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<p>Hi all</p>
<p>It appears to me that the Post is now leading the way in real
journalism. <br>
</p>
<p>I copied this article from the post to facilitate easier access.
You can read The original <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-government-overreach-on-vaccines-has-been-about-power-not-the-pandemic">here</a><br>
</p>
<p>Art<br>
</p>
<h2 class="article-title seo-highlighter" id="articleTitle">Raymond
J. de Souza: Government overreach on COVID measures has been about
power — not the pandemic </h2>
<p class="article-subtitle"> It's a very ancient infection to which
state agents are prone and for which no effective cure has been
developed </p>
<div class="published-by">
<div class="visually-hidden">Author of the article:</div>
<b><span class="published-by__author">Father Raymond J. de Souza</span></b>
</div>
<p>I have raised the issue of <a data-evt="click"
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"Click Source Type": "in-page link",
"Click Source Name": "government overreach",
"Click Target URL":
"https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-a-compelling-critique-of-ontarios-vaccine-mandates"}"
href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-a-compelling-critique-of-ontarios-vaccine-mandates"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">government overreach</a>
in relation to vaccine mandates. Respectful readers have asked
whether that gives comfort to those who oppose the vaccines
themselves. Is favouring vaccination but blanching at punitive
vaccine mandates too fine a line? Might it discourage people from
getting vaccinated?</p>
<p>That may be the case. I further concede that, alongside
reasonable arguments against overreach from thoughtful people with
genuine concerns, there are some crackpots. The pandemic has
produced a lot of odd behaviour, whether it be conspiracists in
their basements or motorists wearing masks while driving alone in
their vehicles.</p>
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<p>Nevertheless, overreach in the promotion of a positive measure —
vaccination — still remains overreach. It is possible that
overreach may hamper vaccination, too; at least some who decline
vaccination do so as a political protest against the expansion of
state power. A more restrained state might persuade some of them
that no great skulduggery is afoot.</p>
<blockquote>
<h4> It is possible that overreach may hamper vaccination, too</h4>
</blockquote>
<p>Recent developments have suggested that such overreach is not a
bug, but a feature. Not a reluctantly embraced necessary evil, but
malice aforethought. What if the point was no longer containment
of the pandemic but to extend the reach of the state, pure and
simple?</p>
<p>Consider four examples.</p>
<p>For nearly six months, Dr. Bonnie Henry simply abolished
religious liberty in British Columbia. Her edict permitted people
to meet for an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the church
basement, but that same number of people could not meet in the
much larger church to pray. It wasn’t about regulating meetings,
but banning worship.</p>
<p>When the matter was brought before the courts, the judge shrugged
his shoulders. Yes, the order violated all of the fundamental
freedoms listed in the Charter of Rights, but in an emergency the
public health officials could do whatever they wanted, independent
of changing circumstances or variance between regions.</p>
<figure class="embedded-image"> <source
data-srcset="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/259437619-0120_covid_update2-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=564&type=webp,
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2x" media="(max-width: 767px)" type="image/webp"> <img alt="Dr.
Bonnie Henry abolished religious liberty in British Columbia,
Raymond J. de Souza asserts." class="embedded-image__image
lazyloaded"
data-src="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/259437619-0120_covid_update2-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288"
data-srcset="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/259437619-0120_covid_update2-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288,
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src="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/259437619-0120_covid_update2-w.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288"
width="509" height="381"> <figcaption class="image-caption"> <span
class="caption"> Dr. Bonnie Henry abolished religious liberty
in British Columbia, Raymond J. de Souza asserts.</span> <span
class="credit">Photo by DON CRAIG/GOVERNMENT OF B.C./PNG</span>
</figcaption> </figure>
<p>What if the point of Henry’s order was not public health, but to
expand the power of her office, exploiting the pandemic to give
her office the ability to grant itself an auto-exemption to the
Constitution? Even if that wasn’t the point, it was the result.</p>
<section class="article-content__content-group">
<h2 class="visually-hidden">Article content</h2>
<p>A few weeks ago in Ontario, the government announced that
thousands of cheering fans could sit
cheek-by-largely-unmasked-jowl at a Maple Leafs game, but a
10-person diner in Kapuskasing could serve only half that
number. What was the point of that, which had no basis in public
health?</p>
<p>Could it be that the government, by strangling the diners and
cafés of Ontario for a few extra weeks, wished to remind the
tens of thousands of restaurateurs in the province that their
livelihood was in the power of the state to grant or withhold?</p>
<p data-async="">This month in Edmonton, Justice A. W. Germain
sentenced the <a data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="User
Interaction Click" data-evt-val="{"control_fields":
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"Click Source Type": "in-page link",
"Click Source Name": "pastor of a small church
and his brother", "Click Target URL":
"https://albertacourts.ca/docs/default-source/qb/judgments/alberta-health-services-v-pawlowski-2021-abqb-493---reasons-for-decision.pdf?sfvrsn=af124c83_7"}"
href="https://albertacourts.ca/docs/default-source/qb/judgments/alberta-health-services-v-pawlowski-2021-abqb-493---reasons-for-decision.pdf?sfvrsn=af124c83_7"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pastor of a small
church and his brother</a> for violating public health orders
with manifest contumacy, handing down tens of thousands of
dollars in fines based what courts had done in Ontario.</p>
<section class="article-content__content-group">
<h5>More On This Topic </h5>
<section
aria-labelledby="moreTopicLabel1319837481081024540606676435111319"
class="more-topic" data-carousel-component="ts-ready"
data-carousel-icon-button="" data-carousel-type="list"> </section>
</section>
<ol class="more-topic__items list-unstyled"
data-carousel-slide-list="" tabindex="0">
<li class="more-topic__item" data-carousel-item=""> <a
aria-label="in a new tab"
href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/raymond-j-de-souza-a-compelling-critique-of-ontarios-vaccine-mandates"
rel="noopener" target="_blank"> <img alt="Ontario Premier
Doug Ford attends a press briefing about the province's
new QR code vaccine passports, on Oct. 15, 2021, in
Toronto." class="lazyloaded"
data-src="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Doug-Ford.jpg?h=96&strip=all&quality=80"
src="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Doug-Ford.jpg?h=96&strip=all&quality=80"
width="96" height="96">
<h3 class="more-topic__item-text"> <span
class="more-topic__item-text-clamp"> Raymond J. de
Souza: A compelling critique of Ontario's vaccine
mandates </span> </h3>
</a> </li>
<li class="more-topic__item" data-carousel-item=""> <a
aria-label="in a new tab"
href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/john-ivison-committee-overstepped-its-authority-with-house-of-commons-vaccine-mandate"
rel="noopener" target="_blank"> <img alt="A statue
representing justice looks out from the Supreme Court of
Canada over the Parliamentary precinct in Ottawa. There is
a strong feeling, even among MPs who are vaccinated, that
mandatory vaccination is an infringement on freedom of
movement and the constitutional rights of Canadians."
class="lazyloaded"
data-src="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Parliament-mandate-1-2.png?h=96&strip=all&quality=80"
src="https://smartcdn.prod.postmedia.digital/nationalpost/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Parliament-mandate-1-2.png?h=96&strip=all&quality=80"
width="96" height="96">
<h3 class="more-topic__item-text"> <span
class="more-topic__item-text-clamp"> John Ivison: House
of Commons vaccine mandate tramples over rights of MPs </span>
</h3>
</a> </li>
</ol>
<p>Germain then went further, issuing what even the bailiff could
recognize as an egregiously unconstitutional order. If Pastor
Artur Pawlowski wishes to preach upon pandemic measures in the
future, he will have to say the following:</p>
<p>“I am also aware that the views I am expressing to you on this
occasion may not be views held by the majority of medical
experts in Alberta. While I may disagree with them, I am obliged
to inform you that the majority of medical experts favour social
distancing, mask wearing, and avoiding large crowds to reduce
the spread of COVID-19. …”</p>
<p data-async="">Of course the judge knows that forcing people to
say what they do not wish to say — and do not believe — <a
data-evt="click" data-evt-typ="User Interaction Click"
data-evt-val="{"control_fields":
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"Click Source Type": "in-page link",
"Click Source Name": "violates all the
fundamental freedoms", "Click Target URL":
"https://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-view-an-alberta-courts-wrongheaded-order-to-compel-anti-vaxxers-to-refute-their-own-opinions"}"
href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/np-view-an-alberta-courts-wrongheaded-order-to-compel-anti-vaxxers-to-refute-their-own-opinions"
rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">violates all the
fundamental freedoms</a> of the Charter. It is what tyrants
do. Courts for that reason do not compel rapists to apologize to
their victims.</p>
<p>What if the point of the sentence was not justice, but to
aggregate to judges the power to force preachers and activists
to say what the state wishes them to say? Any number of
emergencies could be imagined in which that bit of statist
coercion might prove convenient.</p>
<p>Germain, in a rather windy judgment, did not say whether he
took note that, on the very eve of his hearing the Pawlowski
case in September, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a packed,
sweaty campaign rally in Brampton, Ont. Perhaps he did not find
it germane. But the message from the court was clear. If your
speech is favoured by the government, then there are no binding
rules, let alone charges. If it is not, there are serious fines,
and confiscation of fundamental liberties.</p>
<br>
<blockquote>
<h4>The message from the court was clear</h4>
</blockquote>
<p>Finally, the Speaker of the House of Commons, in his capacity
as chairman of the internal administration committee known as
the Board of Internal Economy, delivered this week a nighttime
ukase barring unvaccinated MPs from taking their seats in the
chamber. That he was acting beyond his power is not seriously in
dispute.</p>
<p>But Anthony Rota knew that pandemic politics trump the law and
centuries of parliamentary privilege. The diktat was intended to
make the Conservative party uneasy, and within days Erin O’Toole
fell in line, playing his customary role of adopting Liberal
policies after a modest deliberation over what degree of
enthusiasm to show for them.</p>
<p>So the Speaker expands his power, awarding himself the power to
bar MPs from the chamber without the House being able to express
itself. Even a modest humility might have prompted Rota, elected
speaker in a parliament now dissolved, to await election of a
new speaker before abusing the power of the office.</p>
It bears constant repeating that Canada is a high vaccination
country, one of the highest in the world. In Alberta, vaccine
averse relative to the rest of Canada, more than 78 per cent of
all those over age 12 are fully vaccinated, with over 86 per cent
partially vaccinated. Given the demographic distribution of the
province, that means more than 90 per cent in Calgary.
<p>Those are world-best rates. Canada’s vaccination record means
that government pandemic overreach is more about government than
the pandemic.</p>
<p>Health bureaucrats, provincial cabinets, judges, officers of
parliament — all are using the pandemic to expand their power.
That is a very ancient infection to which state agents are
prone. For that, even over the course of millennia, no effective
vaccine has been developed.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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