Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 2(c): freedom of peaceful assembly.
Should Charter Rights be maintained in the middle of a pandemic?
Much has been said by Canadian politicians in recent days regarding pandemic protests.
Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi: “Those people at those anti-mask protests, let’s not kid ourselves. They’re not people who [are protesting because they] need to eat. They are people who are marching in thinly veiled white nationalist supremacist anti-government protests”.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh: “To brazenly not follow public-health guidelines puts people at risk and that is something that we’ve seen with extreme right-wing ideology”.
Who benefits when prominent politicians make blanket statements that associate Canadians with recently designated terrorist groups or deems them to be racists for questioning government policy?
Did Mayor Nenshi or Mr. Singh attend these protests in order to accurately make these statements?
Do virus’ care about your social justice cause?
Do you need to agree with the cause of a protest to support the concept of protests?
If you attend a protest that questions the effectiveness of government health measures does this automatically make you a COVID denier?
I may not agree with your reason for protesting and I may not join your protest but I fully support everyone’s right to protest, including in the middle of a pandemic.
Will you do the same for others?
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