Juno News - February 16, 2022Calls to end all restrictions and mandates are growing louder
Episode Stats
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Summary
The protests against COVID19 are only growing, and if the government doesn't do something about it, it's going to become a game of whack-a-mole where one protest is dealt with and then another seems to flare up.
Transcript
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It seems that the protests against COVID-19 restrictions across Canada are only growing,
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are only gaining steam, and if the government manages to decrease one of them or stop one of
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them, as is going on on the Ambassador Bridge, well it ends up becoming a game of whack-a-mole
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because one protest is dealt with and then another one seems to flare up. People's passions
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towards this issue are only intensifying, both in terms of those who are protesting the mandates
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and also we're seeing some counter-protests emerge, where there are people who are upset that there
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are convoys in their cities, particularly in Ottawa. I saw some folks in Kingston were doing a
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counter-protest and didn't want a truck convoy to get entrenched in their city, and also, this is
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kind of the odd part, counter-protesters who seem to really want the mandates to stay in place. These
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are people who are fans of the restrictions sticking around in perpetuity. But the bottom line is that
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things are really only gaining steam. They're only increasing. I saw a gentleman post one video
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online that he's a military reservist and he was in his uniform and he said he's going to begin a walk
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across Canada from, I believe it's BC to Ottawa, beginning, I think, February 20th. We'll see if
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that goes ahead, but that gentleman seemed very sincere and passionate about the fact that he was
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going to do that. So there you go. New things are only just emerging by the day. People's frustrations
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are really being ratcheted up. And I've said since before there was a convoy that we've got
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to get rid of these COVID-19 restrictions and mandates. We've got to move towards things being
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optional. You've got so many people, the vast majority of people, pretty much everybody double
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vaccinated, tens of people triple vaccinated. Omicron variant has been confirmed to be significantly
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milder. What's going on? What's the holdup? You want to wear the mask in the grocery store? Go ahead
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and wear the mask. You don't want to wear the mask in the grocery store? Go ahead. Don't wear the mask
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in the grocery store. Make things optionally. I mean, I think that's really the core of what people
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who are taking to the streets in protest are saying. I mean, a lot of different people are
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saying a lot of different things, of course. I mean, there's a variety of grievances going on there,
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and they sort of run the gamut. But the collective grievance is just leave us alone now. No more
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overbearing, broad-based, mandatory stuff. Let us just figure it out. We've been talking about this
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COVID thing for two years now. Respect us like adults to make our own personal risk assessments.
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That's the core message that's happening. And I think just because the government brings in a state
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of emergency, allowing them to deal with a more sort of acute concern there, the blocking of the
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Ambassador Bridge, once they deal with that issue, it doesn't mean it's going away. So I know Doug Ford,
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Justin Trudeau, they're really playing the tough guy act. They got to say, we will not capitulate to
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protesters. But they also know that these rules are collapsing rapidly around the world. And in
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Canada, we've of course had announcements in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, other provinces
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bringing back the rules, not bringing back the rules, reducing the rules. Ontario's got to head
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in that direction very soon. Federal government has as well. And they've kind of acknowledged that
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they're going to be doing it pretty soon. But they want to make it pretend as if they're not doing it
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because of the protests. But the protests, yes, one or two may be reduced or kind of go away in the
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interim. But they're not going to eliminate all protests before they eliminate the rules. It's
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pretty clear that things are only gaining steam. So I think the path of least resistance, the most
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elegant solution, is just to fast track the plan to get rid of the rules. Because it is a pretty
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moderate, mild request at the end of the day to say, let's leave these COVID risk assessments
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up to us. So we know Doug Ford is going in that direction. We know Trudeau is as well. And I think
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for the sake of national unity, you know, they need to not really need to stop being so stubborn. I
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mean, they need to take the high road and say, okay, guys, we're going to wrap this up anyway.
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Let's just do it a week or two early. And I think that's the most responsible and most unifying path
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of aging period together. So I'm not corrected. So I'm going to make sure that we're obviously trying to
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take moreê³µout when you're towards the base. So I think that's pretty important. I'm going to give you