00:00:00.000The Western Standard has been following the story of the Ferguson family. This is a family of four
00:00:16.460that's been staying in a Ronald McDonald house in Vancouver. Their four-year-old son Jack has been
00:00:22.280undergoing leukemia treatment at the BC Children's Hospital. Now the family was told that they were
00:00:28.700going to need to leave the house because they have chosen to remain unvaccinated and they had until
00:00:34.380the end of January to do so. This has just really exploded in social media and mainstream media and
00:00:42.300the family has just really seen a lot of polarized reaction to their decision and coming forward to
00:00:48.620discuss the fact that they were going to be evicted from Ronald McDonald House. I had a
00:00:53.660a chance to have an exclusive update from Austin, the father. Good evening. I'm Melanie
00:01:02.980Risden with the Western Standard and joining me tonight is Austin Ferguson. He's the father
00:01:08.960of Jack Ferguson, the young little boy who the family was staying in the Ronald McDonald
00:01:14.940house in Vancouver. And because of a change in their policy or an update to their policy,
00:01:20.900the family was going to be needing to leave the facility so just touching base with the family
00:01:27.860it's been a bit of a whirlwind for for all of them with what has happened and just wanted to
00:01:34.820just wanted to touch base with you Austin and see see where you guys are at right now what's
00:01:40.180what's happened since the moment you found out that you were going to be sort of I guess evicted
00:01:47.380from the ronald mcdonald house in vancouver and you uh recorded your interaction with the
00:01:53.300administrator yeah well first i was just uh thanks for having me on it's nice to see you face to face
00:02:00.100after all the talking yeah but but yeah just walking through it i mean yeah we were just uh
00:02:08.340we were really excited because i just finished um my course to become a red seal electrician
00:02:13.300so yeah that was that was great and i thought i had closed the whole chapter behind me the driving
00:02:19.060back and forth to colonna where my course was and and all this um yeah well and let's and let's give
00:02:24.980a little bit of a pre-story so so your your son jack was diagnosed with leukemia and your family
00:02:32.740was then um put up at the ronald mcdonald house near the bc children's hospital in october correct
00:02:39.060yeah that's right right so you were doing this back and forth traveling um from colonna to to
00:02:45.300vancouver uh through october november december and um you're you you sort of wrapped up your schooling
00:02:52.900uh and joined the family in january yeah that's right so okay yeah yeah that's great um so that
00:03:01.060that was that was great like when i got that email it was all over now i just we're all moved in i
00:03:07.700even had changed it on my driver's license and uh changed all my mailing addresses and stuff so
00:03:13.220so we were just set to live there it's sounding like we're not going to know until wednesday when
00:03:18.100he does another bone marrow biopsy but it's sounding like um on wednesday we're going to
00:03:23.140find out but he's pretty confident we were going to go home in june so okay so you still had a good
00:03:29.220half a year yeah yeah that's right so um and we loved it there like uh the reason i was upset to
00:03:36.980leave because i liked living there you know what i mean so it was a great place and we got along
00:03:41.060with the staff great and had some friends there uh but yeah i mean it wasn't until like four days
00:03:47.940after i found out i'd passed the red seal that we got the letter in the the box outside the door
00:03:53.220and it was just basically saying that anybody five years or older would have to be vaccinated to stay
00:03:58.180there and uh just to add some clarification i don't feel bad for saying it in the beginning
00:04:02.580because it's nowhere in the letter but if your kid is sick you can get an exemption but it's still
00:04:08.660still like lots of these families have multiple children and stuff so still it's there's a huge
00:04:14.440group of people who are no longer going to be allowed to come in anymore so it's pretty disturbing
00:04:18.800the letter is pretty messed up just because uh like that was our home and so just getting kicked
00:04:25.420out especially of a community living type situation like that you know that's definitely hurtful so
00:04:30.380i think you can see that in the video i'm sure a lot of people have seen it at this point but yeah
00:04:37.020so yes that's pretty much what happened so now i understand that you were you had an opportunity or
00:04:45.580have an opportunity to move to the easter seals house which i believe is is fairly close by
00:04:51.260is that still the option that you're going to look at or what have you guys decided moving forward
00:04:57.020yeah so lindsey's really the one who talks to the social worker and that's your wife yeah yeah my
00:05:05.000wife lindsey and so as far as i know like it's a hundred percent at this point like we will be
00:05:10.520moving in on tuesday and uh and and yeah it's just down the road as far as i know it's been there
00:05:17.360even before ronald mcdonald house it's a little bit more expensive and not as nice because like
00:05:22.100it's not attached to mcdonald's right like everybody knows mcdonald's it's huge they get
00:05:26.040lots of donations it's just not as popular so it's just it's not on their
00:05:30.720fault it's just the way it is so but but you know some good news coming out is
00:05:37.140that I've had a lot of people reaching out saying is it true that you're going
00:05:41.280there and everything and they're accepting you even though you're not
00:05:43.320vaccinated and I've been saying yes and I think a lot of people have been
00:05:46.740donating to them ever since this has happened which is kind of kind of cool
00:05:51.040now speaking of that so so ronald mcdonald house did send us at the western standard a statement
00:06:00.080uh basically saying that they you know their policy is in an effort to keep all um especially
00:06:07.760the immunocompromised children um in the facility safe uh and and so understandably you know this
00:06:15.280this is but you know what are your thoughts around this decision in the wake of you know
00:06:20.820it being a mandate versus you know public uh just trying to keep kids safe what are your thoughts
00:06:29.080around that yeah so i mean i i don't believe it has anything to do with safety i mean even in the
00:06:38.920beginning if we go way back like people who got the vaccine as far as i can tell were told they
00:06:45.260were going to be immune and then we started finding out that it only offered protection
00:06:49.620against hospitalization and death so even like i brought that up in the interview if that's the
00:06:54.120whole purpose of it then then how does that protect other people around me um you know so it's like i
00:07:00.840said in the video like anybody can walk out this door and carry covid back in and um so so to me
00:07:09.760like i don't believe it's about safety i think it's like i've been saying i mean it's it's it's
00:07:14.820like the world is just putting their hands around the neck of every unvaccinated person and just
00:07:19.200squeezing until they do what they want and that's that's a big reason why i don't want to get it
00:07:24.220because i just don't stand with that not to say anything of people who are vaccinated i i love
00:07:29.520everybody we're all canadian we're all made in the image of god i just wish there was no
00:07:33.500discrimination no segregation and you know they're saying it's for safety but i'm just not really
00:07:38.460buying it you know there's a gym in colonna it's followed all the rules and all that stuff and the
00:07:42.820gyms still got shut down. So it's just, to me, it's like, what's going on here? I just think it's
00:07:47.920some dark stuff and I don't agree with it at all. So there has been a large amount of media
00:07:59.060attention that has been brought to this story, your story. And I understand that, you know,
00:08:06.400I've been sort of following along and I've watched even just the financial support grow
00:08:12.460uh from your gofundme page which is incredible and and you have already sort of shared with us that
00:08:18.300you all of your needs are met and you you plan to be helping other people who are who are facing
00:08:25.180you know a similar situation and perhaps helping them financially um with their needs being met
00:08:30.780uh helping them meet their needs but but i'm wondering how has the backlash been for your
00:08:37.660family i know there has been you know a real polarizing effect on people's uh attitudes
00:08:43.580towards this story yeah the the backlash was insane like the uh this this mob just kind of
00:08:52.220came after me they were calling my boss like how can you hire this guy it wasn't even my last boss
00:08:56.860it was my boss before my last boss hadn't updated it on facebook he's like hey man i totally agree
00:09:02.220with you this is messed up but can you just take me off your facebook because people are calling
00:09:05.660me and harassing me and all this stuff and that's just one thing i mean uh like the messages people
00:09:10.700are sending me are insane they're digging up old things from like posts when i was 14 years old
00:09:16.220and like reporting it and facebook censored me and all this stuff and then this other crazy lady i'm1.00
00:09:21.740gonna call her totally crazy she was launching this campaign to get a whole bunch of people to1.00
00:09:26.300swarm go fund me to get the money taken away so i just think it's it's pretty clear whose side god's
00:09:32.860on and all this when these people are just coming after me so hard like even if i hated somebody
00:09:38.460at the end of the day like my son has cancer you know what i mean like these people are totally
00:09:42.380unhinged that are just coming after me and saying all this all this stuff like i'm doing it just for
00:09:46.840money when i posted that video it had nothing to do with money i just hate the vaccine mandates0.84
00:09:51.260and i just hate the segregation and discrimination and that you're allowed to come in because you can
00:09:56.660scan your qr code and you can't come in because you can't and you know what i mean you can only
00:10:01.180you can only eat at mcdonald's and dairy queen and you can go wherever you want
00:10:04.780like so it's uh like that's what i'm against i just want there's so many wedges between people
00:10:11.320already like with donald trump and politics and all stuff and racists and white privilege and
00:10:16.060all these different things that were already dividing people like this is just so much more
00:10:20.800even and uh i just want to lift those wedges out i'm just saying stop the vaccine mandates
00:10:26.640and that's what i was doing it all about it wasn't even about money i think people just wanted the
00:10:32.220exposure i think it was a combination of you know people lots of people said they were at ronald
00:10:37.760mcdonald house that they had children with cancer also and just wanted to help me out but i think a
00:10:42.500lot of people were just outraged about the thing just wanted to donate money to me as a way of
00:10:47.820saying just thank you for getting this out there and letting everybody know because i think when
00:10:52.820they did this they were just kind of hoping it would just roll off the backs of everybody
00:10:55.940well and when it comes to the gofundme page this was this was set up by a friend of yours early on
00:11:03.200uh to help your family with some of the expenses that you were going to incur especially with all
00:11:08.640that that driving back and forth and and uh you know i'm assuming that it makes it very difficult
00:11:14.680for either you or your wife to be working right now so so you know this was this was the goal of
00:11:21.020your friend was to help support the family. And so this was started months before any of this
00:11:28.080kind of came out. So just want to clarify that. So Austin, have you found that the support has
00:11:34.600been more positive than negative? Yeah, there's definitely been way more support. I mean,
00:11:40.720I haven't even been able to get through all my messages and even still messages coming out saying,
00:11:46.080do you want to be in a documentary about the vaccine mandates and all these things and like
00:11:50.960even back from wednesday it took me all week just to get through the thank you messages and the
00:11:55.600people sharing their stories about their children who had leukemia and just all that took all week
00:12:01.360just to get through the stuff in my inbox and then i have all these message requests all the
00:12:05.760spam messages and so i just want to get through and thank everybody because people have been so
00:12:10.240generous and loving to me and uh definitely early on like the people who are sharing it
00:12:15.760just we're really putting their hearts out there like this is this is disgusting this is messed
00:12:19.040up this shouldn't happen in canada people are saying things like i'm ashamed to be canadian
00:12:23.040and all these things this is like weeping of the of the countries what what i saw at first
00:12:29.120people are posting things like i hate people who post politics on facebook and uh i've been trying
00:12:35.360to stay out of this covert debate debate as long as possible but this is just so messed up like i
00:12:39.920have to share it these vaccine mandates and this division has to end and there's quite a few shares
00:12:45.120like that so um i think i really cut through the heart of a lot of people with our story because i
00:12:50.080think a lot of people and like not to to say something rude about people but i think a lot
00:12:57.600of people think with their feelings more than than with like intellect and truth and facts
00:13:03.280and i think my story is able to hit people in that way like and cut to the heart where people could
00:13:08.560see the the vaccine mandates for what they really are and uh for that i'm just really grateful that
00:13:14.400god used me in his way to to do this thing and shake people up a little bit because i think we
00:13:19.520we do need to get shaken up a little bit and uh i think this story did that and
00:13:24.880yeah i'm just humbled that that about the exposure and all that stuff for sure for sure
00:13:31.520i know that there has been calls from people to boycott uh ronald mcdonald house and i mean it is
00:13:38.880it is an establishment that does you know wonderful things for for families what do
00:13:44.480you say to people who are calling for that boycott yeah so i was thinking about this kind of stuff
00:13:52.400and i was pretty mad when this all happened but after i took some time to think about it um
00:14:00.800how do i want to say like i think the thing i felt the most bad about like just looking at all the
00:14:05.600the interviews i've done with people is at the end of the rebel news interview us they asked what
00:14:10.000would you like to say to the board members and i kind of went off about you know all these people
00:14:14.420are going to stop donating to you so if your conscience doesn't change your mind then let
00:14:18.860that change your mind and uh you know i've been thinking about that and how the bible kind of
00:14:24.580says love your enemies and you know i don't want people to stop donating to them like if you're
00:14:30.940unvaccinated and you're like well this is not cool because if my kid got sick i couldn't come
00:14:35.280here so why would i donate to you i'll donate to easter seals or something like yeah sure but i
00:14:39.920mean i i don't i'm kind of neutral in it like i don't want people to hate going on mcdonald house
00:14:45.140and not donate to them like like okay so i'm not there but they're still going to help out all
00:14:49.740these families and stuff and yeah it hurts that that's how they're doing it but at the end of the
00:14:54.300day like kids are still going to live and kids are going to run around those hallways and laugh
00:14:57.840and play so I mean yeah I mean it's sad it's sad to say like I'm kind of emotional just saying that
00:15:05.820but I that is kind of how my heart has changed around it to be honest now you received a lot
00:15:12.960of exposure in the United States as well I know I saw a few different areas where they were covering
00:15:21.280it i believe you'd said that you had a fox interview as well um how has that affected
00:15:27.600things for you right i uh yeah it's hard for me to really understand like the reach of it like when
00:15:36.480i like i think it's reached pretty far i went to church on sunday and they invited me to come up
00:15:41.520and talk and the whole church stood up and started clapping for me and it's just been pretty humbling
00:15:47.120like i can't really understand how far it's gone i've been going through messages and people are
00:15:51.680like uh like much love from brazil and love from sweden and this reporter reached out from new
00:15:57.840zealand and she's like oh i thought you were in new zealand never mind and so like i think it's
00:16:02.880it's reached pretty far so but i can't really comprehend it because i'm still trying to spend
00:16:06.720time with my kids and everything all i really know is all i really know is what's coming in with
00:16:11.200like the emails that i have been able to read um besides that all i did was do it on facebook so i
00:16:17.520don't really know how much reach cross platforms i've had and all that kind of stuff so did you
00:16:22.960expect any of this no no i thought like uh i thought um i don't know what i thought
00:16:32.720i mean maybe i did in a way because in the beginning i was i sent it to some people there's
00:16:39.200this channel i watch on youtube it's called dc shorts and they kind of show clips of like crazy
00:16:44.640vaccine things that happen like people getting denied service and all these things and uh so i
00:16:50.000thought they might want to air it because they're always playing all these kind of funny shorts or
00:16:53.920or uh like heart-wrenching shorts and things like that so i did send it to some people because i
00:16:58.800thought i would get out but i mean i didn't think it would be this crazy i didn't think people are
00:17:03.120going to have me on their show i thought people might play it and stuff like that but you know
00:17:07.120Well, I think what it's done from reading the comments from people and, you know, having even people email us here at the Western Standard, I think what it's really done is it's highlighted the fact that people are really being affected by this in such negative and heartbreaking ways.
00:17:30.120And I think, you know, without putting a face to that, without people seeing and hearing of the real stories behind people struggling through some of these mandates, I think it, you know, it almost doesn't exist until they can see that this is, you know, this is a young family who are, you know, obviously suffering because this mandate is restricting their access to a home that they desperately needed.
00:17:59.780And, you know, grateful to hear that the Easterseals house is going to take your family on and you will have another place to stay close to the hospital as you continue treatment for Jack.
00:18:12.260But I think, you know, again, like you said, this sort of has brought the humanity back into the equation, right?
00:18:19.380And that people are being touched and affected by this.
00:18:23.360And so I think that's why stories of this nature reach so far.
00:18:29.780yeah and and i'm just humbled by the whole thing because like the people who i think are the
00:18:35.280bravest are the people who are willing to walk away from their jobs over it um you know like
00:18:41.720that that's serious like financial stuff you're you're willing to take on over over principle
00:18:47.820you know what i mean over a principle of how you uh view your country and and so yeah i'm just uh
00:18:54.900i'm humbled to bring the humanity to it yeah that's absolutely true and i think i was able
00:18:58.960to hit people on a heart level um you know there's one just this like people say like something on
00:19:05.240this side people say something on this side and it's like where's the truth but i think when you
00:19:09.220just see the kid get evicted you know it just brings some reality back into it and it's like
00:19:15.420you know when our prime minister is saying unvaccinated people are extremists and anti-science
00:19:20.360and racists and misogynists you know what i mean it's just like well i think people can see me as
00:19:26.660like a normal human being i'm not an anti-vaxxer my kids have had their vaccines i'm not anti-science
00:19:31.460i'm not at home trying to cure my kids cancer with apple cider apple cider vinegar you know uh0.84
00:19:37.380and just like obviously the racist thing is just stupid but you know just uh so so i think a lot0.98
00:19:44.180of people can see you know the truth of the reality that these aren't crazy people like0.98
00:19:49.780the only difference between me and another person is that someone put a needle in their arm like we
00:19:53.220should all be like a community we shouldn't be just like you're a different kind of person than
00:19:59.220me because you made this decision you know what i mean it's just uh to me it's just it's just
00:20:03.140hurtful i feel bad for my country i love canada and you know when you read posts like i'm ashamed
00:20:08.420to be a canadian it's just it's like yikes you know like absolutely it it must be also very
00:20:16.500difficult to go from say like you've mentioned walking into your church and having people applaud
00:20:21.060you for making the stand that you made but then you have people vilifying you and your family
00:20:27.620for putting children's lives at risk for not choosing to be vaccinated um that's
00:20:33.380going to be something really difficult to to wade through for sure yeah like um like i just remember
00:20:41.460sitting at the dining table the other day and just like seriously thinking about the people that were
00:20:46.180trying to get my GoFundMe money taken away and just like I was it took me a second to be like
00:20:52.380just actually people that evil in the world that would try to get a kid's cancer money taken away
00:20:56.720just because of jealousy or whatever or because you don't agree with his opinions like a kid with
00:21:02.840cancer you know what I mean it's just it there's so much darkness in the post like I read something
00:21:07.340like what about the rights of the vaccinated to not have to be exposed to these people and it's
00:21:12.860like like that that's why i used the word cold because that's that's crazy language like what
00:21:18.640do you want us to go live in the woods like you're gonna be exposed to us like jeez louise like
00:21:22.560so yeah it's a lot of it is really savage and i have who i call my guardian angel who kind of
00:21:28.780showed up out of nowhere and was like a reporter saying you know i i was able to expose a lot of
00:21:33.720this for you and if you need any help let me know and he's been on the phone with me and he's been
00:21:37.960really wise about everything it wasn't until the next day he's like oh i forgot to mention you
00:21:42.520should take your boss off facebook and i was like funny you say that because of what just happened
00:21:46.700and so he started saying things like that and i'm like this guy knows what he's talking about and
00:21:50.800he's like just stopped reading the comments and uh once it got really bad like uh when my facebook
00:21:56.800was getting censored and i couldn't post things and all these weird rules they still have on me
00:22:01.620when all that started happening i was like i'm just gonna make my posts uh only friends for a
00:22:08.360bit until it's kind of the hate kind of rolls away a little bit because uh you'd post something and
00:22:13.080you just get all this hate all of a sudden and it's like you guys like hovering over my facebook
00:22:16.760or something to just uh harass me so yeah it's been really crazy but i just look at the support
00:22:23.080and i look at the comments and i see for myself like like i know who has the truth and i know
00:22:30.360who's in the right because i can i can message them back until i'm blue in the face like just
00:22:35.320proving the things they're saying being like well this is actually what happened or they'll pull up
00:22:39.240a post from years ago and i'll be like well this and this about that and you know uh so and even
00:22:45.800like uh people will like i i the reason i'm a christian is because god delivered me from crystal
00:22:52.280meth five years ago five years ago i was homeless and sleeping in parks and all this stuff and it's
00:22:57.800completely turned my life around like i have a three-floor townhouse and all this stuff like
00:23:01.720i'm renting but you know i've turned my whole life around anyways and people are posting that
00:23:05.960and being like look at this guy's like a crackhead like people they should have his kids taken away
00:23:09.880and all that stuff like it was just so crazy i just couldn't even believe it so so looking at0.56
00:23:15.240that i think if people look at that uh they can see who are the good guys and all this you know
00:23:21.640what i mean or at least you know to a degree i mean it's not everybody who has a different opinion
00:23:27.320than me is uh is saying those things but to a large degree i think the average person can look
00:23:32.120at that and be like these like these people who like hate austin are crazy like you know what i
00:23:38.200mean so i don't i don't know what else to say like uh i mean they really are insane the comments
00:23:46.440well why don't we why don't we focus a minute on jack why don't you tell us about how jack's doing
00:23:51.320uh i know that you said that he was just a trooper through his uh first bout of treatment
00:23:57.520uh why don't you fill us in on how jack's doing um yeah so jack's really good he's gotten a little
00:24:05.020pale since we've been here um but he has high energy still so yeah you guys have come back
00:24:10.860to colonna for a week before he needs to be back um at the hospital correct so you're back at home
00:24:17.100right now yeah and um yeah it's the first time we had a week off since this whole thing started
00:24:25.640i've been going back and forth but lindsey hasn't been able to come back so just coming back letting
00:24:29.900jack see his best friend his auntie who's 14 and grandma and uh friends at church and things like
00:24:36.680that like it was just really special for him you know he got he had a standing ovation too and
00:24:41.760you know just um just a lot of attention and appreciation and he's really been coming out
00:24:47.520of his shell and talking to other kids more on things and it's been good because when this whole
00:24:51.380thing started he was getting really shy and lethargic and i don't want to play with people
00:24:55.620i just want to sit on the couch and to see how he is now he's very happy and uh we try really hard
00:25:01.560to keep like positive vibes in the family and you know when i hold him when he's sleeping
00:25:07.100sometimes you can hear him laughing asleep so as far as i'm concerned his his mental and emotional
00:25:13.540state is really good and uh it won't be until after wednesday we know his physical condition
00:25:18.720but the doctor said fairly confident everything's going to be okay um so getting that's incredible
00:25:25.500yeah yeah i think he's doing great and god's definitely blessed us and blessed him and we're
00:25:31.040just grateful for all the support and yeah for the doctors and the nurses and everybody no matter
00:25:37.220what they think or believe or think of us I mean yeah they've been great and helped us out and
00:25:43.240we're super grateful well that's amazing to hear and so glad to hear that things are going well
00:25:49.220for Jack's treatment and we'll perhaps end up checking in with you again just to follow along
00:25:56.340and see how things are going uh so so you anticipate that you'll likely be moving into
00:26:02.340the easter seals house uh when you head back is that is that correct when you head back to vancouver
00:26:08.100yeah we're leaving tuesday and we're gonna probably be there late because uh we drive a
00:26:13.300certain way because the floods here in dc that right yeah takes like an extra three hours so
00:26:18.820uh we'll leave early get there and we'll check into easter seals there's a nice guy in ronald
00:26:23.060mcdonald house that offered to let me use this truck because we've accumulated a decent amount
00:26:28.020of stuff definitely too much to bring over my 99 corolla so um so so he's gonna help us out with
00:26:35.300with the truck and and uh help us move some stuff over and yeah i guess we're excited for the new
00:26:40.580chapter this whole thing's been an adventure uh you know i bet you know it's it's been an adventure
00:26:47.140but we we roll with the punches like when life goes with curveballs you just gotta get it in
00:26:51.380curveballs you know like we're not gonna we're not gonna let this like ruin our family we're to
00:26:57.300we're gonna i don't know stay stay strong you're gonna stay strong that's that's awesome well
00:27:04.980listen austin i thank you for the update and for filling us in and and yes stop reading the
00:27:10.980comments stop reading the negativity it's um it's definitely something that you'll have to move away
00:27:17.540from if you don't want to watch it anymore but thank you very much for uh for the update and
00:27:22.980we're just so grateful that things are going well for jack and for the rest of your family and yeah
00:27:28.580just keep staying strong yeah thanks so much melanie i really appreciate it