CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) — Over 2,000 people in Calgary, Alberta, joined hands in protest on Saturday to show their solidarity with nurses, doctors, EMTs, firefighters and police who are opposed to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
A “Calgary Frontline for Freedom Rally” was held outside Calgary’s City Hall in Olympic Plaza before the silent march, and featured speakers including Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) president John Carpay.
Carpay thanked the firefighters, nurses, EMTs, doctors, and police who are “standing up to this tyranny,” noting that this is the time to not “give in” to jab mandates.
“What we are witnessing today is the persecution of a minority, the unvaccinated, and this is the most vicious persecution in Canada in decades,” said Carpay. “Our right to bodily autonomy means the government has no business forcibly, or under pressure, or under duress injecting us with any substance without our full and informed consent.”
Carpay said the last time there was this type of “persecution” in Canada was when the Canadian government forcibly confined Japanese Canadians during the Second World War.
He said that “mandatory vaccinations and vaccine passports are a blatant violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
A retired police officer identified as “Clay” from Police on Guard for Thee, a group of active duty and retired police officers against “unconstitutional public health orders,” said, “Our numbers are growing every day in leaps and bounds with active-duty people.”
“No longer it’s retired guys, it’s the active-duty policeman coming out and saying this is wrong. I’ve read the charter many times, and I have never seen anywhere in there where it says the government knows what’s best for my body.”
It's official: Joe Biden has announced that his Administration will be forcing COVID vaccinations on nearly 1/3rd of American citizens, blatantly disregarding the personal objections of millions of people and moving America ever closer towards a medical dictatorship.
We cannot stand for this unprecedented overreach, and we will not submit to Biden's tyrannical public coercion efforts.
Please SIGN this urgent petition informing the President that you will NOT comply with these unconstitutional vaccine mandate orders issued by the Biden Administration, and that elected officials should act in their capacity to block these intrusive demands.
On Thursday, September 9th, Joe Biden announced the latest round of federal orders meant to further coerce large swaths of the public into getting the COVID vaccine -- many against their will.
While the legal standing of these measures is, at best, dubious, the Biden Administration appears more ready than ever to gut our individual rights and practically erase medical autonomy in our country.
This latest escalation in overreach was announced via a televised speech in which Biden outlined a new "six-point plan" that includes far more than just six avenues to achieve mass medical compliance.
Among the most egregious new federal mandates are the following:
- A requirement that all private businesses employing more than 100 people mandate their workers get the Covid-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing (to be implemented by way of a new Department of Labor rule)
- A requirement that all federal employees and federal contractors get the COVID vaccine
- A requirement that all healthcare workers in facilities that receive reimbursement from Medicare and/or Medicaid (an estimated 17 million) get the Covid-19 vaccine without an alternative testing option
- A requirement that all Head Start teachers get the COVID vaccine
- A federal effort to lobby states to implement vaccine mandates for all school employees, and require regular testing of all students and school staff
- A federal effort to lobby entertainment venues to require proof of vaccination or testing in order to grant entry to the public
- A continuation of mask mandates on all federal properties and during interstate travel (i.e. planes, trains, buses)
All in all, these new vaccine mandates, which will go into effect within the coming weeks, will affect an estimated 100 million American workers -- 2/3rds of the entire workforce!
And, according to an administration official, violations of these unconstitutional requirements could result in fines of up to $14,000.
While this is clearly a political ploy on the part of the Joe Biden and his team of power-hungry Washington insiders to shift the focus from their disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the American public knows better: After nearly a year and a half's worth of arbitrary, ever-changing, and unconstitutional government mandates in response to the COVID outbreak, it was always a given that the Biden Administration would ramp things up even further when it behooved them.
And now, it would seem that time has officially come.
"This is not about freedom or personal choice," Biden uttered in his remarks, confirming his administration's blatant dismissal of all Americans' right(s) to accept or decline the experimental Covid-19 vaccine.
This is a stunning reversal from Biden's declaration last December that "I don’t think [the vaccine] should be mandatory, I wouldn’t demand it to be mandatory."
In fact, Biden even confirmed his intention to flout states' rights in the process, warning that "If these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way."
These are not the words of an "empathetic" leader; these are the words of an aspiring dictator. And, for the time being, the only way to stop Joe Biden's tyranny is through mass noncompliance.
As we've said from the beginning, science, basic logic, and common sense should dictate policy regarding COVID and the Delta variant.
But Joe Biden and the federal government have long abandoned those principles throughout this crisis, culminating into this disturbing yet inevitable flurry of intrusive vaccine mandates that use people's jobs, individual autonomy, and livelihood as leverage.
This assault on our individual rights, private businesses, and American workers cannot be tolerated, and the easiest way to combat these unlawful orders is to just say NO.
Please SIGN and SHARE this most important petition letting Joe Biden know that you will NOT comply with the unconstitutional medical demands being made by this administration, and that action should be taken to block any intrusive action against working Americans and private employers.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Biden announces vaccine requirements for private businesses, impacting tens of millions of Americans': https://www.
A nurse identified as Annette also spoke at the rally.
“I stand here today for all of your lines in the sand,” she said. “Everyone, including me, has everything to lose to be here today. Who are you going to believe, I ask you that. Be as wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.”
Previously, the province’s health authority, Alberta Health Services (AHS), announced that all staff and contractors must be fully vaccinated by October 16.
Calgary set a deadline of September 13 for all city employees to show proof of vaccination status or provide a reason for an exemption. Those who are unable to show an exemption must have their first jab by this date, or risk getting fired.
The city said those wishing to receive a valid exemption for medical or other reasons protected under the Alberta Human Rights Act will be accommodated. However, they must undergo rapid COVID-19 tests and show a negative result before being allowed to return to work.
At the rally, Carpay said the JCCF will be taking AHS to court over the mandates and promised to help those affected by them.
Saturday’s protest in Calgary was the second held by Calgary’s frontline workers in a week.
On September 7, about 100 Calgary first responders made up mainly of firefighters showed up, eliciting a scathing response from Calgary Fire Chief Steve Dongworth. He claimed the firefighters were a small group of people, “in the process of advancing their agenda.”
A senior Calgary firefighter who spoke with LifeSiteNews on the condition of anonymity blasted Dongworth, saying he “claims to not want discrimination in the workforce,” yet is in favor of jab mandates.
The firefighter said Dongworth’s words directly promoted workplace “discrimination” and “great divisions in the fire department.”
“This just shows he doesn’t care about his own firefighters,” he said. “All they care about, including the … administration who literally have no firefighting experience, are their own political aspirations.”
On Monday, protests against vaccine mandates were held outside hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called the protestors at hospitals an “outrageous small minority” and threatened to bring the full extent of the law on them should they block roadways.
Similar first responder protests have been held in many cities across Canada, with a recent one in Toronto seeing more than 100 firefighters, paramedics, and police officers, join together to protest jab mandates.
LifeSiteNews has put together a resource guide called “How to resist COVID jab mandates in Canada — a comprehensive guide.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated.