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Letter: Our new hobby

“Give your head a shake,” Mr. Horgan
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Our new hobby

John Horgan adds insult to injury when he says freedom protesters should watch the evening news to see “real tragedies and real disruptions in freedom that are going on in Europe right now.” He might just as well have said, “Let them eat cake.”

“Give your head a shake,” Mr. Horgan, have you really no idea of the tragedy and disruption in freedom that your mandates have caused for so many British Columbians? Is it not a real tragedy to lose your job when you have a mortgage and a family to feed? Is it not a real tragedy when you must forfeit your right to bodily autonomy in exchange for the right to participate equally in society? Is it not a real tragedy that our once democratic and free country is now segregated and divided like never before?

Even if “94 per cent of British Columbians are fully vaccinated,” as Horgan claims, this isn’t a vaccination issue, it’s about our constitutionally protected rights and freedoms. Simply put, the government doesn’t own our bodies. Horgan, like Justin Trudeau, wants us to believe that the protesters are a “small fringe minority,” representing only the six per cent who are unvaccinated. But what about all those who were forced to comply with the mandates or lose their jobs? What about those who willingly complied and still lost jobs, businesses, family and friends, because of the mandates, not because of COVID? Some of the freedom rallies have drawn over 10,000 protesters, and for every protester at the legislature you can be sure there are many more who couldn’t be there.

If only the evening news would allow the protesters’ point of view to be heard, more people might understand why they “seem to have nothing better to do with their time but to drive around in circles honking their horns.” But instead, while both federal and provincial governments violate our constitution, which is the highest law in the land, the media portrays the protesters as terrorists and lawbreakers. Why won’t Horgan hold a press conference and negotiate a settlement? Why are the politicians and the media only showing one side of the argument, pitting the vaccinated against the unvaccinated, and making Victoria residents pay the price?

You can disagree with us, you can send us letters, you can protest, but then you need to go home,” says Horgan, “Goodness me, get a hobby.” Well, we HAVE disagreed and we HAVE sent letters, but all were ignored. And if the mandates aren’t dropped and we don’t get our jobs back, soon many of us will have no homes to go home to. Furthermore, as we’ve been banned from pools, gyms, theatres, arenas, concerts, trains and planes, our new hobby is to restore the rule of law in Canada, so our children may enjoy freedom and equality as we did growing up. We meet at the legislature every Saturday and everyone, regardless of vaccination status, is “free” to join us.

David Work

Duncan