00:00:00.000Writing in 1984, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman wrote,
00:00:13.540nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. He was referring to
00:00:17.700government spending on social programs, but his commentary is just as relevant today
00:00:21.700as it concerns emergency authoritarian powers that governments are granting themselves.
00:00:25.820These extraordinary powers have been amassed by governments step by step since then, with the goalposts moving evermore in a dangerous and authoritarian direction.
00:00:35.820One new set of powers to combat the latest COVID-19 variant is stacked atop the previous set of powers.
00:00:42.820Any rare relaxation of these powers is never fully repealed, but it provides a short reprieve from evermore extreme measures that are introduced next.
00:00:50.820next. Fears over how far these powers will extend are dismissed as wild-eyed conspiracy theories
00:00:56.500until they're not. They are fever dreams on Monday, then their government policy on Tuesday.
00:01:03.620Restrictions to stop mass gatherings like concerts became police attacking kids for playing hockey
00:01:09.300or jailing church pastors. It's official government advice that masks don't work
00:01:14.100to mandatory masking for little children at no risk of COVID. Its premier is vowing never to
00:01:20.620impose vaccine passports before requiring them by law. It's the government endlessly praising0.61
00:01:26.440frontline healthcare workers before firing them for being unvaccinated. With every inch we give,
00:01:33.900the government takes a mile. Every time they take new powers for themselves, they promise that
00:01:39.260they're temporary and necessary, but it's rarely the truth. Dismissed by the political and media
00:01:45.180classes were warnings that these draconian measures were on a clear path to mandatory
00:01:51.180vaccination. By mandatory, I'm no longer speaking about discriminatory and coercive measures like
00:01:56.540vaccine passports, which make vaccines mandatory if one wishes to live an even semi-normal life,
00:02:02.300or threats of firing workers who do not comply. I now mean mandatory in the sense that the
00:02:07.900government will prosecute you like a criminal if you are not vaccinated. Just weeks ago,
00:02:12.940Austria and Italy began their program of mandatory vaccination, charging citizens for not getting the
00:02:18.300jab as if they were petty thieves. The silence of the Canadian political leadership and media
00:02:23.100should have been a clear sign enough that they didn't think that it was such a bad idea.
00:02:27.900But none of them said it out loud until today. Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos told
00:02:33.740the media that he believes provinces are likely to soon introduce mandatory vaccination.
00:02:38.220Quote, what we see now is that our health care system in Canada is fragile,
00:02:41.740our people are tired and that the only way we know to get through COVID-19, this variant and
00:02:45.900any future variant, is through vaccination," Duclos said on Friday during a news conference.
00:02:51.500Based on his, quote, personal understanding of what we see internationally and domestically,
00:02:55.900end quote, and the conversations he's had with health ministers across the country over the past
00:02:59.980few weeks, Duclos said he believes discussions around mandatory vaccination policies will be
00:03:05.180coming in the near future quote that's why i am signaling a conversation which i believe provinces
00:03:12.220and territories and support with the federal government will want to have over the next weeks
00:03:15.900and months end quote well thankfully ottawa's ability to impose mandatory vaccines is limited
00:03:22.780by the constitution where healthcare is theoretically under exclusive provincial
00:03:26.780jurisdiction ottawa's ability to meddle has mostly been limited limited to requiring a vaccine
00:03:32.140passport for Canadians to travel by air and water, an exit passport that more closely resembles 1980s
00:03:37.900East Germany than 2019 Canada. But the provinces have closely followed Ottawa's lead on most things
00:03:43.660COVID. When Ottawa said masks should be mandatory, all provinces made them mandatory. When Ottawa
00:03:49.740said that there should be vaccine passports, every single province introduced a vaccine passport.
00:03:55.900Now Ottawa's signaling that it wants to move on the effect of criminalization of the unvaccinated.
00:04:01.660Can we really expect the provinces to stand their ground this time?
00:04:05.540Alberta Premier Jason Kenney signaled that he won't play ball in a tweet responding to Duclos' comments.
00:04:56.660Alberta's government has rolled over every single time.
00:05:01.700It's too late for Kenny to paint himself as some kind of Western freedom fighter doing battle with an evil overreaching Ottawa.
00:05:08.860But there's a chance for him to do the right thing this time.
00:05:12.780Kenny has drawn this latest rhetorical line in the sand, but it's difficult to believe when he's drawn so many before, only to cross them and go beyond.
00:05:21.860All Kenny can do this time is to keep his word.
00:05:24.220politicians can draw all the lines in the sand that they like but the only defense against this
00:05:30.040most extreme act of authoritarian overreach is for citizens to draw the line themselves
00:05:34.660people vaccinated and unvaccinated alike need to make clear that this is not just unwelcome
00:05:41.140it is an unacceptable attack on their most fundamental liberties it is an action that
00:05:46.920would delegitimize the power of the government to exercise its will for my own part i now
00:05:53.420identify as a non-vaccinated person. The two previous doses that I freely took in the spring
00:05:58.700of 2021 should be wiped from the record. If my friends, family, and colleagues are now quasi
00:06:04.020criminals for exercising their own choice over their own bodies, well, so am I. There is no good
00:06:10.880place beyond here. This is the point of no return. Beyond here is only a dark descent into a world
00:06:18.360that is unfit for free men and free women.1.00