Yesterday, the Canadian government announced that by Oct. 29th “core” federal public servants will have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face unpaid leave by Nov. 15th. Further, the government announced that anyone wishing to board a plane, train, or cruise in Canada will have to prove they are vaccinated by Oct 30th.

The announcements came from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

For the approximately 267,000 federal workers affected by this policy, whether they work from home or go into the office, mandates will apply. There are a couple of limited exemptions in place. People will need to provide medical proof of the requirement for the exemption or testify under oath to their religious beliefs.

Should federal employees not wish to be vaccinated still, they will be required to attend an online COVID vaccine re-education session. They will also lose access to their workplace, office events, meetings, and will not be able to travel for business at all.

Partially-vaccinated workers will have up to 10 weeks to receive their second dose before being put on unpaid leave. Federal workers who wish to keep their jobs are required to make an attestation of their vaccination status which will be used as proof.

“It’s very straightforward: If you want to continue to work for the public service of Canada, you’re going to need to be fully vaccinated. And the way to ensure that that happens as quickly as possible, is to allow for the vast majority of public servants who are vaccinated, to make a simple straightforward attestation… That allows managers and departments to focus in on those people who will not…”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Mandates For Travellers

Updates have also been provided for passengers boarding any domestic or international flight, interprovincial train or cruise ship, as well as workers in restricted sections of airports. Starting Oct 30th, passengers must be fully vaccinated to board these travel vehicles. There will be a short period where proof of a negative COVID-19 test will be acceptable, but by Nov 30th, that option will fall away.

Ferry passengers have not been included in these new mandates.

“This is about keeping people safe on the job and in our communities,” Trudeau said. “If you’ve done the right thing and gotten vaccinated, you deserve the freedom to be safe from COVID-19, to have your kids safe from COVID, to get back to the things you love.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Trudeau is seen again politicizing the COVID issue by bringing children into the equation while controversial and draconian measures are announced. As The Pulse has covered on numerous occasions, children face almost no risk from COVID. In fact, children are at greater risk of death and hospitalization from the seasonal flu. One can only assume this speech was written to counteract an authoritarian policy with pulling on community heartstrings when it comes to children.

The careful wording of “If you’ve done the right thing” is also troublesome for a journalist like myself. I’ve noticed that many of my colleagues in journalism are not exercising balanced journalism during COVID, and are leaving out pertinent facts that drastically change the narrative around COVID.

Right now there are effective treatments available for COVID. We know that the vaccines are not very effective after the 6 or 7 month mark, making treatments all that much more important for the aging population, yet government and media continues to deny these treatments and continues forcing everyone to be vaccinated. As with the several decades prior to COVID, it feels all too clear again that Big Pharma has massive influence over government policy.

As a journalist who has been censored on several occasions during COVID, I can say that if Canadians were given the full truth, as opposed to the very limited truth they are getting from mainstream media, they would likely not feel that the government has “done the right thing.”

My sense is that the average person who would support such measures is likely not aware of facts like: the likelihood of false positives from PCR tests is around 50%, the fact that vaccination only offers protection from severe infection for 6 to 7 months, that children are more at risk from the seasonal flu than COVID, that it’s exceedingly rare for children to spread COVID to others, there are several viable treatments for COVID, and that the chances of hospitalization if infected by COVID is extremely low.

Here in lies what is worrisome about what’s taking place, the vast majority of people are not aware of the entirety of what’s going on, so they support measures that are tackling a problem that isn’t like what they are told. If they did understand it however, they likely would push back much harder on these measures.

This new mandatory vaccination policy includes the RCMP, as well as full-time employees, casual workers, students and volunteers for federal departments, agencies, and offices such as the Department of Health, Veterans Affairs Canada, Service Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Correctional Service of Canada, and the Canada Border Services Agency.

“We are taking this step to protect those who work in the federal public service, their families, and their communities. This measure also protects everyone who does business with the public service, whether it is getting access to your benefits at a Service Canada office, or safely traveling across our borders,”

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland

Trudeau also mentioned the government is still working on what is being dubbed ‘the standardized, pan-Canadian proof of vaccination document.’ This document is designed to hold Canadian citizen’s vaccination records for use in international travel. Dedicated funding and work on this measure suggests that Canada is not looking to stop COVID vaccination efforts in the coming years, which means constant boosters will likely need to be kept up with to be fully vaccinated as vaccine efficacy after two doses steeply wanes after 6 to 7 months.

“Part of the work that we’re doing with the major carriers in this country is to integrate the proof of vaccination digital codes into their online booking process, so that when you print out your boarding pass either at the airport, or in advance, there will be a clearly marked proof of vaccination thumbs up or checkmark, so that the gate agent does not have to be checking documentation,”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

What will come next is anyone’s guess, but what we do know is that a culture of authoritarian control is evident in government right now. It seems upon people to begin to calmly and effectively organize around creating solutions to push back against these measures in a meaningful way. Anger only further fuels the government and mainstream media in pointing to “anti-vaxxers as crazy.” Still, the solution seems unclear, but meaningful dialogue can bring us there.