Back in April, a couple centimetres of heavy wet snow on a Thursday morning made me think of the snow job that I believe we, the unsuspecting masses, have been subject to in recent years. Under threat and scorn of ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ our questioning of government authorized advice and plans was vehemently discouraged over the last four years.
But all along some have questioned pandemic lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccine mandates as children missed school, small businesses were hit, and money was swept up by vaccine companies, big box store businesses and monster Internet retailers.
Here in Manitoba, snow covers up a lot that we don’t want to look at. The glistening white layer covers mud, dead lawns, backyard dog poop, and other ugly details. But eventually snow melts. We are faced with an opportunity to clean up and get ready for the growth and beauty available with spring’s warm sun and yes, rainy days.
I suspect that’s the season we are now in, since the pandemic days have waned.
The truckers’ Freedom Convoy stormed the entire country, as it were, with gale force winds moving great amounts of snow laying bare a government fearful of its own people. A government reluctant to recant.
The National Citizen’s Inquiry got right down on street level looking into the effects of government policy on individual citizens as well as examining media’s role in that policy. If you haven’t yet taken a look at their work, you can: nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/
In an Aug. 1, 2023, Judy Trinh, CTV National News, Ottawa Correspondent wrote, “‘Never seen anything like it’: Sniper who left military over COVID-19 policy since found ‘unconstitutional’.” This is just one example of many wrongs that have emerged from the snowbanks of covid winter and government overreach.
But Covid’s over, you say. Stop talking about this painful recent past. No, the backyard dung has surfaced and is being dealt with.
Yes, I understand that we want to just forget it, let it be ‘the past’. However, I believe the social experiment is far from over as some of our leaders happily bend over to policies generated on a world scale by unelected untouchables.
How did we get snowed under by the covid storm? We were immediately frightened into compliance. It was what we were told by sources we had long trusted.
Urged by one of our local readers, I listened to testimony on the National Citizen’s Inquiry by Rodney Palmer - 20 years a journalist, nominated for a Gemini Award in 2002 for Best Foreign News Reportage. He opened my ears to help me recognize the snowstorm generated early on through CBC pandemic coverage.
Another local reader pointed out that before the Internet made information so readily available from sources beyond mainstream media, citizens would not know it was spring in the information world.
But you can find information and opinions in the indelible form of books including one by an Australian, where lockdowns were severe. Author Topher Field living in Melbourne City endured 18 months of house arrest for his dissent from covid government policies. His book, “Good People Break Bad Laws: Civil Disobedience in the Modern Age” is available on Amazon.
Or for something of classic origins, “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David Thoreau provides some deep wisdom for citizens of a democracy, that unfortunately, we once again need.
The opportunity for civil disobedience is essential in a democracy. The tension is to keep protests effective yet ‘civil’. Free discussion among the public, experts in many fields, and with political leaders, is key.
