OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – Canada has new legislation tying workers’ COVID compensation to a loss of movement and bodily autonomy.
In late 2021 the federal government passed a bill including a new Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit. It will be paid out in a region the federal Minister of Employment and Social Development declares a “lockdown region”: a geographical area in Canada no one would be allowed to leave. Violators would face a sanction or monetary penalty.
The government says the purpose of the new law, entitled “An Act to provide further support in response to COVID-19,” is to provide aid to businesses and people who have been targeted by a closure order.
“The Governor in Council, on the recommendation of the Minister, may, for the purposes of this Act, designate by order, for the period set out in the order, any region in Canada as a lockdown region,” reads Part 1, Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit, of Bill C-2.
The Bill defines a “lockdown order” as “an order, regulation or other instrument made by a competent authority” to allow the Minister, “for reasons related to COVID-19,” to declare any region in Canada a “lockdown region.”
Bil C-2 enacts the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit Act to authorize the payment of the “Canada worker lockdown benefit of $300 a week in regions where a lockdown is imposed for reasons related to COVID-19.”
According to the text of the bill, the “Minister may make a recommendation only if the Minister is of the opinion that it is in the public interest to do so and that measures referred to in subparagraphs (a)(i) and (ii) of the definition lockdown order in section 2 that are set out in one or more lockdown orders apply in respect of a region for a period of at least 14 consecutive days or, if a lower number of days is fixed by regulation, that lower number of consecutive days.”
Within these regions, it must first be specified “that persons stay at home except for reasons that are essential to preserving life, health, public safety or basic societal functioning,” before any benefit is paid out.
Non-compliance with the order “is an offence or may result in the imposition of a sanction, including an administrative monetary penalty.”
In essence, people who live in regions forced into lockdown will be paid by the government a small amount but only if they stay “at home.”
Bill C-2 was introduced by the finance minister Chrystia Freeland on November 24, 2021 and presented “as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
It was passed by MPs on December 16, before the Christmas break, with the support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party and the Bloc Québécois with a vote of 190 in favor and 142 against.
All Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) and NDP MPs voted against the bill in the third reading, however, CPC MPs offered little resistance to allow its quick passage.
The Senate then fast-tracked the bill the same day; it received Royal Assent on December 17.
Bill C-2 also amends the Income Tax Act by extending “subsidies under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), and the Canada Recovery Hiring Program until May 7, 2022.”
It also amends the Canada Labour Code to allow for extended leaves of absence due to “COVID-19.”
Vaccine-free Canadians excluded from lockdown COVID benefit
Benefits paid out under the law will not be given to anyone who has suffered a loss of work because they chose to not get the experimental COVID jabs.
“A person is not eligible for a lockdown benefit if they lost their employment, were unable to perform self-employment work, or had a reduction in income because they refused to comply with a requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” reads the Bill.
“For the purposes of paragraph (1)(h), the refusal by a person to comply with a requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is not a reasonable excuse to have quit their employment or voluntarily ceased to work or to have done anything referred to in subparagraphs (1)(h)(i) to (iii).”
The Trudeau Liberals have gone after Canadians who have chosen to not get the experimental COVID jabs.
Just recently, Canada’s Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos said that Canada’s provincial governments might soon introduce mandatory vaccination policies.
Duclos’s words regarding mandatory COVID shots were met by a backlash from some Conservative MPs as well as many prominent Canadians in academia, such as popular Canadian psychologist and cultural analyst Jordan Peterson.
Two Canadian premiers, Alberta’s Jason Kenney and Scott Moe of Saskatchewan said their provinces would not be mandating any vaccines in response to Duclos’s mandatory jab comments.
However, the government of Quebec recently in effect mandated COVID jabs after announcing earlier this week that those who do not take it will be subject to monetary fines.
According to a growing body of data, vaccine mandates and passports are a failed strategy for tackling COVID.
Meanwhile, forced immunization is unconstitutional. Lawyers with Canada’s Department of Health wrote in a 1996 Canadian National Report On Immunization that unlike some countries “immunization is not mandatory in Canada.”
“It cannot be made mandatory because of the Canadian Constitution,” added the lawyers.
Many consider such mandates a gross assault on individual freedoms and completely unnecessary given COVID-19’s high survivability among most groups, its now-understood minimal risk of asymptomatic spread, and research indicating that post-infection natural immunity is far superior to vaccine-induced immunity. The efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines dramatically decreases around four months after being injected and soon completely disappears.
Many employers in both the private and public sector have mandated COVID jabs for their employees. This has resulted in thousands of Canadians who do not want to be injected with a novel medical product being forced out of their jobs.
Effective from December 1, 2021, the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enacted a policy banning Canadians over 12 who have chosen not to get the shots from traveling by air, sea, or train.