Independent Ontario MPP Randy Hillier hammers the hysteria & panic in Ontario’s ruinous lockdown. Offers some advice to angry Ontarians.
The government is constantly moving the goal posts with COVID, however it’s important to keep things in perspective and remember how and why we got where we are today, with a limited democracy, stunted economic activity, and stifling of our rights. I discuss some of the facts that have emerged now that we have more information and contrast them with the predictions that were used to justify shutting down our economy, preventing us from living fulfilling social lives and ushering in governments by decree that are not accountable to the public. If you believe our government policies are unreasonable and disproportionate to reality and need to consider this new information give the Premier a call, call the Minister of Health and contact your local MPP and tell them what and how you expect them to represent you.
Premier: doug.ford@pc.ola.org or premier@ontario.ca If his email bounces back, here is his phone number: 416-325-1941 Find Your MPP: https://www.ola.org/en/members
The pandemic is revealing more uncomfortable truths
by the day, like our willingness to abandon our freedoms and traditions
at the first whiff of grapeshot.
Governments mistrustful of citizens have been too quick to respond to
risks to public health with coercion, rather than simply appealing for a
civic-minded people to do the right thing.
In Australia
there has been a level of official control seldom seen since the
convict era. There has been barely any opposition. A people once
prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice of lives in defence of liberty
is surrendering its freedom on the pretext of saving lives.
It is teaching us that when we dispense with the checks and balances
that make democratic governments better than they otherwise might be,
there is an exponential increase in the number and scale of
state-induced blunders.
When Britain, the US and much of Europe were struggling with mass
outbreaks in April, Australia and New Zealand had the virus under
control thanks largely to the prompt closure of borders.
It might have stayed that way but for a breach of quarantine security
in Melbourne, where inadequate supervision of returning Australians in
hotel quarantine allowed infected people to escape.
The loss of life has so far been slight: around 40 deaths per million
in Victoria and fewer than 15 in the rest of Australia, compared with
around 700 in Britain and around 500 in the US.
Yet the elevated risk was enough for Victoria’s premier, Dan Andrews, to declare a State of Disaster for only the second time in Victoria’s history. Andrews, incidentally, was responsible for declaring both of them. R
Victoria became an autocracy overnight, granting unfettered power to a
premier unaccountable to parliament and freed from the rule of law. The
police have turned from citizens in uniform to the enforcers of
ministerial declarations, most of them quite absurd.
Melbourne has become the first city in Australia to fall under a
curfew. Andrews’ predecessors felt no need for one during the First
World War, Second World War, the Spanish Flu pandemic or the 1923 police
strike when violent mobs rampaged through the city and overturned a
tram.
Yet the outbreak virus from China which currently kills a small
proportion of those it affects in the general population, and a
negligible percentage of people below retirement age, was considered
grave enough to suspend democracy and the rule of law.
The bridge over the River Murray on the Hume Highway linking the
Victorian city of Wodonga and Albury in New South Wales has become
Australia’s Checkpoint Charlie, the free world on one side and tyranny
on the other.
Those tempted to swim across should know that police and army
reservists are patrolling the Murray’s northern banks assisted by
helicopters and drones. Up to six months in jail awaits those without
papers.
Melbourne residents who leave their homes between 8pm and 5am face a
$5,000 fine, imposed by police not the courts. Fines will also be issued
to anyone who, a) is caught without a mask; b) exercises for more than
an hour; c) wanders further than 5km from home; d) is judged by police
to be shopping excessively in the small number of shops allowed to stay
open; e) gets married; f) overnights in the house of someone other than
their designated intimate partner; g) goes fishing; or h) plays golf.
Like the villain in a dystopian novel, Victoria’s democratically
elected premier is interfering with citizen’s private lives in a manner
most will have imagined impossible in a nation settled by the heirs of
Magna Carta.
In his masterful book on the Anglosphere, Dan Hannan praised
Australia as a country where the libertarian philosophy of John Stuart
Mill was made flesh. Hannan might care to revisit that bit, as Victoria
breaks record after record in the contest of illiberalism, employing all
the available instruments of modern surveillance to keep its citizens
in check.
If the premier and his officials know how many cases of infection can
be tolerated they are keeping it from the citizens. No one knows how
long the lockdown measures will end or what comes next.
The consequences for the Victorian economy, which accounts for a
quarter of Australia’s GDP, are growing exponentially. The price of
shutting down business today is the loss of future opportunity. The
effects of this recession will be felt for a generation at least. The
most deadly effects of the virus may be reserved for the elderly and
sickly, but the biggest losers will be those in the prime of their life.
Much of what we are losing cannot be counted in dollars and cents. Freedoms, once surrendered, can be impossible to recover.
We dishonour the victims of early tyrannies to make comparisons, tempting as it might be.
The assumption of emergency powers to fight a real or exaggerated
threat is the oldest trick in the manual of despotism. Countries ruled
by tyranny are frequently those from which millions long to flee, just
as they do in Victoria right now, if only for a holiday.
The erosion of democracies typically begins with the indefinite
suspension of parliament, as the Victorian state parliament has been.
Autocrats are drawn to centrally planned economies, with the
inevitable mismatch of supply and demand. Residents of Victoria, the
food bowl of Australia, face shortages of meat and other essentials and
the prospect of rationing for the first time since the Second World War.
Autocracies are notorious for the proliferation of permits and the
checking of papers. In Victoria a permit is required to travel, to work
or cross the border. Military are being used as auxiliary police, police
powers have been drastically increased and punitive fines introduced.
Citizens are encouraged to act as informants against their employer and also neighbours.
There has not been one guarantee that all or any of these crackdown laws will be repealed.
Those who grew up with pride in their country and its part in
overcoming the great 20th-century tyrannies are understandably shocked
at how much we appear willing to surrender for benefits that are as yet
unspecified.
We shouldn’t be surprised at the tacit compliance of the media,
which, by and large, has not seen fit to challenge the measures.
Journalists, like some politicians, have a professional interest in
exaggerating the threat. ‘All quiet on the Covid-19 front’ is not a
story worthy of page one.
With time, the Andrews administration’s draconian and illiberal
stage-four lockdown will come to be seen as a monstrous administrative
mistake that has compounded the effects of the blunders that allowed the
virus to run wild.
Let’s hope at least that the lockdown slows the general rate of
infection, since the government seems incapable of protecting
nursing-home residents any other way.
Even if it does, we are bound to ask if the result was worth the
months that will have been added to the recession, the swelling of the
ranks of the long-term unemployed and the shrinkage of the small
business sector, the engine of the economy. And the freedoms citizens
have been forced to relinquish, with no guarantee they will get them
back.
Nick Cater is executive director of the Menzies Research Centre and a columnist with the Australian.
Saturday, August 15, 2020
Stuart Park, Kelowna BC 12:00 noon
Just a reminder to come out and
support our message to all levels of Government, that we are vehemently opposed
to all forms of their lockdown, Constitutional violations, social restrictions,
and lies. This is the most important and
critical issue in our lifetimes and if we continue to just obey, we will soon
find ourselves in a similar situation to Chinese Communism – but in our country.
We need as many people as possible
for our rallies!
If you have been unable to make it out to previous rallies, NOW is the time to come out!!!!
Bring at least two friends!!!
——————–
For
an excellent video of how the Scamdemic likely started, and how they keep the
fraud going, and the true reasons behind it that very few people discuss, check
out this 11 min video:
I’ve
seen videos from this guy in the past, and his material is just awesome.
——————–
Unfortunately,
the mass of information coming at us from all over the world right now is truly
an information overload. It is important
remain focused at all times on the issue: the COVID-19 virus is not a pandemic, and the actions taken by all
levels of Governments, are unprecedented, unsupported and Constitutionally
impermissible.
Despite
the ongoing actions in various courts, we cannot simply sit back and wait months
or until next year for decisions. We must
as much as possible, refuse to comply with their unconstitutional orders and
demands. We must do what we can not just
to educate others, but to get them to act likewise.
Remember,
Governments to a large degree don’t care how much you complain, as long as you
comply. We must do both – complain and
refuse to comply. Are there risks –
absolutely. They are minor compared to
what our ancestors took for our diminishing rights and liberties today
however. Please keep that in proper
context.
——————–
To
date, the Kelowna RCMP still have not acted on our complaint with respect to
the criminal letter written to and published on Castanet. More inquiries will be made and I will contact
them by Monday, as 10 days should be sufficient for a decision to be made.
——————–
To
date, no defenses have been filed in the Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC) case in Toronto
by any defendants. It is anticipated
that either they will file them shortly, or will file them in conjunction with
expected Motions to Strike. Defences
were required to be filed under Ontario Rules of Court within 21 days and they
have not yet done so.
Admittedly,
with a 191 page Statement of Claim, this may be considered extraordinary circumstances,
and rules of court are malleable to some degree. So it may be another week or two before their
defences are filed, which will be of incredible interest.
As of today’s date, no defence has been filed either by the B.C. Gov’t to the Chinese doctor who filed her application in Chilliwack to force the B.C. Gov’t to make mask wearing mandatory.
I
note here that no where in any of B.C.’s legislation or Orders from Bonnie
Henry, does it state that they operate notwithstanding the Charter of Rights
and Freedoms. Interesting.
——————–
Recently Canada’s top doctor Theresa Tam, who worked with and had longtime close ties to Red Chinese dominated WHO, has publicly stated that the lockdown, restrictions and compulsory masks and social distancing, ie: the society shift, will continue for a minimum of a couple of years. Premier Ford of Ontario has said likewise.
How can they do this – one asks? Because people comply. For no other reason. And it is not sufficient for the public alone to refuse to comply – businesses must quit being proxies for these Communist/SocialistGovernments (parts of all these tyrannical governing philosophies exist today), and doing indirectly what the Governments are Constitutionally prohibited from doing directly. When business owners realize the COVID scam and start refusing to even suggest social distancing and/or masks, then we will begin to achieve success.
I
strongly urge everyone who knows someone who owns or knows someone who owns a
business, to come out and learn from our knowledge on all aspects of the COVID
scam, from the faulty models, to faulty testing procedures, to corrupted and
manipulated statistics, to empty hospitals, to social re-engineering of our
society.
Accepting
another two months of this tyranny, is a travesty and begins to normalize this
type of activity. In two years, without our intervention and refusal to comply,
it will become the norm. This is the
same procedure followed over and over again in our history – call the rights
and freedoms deprivations or restrictions, temporary, and then they never are
removed, or if they are, it is only partially, amounting to an ongoing
Constitutional creep against our cherished and rapidly diminishing rights and
liberties.
——————–
The
United Kingdom has just been caught red-handed falsifying COVID stats. From the Daily Telegraph in England:
The official Covid-19 daily death toll may
never be brought back following an investigation
into Public Health England’s method of counting it, the
Telegraph understands.
The conclusions
of the review, which was ordered by Matt Hancock after it emerged officials were
“over-exaggerating” deaths from the virus, are expected this
week.
One expected
recommendation would be to stop daily reporting altogether and move to a weekly
official death toll instead, a government source said on Sunday night.
The
review has been “looking at all options,” the source said.
On July 17,
the Health Secretary asked PHE to urgently
investigate the way daily death statistics had been reported, leading PHE to
say it was “pausing” the daily release.
It
came after Oxford University experts revealed a significant proportion of
the daily out-of-hospital death toll relates to patients who recovered from the
virus weeks or months earlier.
Under
the previous system, anyone who has ever tested positive for the virus
in England was automatically counted as a coronavirus death when they
died, even if the death was from a car accident.
By
contrast, Scotland and Wales operate a cut-off threshold of 28 days after a
positive test, after which a death is not assumed to be virus-related.
——
Meanwhile Chris Whitty, the chief
medical officer, reportedly holds the view that excess deaths are the best
measure to use, which will be unaffected by the PHE review.
PHE had defended its
previous approach saying there is “no World Health Organisation-agreed
method” for recording deaths from coronavirus.
Dr
Susan Hopkins, PHE’s incident director, has said: “Although it may seem
straightforward, there is no WHO agreed method of counting deaths from
Covid-19. In England, we count all those that have died who had a positive
Covid-19 test at any point, to ensure our data are as complete as possible.”
This
is amazing and no different than in Canada.
——————–
David
Icke posted an interesting video recently. 640 doctors in Europe are condemning COVID-19 as a fake story. I would strongly urge everyone to keep
updated on their proceedings in the near future.
8:35 They have established a newspaper with
500 000 circulation
10:10 We have facts to show that it is a scam –
need to discover who gets the benefits and who has the power to create it
Further
to this, the Committee that was created in late June/July 2020,
has had
an interesting meeting featuring three doctors on its panel.
8:21 COVID is the same seriousness as the
flu
9:30 There are no longer enough sick people
in Germany to even test vaccines upon anymore. The new types of vaccines are now RNA based, meaning that they can change
genetic make up.
This is
really scary folks.
——————–
Recently
in the Washington Examiner, more odious results were announced in relation to
the effects of prolonged use of masks, causing significant increases in gum disease. This is no surprise since much of the
material leaving the body gets trapped in the mask and breathed back in, some
of which remaining in the oral cavity – to grow and multiply.
The
subsequent problem is that excessive gum disease can result in much more serious
health problems, such as heart conditions or strokes.
In another privacy violation, BC is
hiring 500 people to help establish contact tracing. This will happen without our consent and we
will not even know if we are being tracked. It is critical to never install any such apps, remove if you have them, never
answer any calls from anyone you don’t know, and refuse to ever talk to anyone
from the gov’t on your private health matters. Indeed, you should be questioning
even talking to your doctor on these types of issues. Colds and flus for the
most part can be dealt with normally, with mega-Vit C, rest, etc. Advising any doctor that you even have a cold
now, will lump you in for possible mandatory testing, and faked results. There has never been a better time to stay away
from doctors than today.
During these unprecedented times, politicians at every level of government, and of every political stripe, have allowed their “inner autocrat” to emerge.
Basic liberties, such as our right to come together to work, worship, or see our friends and relatives have been limited or completely eliminated.
An entire society of healthy people has been locked down, bringing the economy to a standstill, and millions have been forced into unemployment.
The autocrats have had a taste of unprecedented control, and now they want more. These same people who brought us the lockdowns are now making mask-wearing compulsory.
In Canadian law, the onus is on politicians to justify laws that diminish the realm of personal choice. Enforcing mask wearing based on the fearful projections of illness and death made in March, rather than on the realities of August, is unjustifiable. Forecasts made in March predicting the numbers of dead and sick people caused by the virus have turned out to be wild over-estimates.
We now know that COVID-19 has posed almost no threat to children. We know that four fifths of COVID deaths have occurred in nursing homes, and the victims were the elderly and those already sick.
Statistically, healthy adults are under greater threat from car accidents than they are from COVID-19.The realities of August do not justify the overreach of mask mandates. They are justified by power-hungry autocrats in the name of control and compliance. If we fail to guard our rights with extreme vigilance in a time of crisis like this, we can lose them forever. These mandatory mask mandates have no end date on them.
Just last week Dr. Tam, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer said that the coronavirus pandemic may continue for years, along with measures like mandatory masking and physical distancing, even if researchers manage to discover a vaccine.
She needs to be fired. We need to take these threats to our liberties seriously. Canadians who want to wear a mask should wear one, wherever they want to, but I remain 100% against making masks mandatory.
Shockingly, in a CONSERVATIVE leadership race, I am the only candidate that has spoken out against this infringement on our civil liberties.
I also remain 100% opposed to ever making a COVID-19 vaccine mandatory.If freedom matters to you, please donate today to help my team “Get Out The Vote” in this critical stage of the campaign.
Sincerely, Derek Sloan Member of Parliament https://www.dereksloan.ca PS: Standing for the freedom of Canadians, without apology, is what sets me apart from my leadership rivals. To help me win this leadership race, please chip in today.
A letter calling for the infection of END THE LOCKDOWN protesters, was published by the Castanet media in Kelowna, which has refused to cover the protests.
” I believe we need an infected person to go find this group of idiots that think the virus is fake and give all the protesters a hug.If someone has the virus please go into a protest and shake hands with every protester and hug people
.Let’s see if the protesters get sick and disappear. See if the protesters believe after they get sick.Most of us know someone who has it, had it or been tested for it.To see a protest against this horrible virus makes me sick to my stomach.
I like the idea the Germans have about a COVID party. Maybe Kelowna needs one as well but except like Germany don’t ask for volunteers, use the COVID protesters.”
Police in Melbourne, Australia now have the power to enter people’s homes without a warrant and perform ‘spot checks’ to enforce compliance with new coronavirus lockdown rules.After the state of Victoria announced a “state of disaster” in response to a spike in coronavirus cases, Premier of the state Daniel Andrews told residents, “We can no longer have people simply out and about for no good reason whatsoever.”In addition to an 8pm to 5am curfew, residents can only leave their homes outside those hours to shop for food and essential items, carry out care and caregiving, as well as daily exercise and work.The new powers also give police the right to “enter your home to carry out spot checks even if you don’t give them permission and they don’t have a warrant,” reports LockdownSkeptics.org.Controls on buying have also been introduced, restricting citizens to purchases of no more than two of certain essential items, including dairy, meat, vegetables, fish and toilet paper.As we highlighted earlier, immediately after the government announced the new draconian measures, police in their hundreds positioned themselves around residential tower blocks to ensure no one could leave.People were told they must stay in the residence in which they slept the previous night for the next six weeks. Anyone who violates the new rules faces a fine of up to $1,652, an amount which is set to be increased.As Toby Young writes, the spike in COVID-19 cases in the region could simply be due to the fact that more tests are being conducted.“Victoria tested almost 43,000 on Sunday, July 26th, twice as many as on normal days, and the peak on Wednesday could be due to the few days delay before the results come through. In addition, a percentage of the positive results are likely due to the extensive contact tracing introduced in the past few weeks, with targeted testing of those who’ve been in contact with other infected people.” “It looks like a familiar pattern: on the advice of public health officials, a political leader ramps up testing and introduces a track-and-trace programme, then, when the number of cases inevitably increases, the leader panics and introduces draconian new measures.”
Toronto Mayor John Tory is really excited about Ontario
entering Stage 3 of reopening and bars and restaurants opening up
again.
Actually, what he’s really excited about is slapping
a whole lot of regulatory restrictions on them.
On Sunday, Tory sent a letter to Premier Doug Ford containing
six recommended rules to be imposed on these establishments, which
have absorbed a catastrophic financial hit due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Tory is calling for mandatory masks for all staff and
patrons, earlier closing hours, occupancy restrictions, and for all
patrons to provide contact information that is to be kept for 30 days,
to allow for tracing as needed.
Wow! Where to begin?
Asking everyone for their contact information is not going to
go over well. That’s a bit of a safety issue. They might get a lot of
false information.
Again, as with the mandatory facemask rules, you have
to wonder whether recommendations like these are really about
protection—as is claimed—or politics.
Tory says that “experts” believe that masks keep people safer
and that restaurants and bars pose a higher level of risk for the
spread of the coronavirus.
Are these the same experts who were saying back in
March that masks weren’t necessary outside of hospitals, and that
anyone who suggested that the borders should be closed was a
racist?
We all want to stop the spread of COVID-19. We’ve all made
extraordinary sacrifices toward that end. No businesses have
been hit harder than the hospitality industry. Many of them have
closed and are never coming back.
In some cases, establishments built by generations of hard
work and dedication are gone forever.
A recent Leger poll shows that a national average of 22% of
Canadians will avoid bars and restaurants for as long as masks are
mandatory there.
We all need our country’s economy to rebound from this
setback, and bars and restaurants must be part of the resurgence. We
don’t need politicians like John Tory making the hard road back even
more difficult for them.
Mayor Tory’s recommendations are evidence of state overreach, which
has reared its ugly head during this crisis. Using the pandemic as a
cover, it imposes draconian limitations on our freedoms in the name of
the common good.
Those who voice opposition are shouted down as selfish and
reckless, and the statists consolidate their power.
Once given up, these freedoms will be difficult to regain.
John Tory is also calling for mandatory masks in
residential apartment buildings.
Canadians who feel more comfortable wearing a facemask should be by
all means do so, but masks should not be made mandatory.
Re-openings of businesses should be done responsibly and safely,
but without being hamstrung by statists who, having had a taste of
authoritarianism, are hungry for more.
I remain 100% opposed to making any eventual COVID-19
vaccine mandatory for Canadians.
I will continue to guard against any unjust
limitations of our rights introduced in the name of public safety or
other invocations of the “common good”.
COVID-19: NOTL store fined $880 for patrons not social distancing – on the sidewalk outside
A sign outside of Nina Gelateria asks people to practice physical distancing. (Richard Harley)
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Kevin MacLean, Managing Editor
May 20, 2020 | Wednesday
A store in Old Town has been fined $880 for violating a provincial
order after patrons on the sidewalk outside were found to be ignoring
pandemic social distancing rules.
The owners of Nina Gelateria and Pastry Shop were ticketed by a Town
of Niagara-on-the-Lake bylaw officer for a violation on Sunday, May 3.
Downtown NOTL was packed with visitors that weekend, despite a state
of emergency and few services being available. More than 10,000 vehicles
entered Old Town that Saturday and Sunday, according to town traffic
count data.
The town refused to release any details on the ticket, citing privacy statutes and the fact the matter was before the courts.
NOTL’s acting senior enforcement officer Henry Boese said he can’t
talk about it. “That incident is currently with the Ontario Court of
Justice and I can’t speak about it,” he said.
In response to a question asking to clarify the town’s position on
what businesses should be doing on sidewalks to enforce distancing,
spokesperson Lauren Kruitbosch said, “Businesses should be taking
reasonable steps to enforce physical distancing within the business.
Sidewalks can be used by pedestrians waiting in line to enter a store
(while maintaining physical distance). They can’t however, be used for
business purposes.”
Mark Martinovic, who co-owns Nina Gelateria with his wife Klaudia,
confirmed receiving the ticket, a $750 set fine plus costs totalling
$880. The fine has been paid, he said.
Until that first weekend in May, the shop, at 37 Queen St.,
was “closed on the weekends as we were just catering to our locals,
Monday to Friday,” Martinovic said in a statement to The Lake Report.
The store owners heard there would be a parking ban and many bylaw
officers in town for added support, “so we decided that it would be OK
to open up. We have always followed the provincial guidelines in the
store with signs and floor markings,” he said.
“As a take-out/curbside pickup establishment, we never had any issues
with serving our sweets, pizzas, crepes or panini sandwiches safely.”
On Sunday, May 3, Queen Street was very busy. “We wish we received a
warning or some communication first, but we ended up receiving a fine
for not enforcing physical distancing in front of our store.”
“A big problem is that the sidewalk is shared by people waiting to
get inside the store (while waiting in line) and with pedestrian traffic
and it clearly presents a challenge for businesses and the town, moving
forward.”
Some of the customers outside were families, who, when standing
together in line, can appear to not be complying with physical
distancing requirements, Martinovic said.
“But as they are a family unit, they stay in close proximity together and this is allowed under present regulations.”
“The good news since then is that we have maintained positive
communication with the town and are working together to make sure we are
on the same page,” he said.
Kruitbosch said the town has laid 42 charges during the state of emergency, which was declared on March 23.
“Some were laid as trespass, the majority for violation of the
(province’s) emergency order. The identities of persons or businesses
charged are protected by the Municipal Freedom of Information and
Protection of Privacy Act.”
“Sloppy” Joe Baconburger was the owner of a restaurant. It was an
independent eatery called the Celestial Carnivore. As you have
probably deduced it catered to a meat-eating clientele. Barbecue ribs,
steaks grilled to perfection, pork chops, and prime rib – these were
the staples of the supper menu. Its hamburgers, fried chicken and
chili con carne were all popular. The pizza section of the menu had but
a single entry and that was for “Meat Lovers”. The Carnivore was most
famous, however, for a sandwich.
This sandwich was a multi-layered spectacular. Forget the mere
clubhouse or even the triple-decker. This sandwich had separate layers
for roast beef, roast pork, roast turkey, and roast lamb. Each layer
also contained a hearty portion of ham and bacon and slices of various
sorts of cheese. If you wanted, vegetable fillers such as lettuce,
tomato, and cucumbers would also be added, but these were optional. It
was served smothered in chili and gravy. Naysayers called it “the
heart attack waiting to happen” but every day people would come from
near and far to order it.
One day something strange happened. Like any other day, “Sloppy” Joe
arrived at the Carnivore early, pulled into his parking spot, got out of
his car, and headed towards the door. Then he ran into a wall. Or at
least it felt like a wall. Whatever it was he could not see it.
There was nothing there to the visible eye but something was blocking
his path to the entrance.
Baffled by the invisible barrier and uncertain of what to do about it,
“Sloppy” Joe turned around and took a step in the direction of his car.
He was unable to go any further, however, because he found his path
impeded yet again by the unseen wall. Turning to his left and right,
he discovered that he was boxed in on all sides.
Uttering something that need not be put down in print, “Sloppy” Joe
looked around and saw his neighbour Bob walking down the sidewalk on the
other side of the street. He called over to Bob, asking him to go for
help, but Bob just kept walking along. “Sloppy” Joe called louder, but
there was still no response. He then screamed at the top of his lungs
but Bob did not seem to hear him. Whatever was keeping him from
leaving or entering his business was apparently also trapping all sound.
Eventually Bob looked around and saw “Sloppy” Joe at which point
“Sloppy” Joe began to gesture as best he could within the confines of
his transparent cage. Bob shook his head and said “Better stick to
cooking Joe, that pantomime act is never going to sell.”
Soon thereafter one of his employees arrived for her morning shift.
She waved to “Sloppy” Joe and said hello as she moved toward the
restaurant entrance but did not seem to notice anything was amiss. When
she got as close to the door as “Sloppy” Joe was, however, a look of
surprise came over her face and then, as she turned in all directions,
one of panic. “Sloppy” Joe realized that she was trapped too. One by
one, his employees showed up, and each in turn got trapped within an
invisible box.
“What will happen when my customers start to show up?” “Sloppy” Joe asked himself.
He did not have long to wait. The first customer, one of his regulars,
showed up like clockwork at the time the restaurant normally opened its
doors to the public. He too found himself stuck between the
mysterious unseen walls. The same happened to every other customer
that arrived after him.
Before long the area around the restaurant was surrounded by people,
trapped in place by invisible boxes. There was approximately six feet
of space between each of them.
All of a sudden, a loud maniacal cackle came descending upon them from
above. Looking up, they saw a man standing on top of the restaurant,
holding a device that resembled a cross between a machine gun and a
video camera. Groaning inside, “Sloppy” Joe recognized the man as Dr.
Tofu Veggiebrain the notorious mad scientist and leader of an animal
rights/environmentalist activist group that wanted to make veganism
mandatory and which had been targeting him and his restaurant with
harassment of various sorts for years.
“How do you like my latest invention, ‘Sloppy’ Joe?” Dr. Veggiebrain
asked. “I call it the Insta-Mime. Soon you and all others who murder
and eat our animal brothers and sisters will be trapped between
invisible walls in the world’s most despised form of performance art
forever.”
It looked like he might be right. Within an hour the police, fire
department, and other emergency services had been called in and they
could find no way of releasing anyone from the invisible boxes. The
police wrote “Sloppy” Joe and each of the others a ticket for breaking
the by-law against public displays of pantomime and then took off.
Soon, however, word of the strange impromptu mime session outside of the
Celestial Carnivore got out and within a couple of days it made its way
to the Marshmallow Monks (1) in the Carpathian Mountains. They
immediately contacted “Eddy” Johnson who rushed to the scene as Reaction
Man, (2) battled Dr. Veggiebrain, and freed everyone from their
invisible prison. Since this is not an actual episode in The
Adventures of Reaction Man but merely an essay illustration in which he
makes a cameo appearance, I will not elaborate on the details, but will
instead skip ahead to the aftermath of the trial of Dr. Veggiebrain.
After Dr. Veggiebrain was convicted criminally, “Sloppy” Joe filed a
civil action against him to recover the losses his business suffered
over the period in which he, his employees, and his customers had been
mimed. It was not difficult to obtain a ruling in his favour for the
law on the matter and the principle of natural justice underlying that
law are quite clear. If you deliberately harm somebody else’s business
he is entitled to compensation.
Things became complicated, however, when Dr. Veggiebrain said that he
would not contest the ruling and would gladly pay the damages – but only
on the condition that the Celestial Carnivore sign a statement of
agreement with his vegan values and convert to serving only plant-based
food.
Whereas most judges would not agree to such a stipulation, “Sloppy” Joe
was unfortunate enough to have Justice Bob Baddecision of the Ontario
Inferior Court hear his case. Judge Baddecision, who as we know is a
close friend of Lucy himself and is prone to live up to his last name,
(3) considered Dr. Veggiebrain’s stipulation to be entirely reasonable,
and ordered that it be carried out.
You have likely already figured out the point of this story. Therefore I will make my commentary brief.
A man’s business is his livelihood. If your actions are demonstrably
responsible for harming or destroying another person’s business, by the
laws of natural justice you are required to compensate him for this
damage. You do not get to hold the compensation to which he is
entitled hostage until he meets your demands. If you attempt to do so
you are guilty of a form of blackmail or extortion.
Over the past two months many people have seen their businesses suffer
to the point of insolvency. This was not due to substandard goods,
poor service, or other faults of their own. Nor can it be attributed
solely to causes which are outside human control and for which no human
agency can be held responsible. The coronavirus did not destroy these
people’s businesses. Government ministers and their health officers
did with their mandatory social distancing regulations, shelter in place
orders, and lockdown of so-called “non-essential” businesses and
services. This is why these businesses are entitled to government
assistance at this time. Such assistance is not a “bail out” nor is it
socialism, although it will have the same long term effect as these of
saddling generations to come with an unthinkable tax and debt burden.
It is certainly not the government being compassionate, no matter how
much Captain Airhead tries to dress it up in these terms. It is the
government paying compensation for damage it has itself inflicted.
This is why the government has no right to impose a values test on the
small businesses that apply for such compensation. Since the
government put these businesses in danger of bankruptcy, justice demands
that the government pay restitution. As the party that has committed
the injury, the government does not get to hold back this restitution
until the party that has sustained the injury agrees to support abortion
and the alphabet soup agenda. Its values test is a form of extortion.
Don’t let Captain Airhead get away with it.
