EDMONTON, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – The new premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, has banned the introduction of any further masking mandates in the province’s K-12 schools.
“The detrimental effects of masking on the mental health, development, and education of children in classroom settings is well understood, and we must turn the page on what has been an extremely difficult time for children, along with their parents and teachers,” said Smith in a statement announcing the new policy Saturday.
Smith’s mask mandate ban came about in response to a recent Alberta Court of King’s Bench ruling which stated that the removal of mask mandates in Alberta schools by the province’s Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange earlier in the year was “unreasonable.”
In February of this year, LaGrange banned all Alberta school boards from enacting face mask requirements for students. This was around the same time then-Premier Jason Kenney scrapped the province’s vaccine passport system as the Freedom Convoy’s popularity was rising.
The left-leaning group Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL) filed a lawsuit against the Alberta government stating that LaGrange’s order barring masks in schools was not valid as she had overstepped her authority.
Justice G.S. Dunlop ruled in favor of the AFL, whose lawsuit applicants included five kids whose parents acted on their behalf and claimed their charter rights have been violated.
Dunlop wrote that LaGrange’s order was “was made for improper purposes” but did not think the applicants’ charter rights were violated.
“I have directed our Justice minister to assess whether an appeal of Thursday’s Kings Bench Court decision is appropriate, and have instructed our government’s ministers of Justice, Health and Education to alert me to any legislative or regulatory changes that may be necessary to reaffirm or clarify our government’s full authority with respect to this and other health and education matters,” said Smith.
Smith, since taking over as Premier from Kenney earlier in the month, has come out strong against vaccine mandates as well as the discrimination against the vaccine-free.
However, she supports abortion.
As for mask use, for a time they were mandatory in Alberta and in all of Canada. Evidence shows, however, they are ineffective at limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
A 2020 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that after 15 minutes of use, a facemask is not at all effective in stopping the spread of COVID.
Also, a 2020 study published by the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases stated that it “did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility.”
The burdensome mask policies for young children in the U.S. and Canada were far harsher than those in the rest of the world. For example, in the U.S., kids aged two and up – some still in diapers – were force-masked at daycares, schools, during speech therapy and in medical offices, and on airplanes.