{"id":5169,"date":"2020-12-13T17:23:12","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T22:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5169"},"modified":"2020-12-13T17:23:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-13T22:23:36","slug":"mark-donnelly-the-latest-victim-of-the-medico-stalinist-tyrants-their-corporate-collaborators-o-canada-singer-addresses-firing-by-vancouver-canucks-at-anti-mask-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5169","title":{"rendered":"Mark Donnelly &#8212; The Latest Victim of the Medico-Stalinist Tyrants &#038; Their Corporate Collaborators: &#8216;O Canada&#8217; singer addresses firing by Vancouver Canucks at anti-mask rally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mark Donnelly &#8212; The Latest Victim of the Medico-Stalinist Tyrants &amp; Their Corporate Collaborators: &#8216;O Canada&#8217; singer addresses firing by Vancouver Canucks at anti-mask rally http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5169<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Social Sharing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mark Donnelly sang anthem at Christmas&nbsp;Freedom Rally in Vancouver on Saturday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The Canadian Press&nbsp;\u00b7&nbsp;Posted: Dec 06, 2020 9:27 AM PT | Last Updated: December 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5830328.1607226421!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/16x9_780\/o-canada-singer-mark-donnelly-vancouver-art-gallery.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>Mark Donnelly at the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday, where people gathered to protest COVID-19 restrictions. A day earlier, the Vancouver Canucks said over Twitter that Donnelly would no longer be singing the national anthem before the NHL club&#8217;s games.&nbsp;(CBC News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The popular singer of &#8216;O Canada&#8217; at Vancouver&nbsp;Canucks hockey games says he knew he might lose his job for standing&nbsp;up against what he describes as the &#8220;tyranny&#8221; of COVID-19&nbsp;restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mark Donnelly sang the national anthem at an event called the Christmas&nbsp;Freedom Rally in Vancouver on Saturday, where hundreds of people&nbsp;protested restrictions imposed by British Columbia&#8217;s provincial health officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fr_aquilini\/status\/1335044102509883394?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tweeted late Friday<\/a>&nbsp;that Donnelly was now the former Canucks anthem singer, followed by&nbsp;the Twitter hashtag #wearamask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/bc-canucks-singer-fired-1.5829907\">Vancouver Canucks&#8217; anthem singer gets the boot over plans to perform at anti-mask rally<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Donnelly told the crowd, many of whom weren&#8217;t wearing masks or physically distancing, that he decided to sing because he questions the&nbsp;&#8220;draconian lockdown protocols.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;What was originally sold as a 15-day hunkering-down sprint for&nbsp;the common good has turned into a 10-month marathon from hell, where&nbsp;the finish line is constantly being moved further into the&nbsp;distance,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Donnelly said he doesn&#8217;t think health officials have done a&nbsp;cost-benefit analysis looking at the harms of the restrictions&nbsp;compared with preventing the spread of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;As someone known for singing our great national anthem, I&#8217;m&nbsp;standing up against what I feel is tyranny, plain and simple,&#8221; he&nbsp;said to applause and cheers from the crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5830324.1607227249!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_780\/mark-donnelly-freedom-rally-vancouver-5-december-2020.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>Donnelly sings O Canada at a rally against provincially mandated COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday in Vancouver.&nbsp;(CBC News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Donnelly&nbsp;described&nbsp;his firing as&nbsp;censorship by an institution that&nbsp;he&#8217;s followed for 50 years and been publicly associated with since&nbsp;2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Sports figures, entertainers, politicians, et cetera, can stand&nbsp;for anything as long as it supports the narrative. You can support&nbsp;rioting, looting, destruction of livelihoods and reputation, but&nbsp;take a position against the narrative and you are worthy of exile or&nbsp;worse.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Donnelly said he hasn&#8217;t had direct contact with Aquilini or the&nbsp;Canucks&nbsp;and that if he is no longer with the team, a phone call would&nbsp;have been a more respectful way to find out his reasons for taking&nbsp;part in the rally.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said he had hoped the ownership and management of the Canucks would&nbsp;have had the &#8220;courage to support the freedom to express [a] science-based position that is for the greater good of the&nbsp;country.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Follow the provincial health orders&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>On Saturday,&nbsp;Canucks COO Trent Carroll said in a statement that the organization hoped that people understood that Donnelly was not representing the team with his views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Mark Donnelly is acting independently,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We encourage everyone to wear a mask and to follow the provincial health orders.&nbsp;They are in place to help everyone in B.C. to stop COVID-19&nbsp;from spreading in our province.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.5830325.1607226253!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_780\/freedom-rally-vancouver-dec-5-2020.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>Hundreds of people gather outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday to attend an event called the Christmas Freedom Rally, to protest against pandemic restrictions, such as wearing face masks.&nbsp;(CBC News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After listening&nbsp;to speeches on Saturday at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the protesters then took to the streets in a march.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vancouver police spokesperson Tania Visintin said police need to&nbsp;exercise discretion with large groups of protesters violating public health orders, saying public safety is the priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said mass arrests or ticketing could escalate an already&nbsp;tense situation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This position does not automatically guarantee anyone special&nbsp;privileges at a protest. The bottom line is people who are&nbsp;contravening the public health order, they could be issued a ticket.&nbsp;Officers are using discretion with each situation that arises.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>B.C. Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said last month that she has&nbsp;&#8220;no time for people who believe that wearing a mask somehow makes&nbsp;them ill or is a sign of lack of freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead, she said, wearing a mask is about respect for those who are suffering through the pandemic together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>WATCH | Dr. Bonnie Henry critical of people who refuse to wear masks over &#8216;lack of freedom&#8217;:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thumbnails.cbc.ca\/maven_legacy\/thumbnails\/164\/30\/nov25masks_1100kbps_1280x720_1824458307887.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dr. Bonnie Henry denounces people who refuse to wear masks over &#8216;lack of freedom&#8217;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>18 days ago<\/strong>Video1:02B.C.&#8217;s provincial health officer says wearing masks is a sign of respect.&nbsp;1:02<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With files from Cory Correia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Donnelly &#8212; The Latest Victim of the Medico-Stalinist Tyrants &amp; Their Corporate Collaborators: &#8216;O Canada&#8217; singer addresses firing by Vancouver Canucks at anti-mask rally http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5169 Social Sharing Mark Donnelly sang anthem at Christmas&nbsp;Freedom Rally in Vancouver on Saturday The &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=5169\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2410,2746,2136,2749,2750,2747,2748],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5169"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5171,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5169\/revisions\/5171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}