Premier Doug Ford’s public statement against further mandates and for liberty will probably make it more difficult going forward for Prime Minister Trudeau to continue his tirade against law-abiding citizens who simply want their constitutional liberties to be restored and his pretense that the truckers and their supporters are non-patriotic rabble-rousers. The following is excerpted from “Doug Ford says Ontario is moving on from Covid-19,” CTVNews, Feb. 15, 2022: “Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he strongly discouraged the idea of any new COVID-19 restrictions or retooling of the vaccine passport system after next month, saying the public is ‘done with this,’ alluding to his doubts about the efficacy of third doses and the rift vaccination has caused within his own family. Yesterday, Ford and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kieran Moore announced an end to capacity limits in most indoor settings this week and the dismantling of the vaccine passport system on March 1. ‘We are done with it,’ Ford said of limits to public activity. ‘Let’s just start moving on, cautiously. The world’s done with it, let’s just move forward.’ ‘We also know that it doesn’t matter if you have one shot or 10 shots, you can still catch COVID-19,’ he said. He said the public needed to respect the beliefs of those who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19. ‘There’s rebel rousers, and there are just hard-working people that just don’t believe in it, and that’s their choice. This is about democracy and freedoms and liberties. I hate as a government telling anyone what to do, we just have to get out of this and move forward and protect the jobs.’ He said the vaccination question has ruined personal relationships and divided the province. ‘I’ve never seen this province and this country so divided. It’s affected friendships, it’s affected coworkers, it’s affected families.’”
(Friday Church News Notes, February 25, 2022, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)