll over and do what was easy.
00:06:09.460 We'll all be able to say that we fought for this country
00:06:12.280 and the future of it.
00:06:13.620 The path that we're headed down scares me
00:06:17.500 and frankly should scare anyone
00:06:19.480 who values their fundamental rights and freedoms.
00:06:22.980 And no,
00:06:23.640 that doesn't mean you're right to be respected
00:06:25.980 or you're right not to have your feelings hurt.
00:06:29.460 We deserve better.
00:06:31.200 I intend to stand up not only for my future,
00:06:34.280 but for the future of this country.
00:06:36.280 And I know all of you will do the same.
00:06:39.020 Yeah!
00:06:40.340 Thank you.
00:06:41.300 And God keep our land.
00:06:43.200 Yeah!
00:06:43.620 Thank you.
00:06:46.700 Thank you.
00:06:47.500 You are a future!
00:06:48.880 Thank you.
00:06:49.220 Thank you.
00:06:49.240 Thank you.
00:06:49.260 Thank you.