Juno News - February 28, 2021


Are anti-lockdown rallies superspreader events?


Episode Stats

Length

9 minutes

Words per Minute

157.41412

Word Count

1,448

Sentence Count

1

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 it's time for this small minority to uh to shut up grow up and mask up we we have you know a
00:00:12.640 bunch of yahoos out in the front of queen's park sitting there protesting that the place isn't open
00:00:20.000 absolutely irresponsible they're it's reckless to do what they're doing and personally i think
00:00:25.920 it's selfish the people who are in those rallies know exactly what they're doing they know what
00:00:31.280 they're doing is against the law uh and they're flagrantly putting other people at risk so yeah
00:00:35.920 you have the right to be an idiot but you don't have the right to put other people at risk by being
00:00:41.680 an idiot and that kind of behavior has to stop it's selfish and it's self-indulgence we don't have the
00:00:47.200 luxury for that right now we don't have the time for that right now i don't have time to deal with
00:00:51.360 this because we gotta try and keep people alive these irresponsible idiots need to look in the
00:00:56.080 mirror they are the problem and that the sooner we get this curve bent down the sooner we get
00:01:01.280 covet under control then they can go back to their uh their narcissistic self-indulgent ways
00:01:06.560 but until that time they don't have the right to endanger the health of the public
00:01:10.240 i was thinking the other day there have been so many anti-lockdown protests over the past year
00:01:15.680 december 5th 2020 in calgary about 1000 people gathered november 14th in steinbeck manitoba about
00:01:22.880 500 people october 17th in toronto thousands of people october 17th and 18th in vancouver about a
00:01:29.600 thousand people august 8th in montreal thousands of people and these are just the largest protests
00:01:36.000 there were also countless others that had maybe 20 to 200 people that occurred across the country as well
00:01:42.000 and i've covered and checked out a few of the vancouver protests and when you're there you'll
00:01:47.680 notice that there are few if any masks and little to no social distancing so wouldn't you think that
00:01:53.760 there would be mass infection rates and deaths due to these protests and that they would be known as
00:02:00.400 these localized super spreader events but i looked into it and i couldn't find any news reports of any
00:02:07.760 cases that are linked to these anti-lockdown rallies and our public health departments they can trace
00:02:12.880 cases back to specific fitness facilities spas restaurants pub trivia nights so you'd think that
00:02:19.440 they would be able to trace back cases to a protest and remember we were also assured in the spring by
00:02:25.920 every major media source that there were absolutely no covet cases linked to the very large black lives
00:02:32.080 matter or blm rallies that occurred in every major city in canada i emailed the public health departments
00:02:37.680 of bc alberta manitoba ontario and quebec because these are the provinces that had multiple large
00:02:45.120 anti-lockdown rallies and i asked are there any covid cases that can be traced back to anti-lockdown rallies
00:02:52.720 in your province alberta manitoba and ontario didn't bother to respond to me uh even after i followed
00:02:59.120 up a couple times with each um but bc and quebec are the two provinces that did answer me um but
00:03:05.520 they didn't have any data on this they said and they answered that we probably wouldn't be able to
00:03:10.800 get accurate data anyways because anti-lockdown protesters wouldn't be honest to public health
00:03:16.640 about where they've been and that's kind of what i expected them to say but again they were somehow
00:03:22.560 able to determine that no cases were linked to the blm rallies this is what the bc ministry of health
00:03:29.760 emailed me in addition one could assume that people may not be truthful about attending an anti-mask rally
00:03:37.040 during contact tracing conversations with public health so the likelihood of having an accurate
00:03:42.160 picture of this kind of transmission is low those participating in anti-mask demonstrations are the
00:03:48.000 minority the vast majority of people in british columbia are doing the right things and recognize
00:03:53.040 that wearing a mask protects everybody i will point out the pr person who answered me might have genuinely
00:03:59.600 conflated anti-mask with anti-lockdown but i specifically said anti-lockdown i never said anything
00:04:06.000 about an anti-mask protest um so this line about wearing a mask protects everyone uh okay thanks but that's
00:04:14.080 not really what i was talking about i think that there is a tendency among government officials and
00:04:20.160 the media to just refer to anti-lockdown protests as anti-mask protests because i think then they can
00:04:27.520 write them off more easily and also the general public will just kind of regard these protests as petty
00:04:35.360 but anyways i'm i'm gonna go ahead and say that it's probably safe to assume based on the responses and
00:04:42.560 non-responses that we got that just like the blm protests um at this point no cases of covid are
00:04:50.880 linked to anti-lockdown rallies no cases but that means we have all these politicians who are saying
00:04:56.720 that anti-lockdown protesters are putting everyone at risk they're endangering lives they're jeopardizing
00:05:03.520 everyone's health when it doesn't look like there's any evidence of that at all so let's recap here
00:05:11.440 naheed nenshi mayor of calgary said that anti-lockdown protesters are idiots who are putting people at
00:05:18.240 risk and they are selfish and self-indulgent what did he have to say about the black lives matter
00:05:24.880 protests of june 2020 well he congratulated them he said he has a feeling of extraordinary pride
00:05:33.200 i'm proud of calgarians for coming together for doing so peacefully for not throwing a single
00:05:38.560 rock or breaking a single pane of glass for opening their hearts and their minds and their ears to
00:05:43.520 the conversations of other people very nice mike farnworth public safety minister in bc said anti-lockdown
00:05:52.720 protesters are irresponsible idiots who are endangering health and they need to shut up and they're
00:05:58.960 narcissists what did he have to say about the blm protesters nothing ontario premier doug ford calls
00:06:08.640 anti-lockdown protesters selfish reckless and a bunch of yahoo's so what names does he call the blm
00:06:16.480 protesters well i i always encourage a peaceful and safe protest or march and i think that's important
00:06:25.360 that's how you get your voice heard hmm okay you know we're almost approaching the one year mark of
00:06:31.280 the two weeks to flatten the curve and we need to look around an albertan pastor who held in-person
00:06:38.480 church services is currently in jail people are losing their jobs for speaking out about lockdown
00:06:45.040 harms a 28 year old quebec actress died waiting for a surgery that was postponed due to covet 19
00:06:52.240 because they want to keep the hospitals empty for coveted patients a 29 year old woman died
00:06:57.360 of a staph infection whilst her healthcare providers just assumed that this healthy young woman had
00:07:02.640 covet now i don't have time in this video to rehash all of the harms caused by lockdowns and by covet
00:07:09.840 hysteria in general but true north has published a fact sheet about it we published that last month so
00:07:15.360 i'll link it in the description but more recently mayor naheed nenshi is even seriously gaslighting
00:07:22.880 people by claiming that there are no lockdowns this is what he said people keep saying lift the
00:07:29.520 lockdown there's no lockdown indoor gatherings are banned outdoor gatherings are okay basically gyms
00:07:36.000 and cultural institutions are closed oh yeah just gyms and cultural institutions who cares
00:07:42.880 there's some other things but that's basically it and i will tell you that opening those things up is
00:07:48.320 not going to make a significant difference to people's mental health or to the economic health
00:07:53.040 of the community well who are you to say that how can you make a blanket statement like that it's just
00:08:00.160 despicable so i will end it at this if you are someone who is against lockdowns and maybe against other
00:08:08.240 things related to covet too like um maybe you're against mandatory vaccinations um against masks
00:08:14.640 against covet fear-mongering in general um so if you are one of these people you're on the right side of
00:08:21.680 history and i don't usually feel comfortable making grand predictions about things like that but on this
00:08:28.800 issue i i feel pretty confident um in years or decades down the road they're gonna do studies they're gonna
00:08:36.880 do research and policy analysis on on lockdowns and and the outcomes and people who were against
00:08:44.720 lockdowns we will be vindicated and when that happens we will remember the words of these politicians
00:08:53.040 i'm lindsay shepherd with true north thanks so much for watching if you enjoy true north's
00:08:58.080 coverage and commentary please consider becoming a supporter bye