(LifeSiteNews) — Immediately after being sworn in as the premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith made comments that have sent shockwaves throughout the country.
As LifeSiteNews reported, Smith said in a press conference on October 11 that the persecution of vaccine-free Canadians made them “the most discriminated against group that [she] ever witnessed in [her] lifetime.”
These comments are objectively true, as we will see in a moment, but of course mainstream media – which is to say leftist media – was quick to conflate her statements as something they were not, pouncing on the opportunity to claim Smith is unconcerned with the hardships various minority groups have faced historically.
One reporter for City News tweeted a clip of Smith’s comments saying: “Danielle Smith says unvaccinated people have suffered greater discrimination than those based on race, gender, sexuality and other.”
“They’re the most discriminated against group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.”
Danielle Smith says unvaccinated people have suffered greater discrimination than those based on race, gender, sexuality and other. #Yeg #Yyc #ableg pic.twitter.com/4ct8PczFOe
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) October 11, 2022
The insinuation from the reporter is that Smith’s comment is obtuse and ahistorical, given the fact that there are other groups of people who have had run-ins with bad behavior and prejudice at the hands of governments and societies throughout history.
Before we compare the treatment of the unvaccinated with the treatment of other groups – a comparison that in fact, supports Smith’s statement – we ought to consider what discrimination even means, especially in the context of discrimination against an identifiable group.
What is discrimination?
In a linguistic sense, to discriminate means nothing more than to decide between various options or to recognize differences between things.
If you say, for example, “The man was indiscriminate in his decision,” you are really saying that the man didn’t consider or ponder the differences between things before making a decision.
On the other hand, the term discrimination is used in a political and legal sense to describe a pattern of behavior wherein a group with identifiable differences is treated differently than another group based on those differences.
Of course, examples of racial discrimination, or the discrimination of ethnicities easily come to mind.
In our day, however, the term discrimination has been applied to basically every group who is not of the dominant culture group. In Canada, this means that any person from a group that is not of general European descent is considered a victim of an undefined, off-the-record form of discrimination.
Now, even if that were true – which is highly dubious – it still wouldn’t make what Danielle Smith said false, as it remains an objective fact that since Smith was born in 1971, the unvaccinated have indeed been the most mistreated group.
Discrimination in Canadian history
Let us think for a moment about instances of discrimination in Canadian history, both from a legal and social perspective.
During the two World Wars, ethnic groups associated with the enemy were treated very badly. Germans were treated horribly during the First World War, and in some cases the German names of cities were even changed, like when Berlin, Ontario was changed to Kitchener, Ontario due to anti-German sentiment.
In addition, Japanese Canadians were exiled from their land and homes during the Second World War in what is an egregious blackspot in Canadian history, and something for which there is no justification.
And, of course, Native Canadians have been treated unfairly at various times in Canadian history, often by Liberal governments who enacted bad policies that hurt their communities.
These are examples of legitimate discrimination from both a social and political level. Not only was there an unjust animus against these ethnic groups, but there were also discriminatory actions taken by the government wherein the prejudice was made the law.
But what about the unvaccinated?
Notwithstanding any discrimination directed at an ethnic or racial group that has taken place in Canadian history, it is worth remembering that Smith was talking about the vaccine-free in her lifetime.
With Smith being born in 1971, long after the World Wars, it would be impossible to point to any particular group that has suffered such objective discrimination when compared to how vaccine-free Canadians were treated during the COVID-19 so-called pandemic.
Let’s consider a list of things that happened to the unvaccinated and see if there is any comparison in Canada in the last 50 years.
With slight variations among the provinces, unjabbed Canadians were officially banned from:
- Boarding planes
- Boarding trains
- Celebrating weddings
- Visiting dying loved ones
- Playing sports
- Attending university/college
- Eating in restaurants/cafes
- Going to movies
- Crossing the border
- Attending church
- Attending graduation ceremonies for their children
- Getting a marriage license
- Keeping their jobs
- Receiving government assistance after being fired for not being jabbed
- Going to the gym
- Undergoing lifesaving organ transplants
There are probably things I have missed, but that is quite the list. In addition, it should be noted that this list is only a collection of things that happened at an official policy level, we haven’t even touched on the societal impacts.
“But there was science behind these measures!” it may be retorted. The persecution of the Jews was “scientific” as well, as was the segregation of blacks in the United States.
There is simply no comparison
Could any group in Canada in the last 50 years… or ever, say they were banned from these same things?
Not even the wailing social justice warrior obsessed with LGBT “rights” could claim that any official laws about homosexuality could even come close to the restrictions placed on the unvaccinated.
Were homosexuals, as a rule, banned from being with their dying mothers? Were they banned from sitting in restaurants? Goodness, was there even a way to discriminate between a practicing homosexual in polite society to begin with? I don’t remember there being any “I’m not gay” certificates that they were required to carry around in order to live like a normal person.
Even if Canada were to have experienced segregation like in the U.S., it still would have been possible to have a parallel society, with vaccinated and unvaccinated sports leagues, or restaurants, or whatever. This is not to justify any segregation, but it is just a fact that the vaccine-free in Canada were not only told they could not access services reserved for those who took the jab, but it is to say that it was not even possible from them to create an alternative.
Quite frankly, I would have loved to have flown on a vaccine-free airline or play in a vaccine-free hockey league. It would have meant that I could travel or recreate with some of the most honorable and tolerant people I am proud to share a nation with.
It should also be noted that in the case of black people in the U.S., or Jews in Germany, medical professionals often provided “reasons” why those groups would spread diseases to others if they were to be treated equally. Don’t believe me? Look it up.
You might have been a Nazi
As tiresome as it is to throw around the old trope of someone being “literally a Nazi,” there is a time and a place to make such a comparison.
Nazis and Nazi sympathizers were not just racists and bigots: they were fools.
They were fooled by junk science that said to them that certain groups were lesser than, and junk politics that blamed the downfall of civilization on a single group.
Simply put, supporters of Nazis were completely moronic in their ability to think critically.
They got caught up in groupthink, turned on their neighbors, and believed any garbage thrown at them as long as they seemed like the good guys and the “others” were the vermin or swine.
Ask yourself a question: Would you have resisted Nazi thinking?
Well, if you supported any of the measures that were enacted, or if you supported this bigot, then I think you would have been shouting “Sieg Heil!”
Unvaccinated will put the vaccinated at risk😳
And the crowd were cheering🤦♂️
Mr. Trudeau, so what is the point of vaccination in this case?
Don’t the vaccinated infect and transmit it to others as well? pic.twitter.com/w6uriupQH0— قيس عبدالله دهراب (@QaisDehrab) September 14, 2021
Here’s Trudeau asking himself out loud whether he should tolerate unvaccinated Canadians. Only Canadians that share HIS personal opinions are Canadians. Everyone else is an “undesirable” that needs to be dealt with. #TrudeauMustGo pic.twitter.com/YoE78JQG9O
— Martyupnorth’s fact-checking twin brother® 🚜 (@Martyupnorth_2) October 11, 2022
