Vancouver Rallies Highlight Opposition to Vaccine Mandates, Unfair Media Coverage

Several 100 radical gathered connected a rainy day successful Vancouver connected Oct. 22 arsenic 2 antithetic rallies were held to protestation increasing authorities COVID-19 vaccination mandates and decry the media sum surrounding them.

One of the rallies, which was rapidly organized by a fistful of longshoremen, took spot successful beforehand of Transport Canada’s Vancouver offices arsenic a preemptive protestation against an upcoming vaccine mandate not each workers consciousness comfy with.

Members from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is expecting Transport Canada to denote connected Oct. 30 an statement with the Vancouver Port Authority wherever each employees who enactment connected Port Authority onshore volition person to beryllium afloat vaccinated against COVID-19.

ILWU president Rob Ashton has asserted the union’s absorption to a mandate, portion illustrating however longshoremen person continued to enactment during the pandemic without immoderate disruption to the proviso of goods that travel done British Columbia’s ports, and with nary devastating microorganism outbreaks.

“ILWU Canada has concerns with the imaginable of mandatory vaccination policies and has reached retired to the Government of Canada to conscionable and sermon the details of these caller regulations,” Ashton said successful a connection connected the union’s website successful August, aft the national authorities announced its program to mandate vaccinations for federally regulated workplaces.

“We besides person concerns that this mandate could perchance manus employers overreaching powers, with workers bearing the consequences.”

The ILWU represents implicit 7,200 longshore workers successful B.C.

Some longshoremen who spoke astatine the Oct. 22 rally talked astir the pending situation unfolding passim North America with merchant ships stranded astatine oversea due to the fact that of mediocre argumentation and authorities interference, portion others encouraged the assemblage to beryllium resilient and strive to support their jobs and freedoms contempt the unit surrounding vaccine mandates.

Tanya, Gaw, laminitis of the Action4Canada movement, generated immoderate of the loudest cheers erstwhile she spoke passionately astir lasting up for Canadians’ rights.

“No doc oregon provincial authorities tin unreal that immoderate measurement tin override the charter oregon different law rights,” she said. “[B.C. Provincial Health Officer] Bonnie Henry has nary powerfulness to beryllium doing what she’s doing.”

“We request warriors,” Gaw continued, “because the authorities has waged warfare against us.”

Protesters clasp signs during a rally extracurricular the CBC gathering successful Vancouver connected Oct. 22, 2021. (Jeff Sandes/The Epoch Times)

On the different broadside of Vancouver’s downtown, demonstrators gathered extracurricular the CBC gathering to protestation the sum of the pandemic.

The keynote talker was Polish-Canadian Leszek Szostak, besides known by his pseudonym Joseph Conrad aft the legendary Polish writer of the aforesaid name. Szostak, who has a pursuing chiefly successful Poland of adjacent to 150,000, discussed propaganda, and however helium feels the media has unfairly utilized authorities talking points erstwhile covering the pandemic.

While the CBC served arsenic a backdrop to the protest, Szostak emphasized the contented was not lone with that peculiar media outlet.

“It’s not conscionable Canada, it’s crossed the planet,” helium said.

Entrepreneur Francois Naudi supports the crushed for the rallies and made clip to attend.

“I felt it due to beryllium present and bask the institution of like-minded radical that are warring for our rights and our freedoms, and segregation [of the unvaccinated] doesn’t look due for a batch of us,” helium said.

“We mightiness beryllium the tiny numbers being exposed to this, the ones that are prepared to hazard it each and suffer that paycheque, but I’m present to enactment that choice.”

Allen Forrest, who attended some rallies, and emphasized his work to besides amusement his support, arsenic good arsenic item the accusation galore can’t access.

“They [government] are going to instrumentality everything distant from people,” Forrest said.

“If we don’t basal up present and fto radical cognize that what the media is telling them is wholly wrong, that there’s an alternate broadside to this, they’re going to get their large reset. It’s going to beryllium truly hard to scope immoderate radical due to the fact that truthful galore of them are into this Stockholm Syndrome wherever they’re defending their captors. But we’ve got to bash everything we tin to scope arsenic galore arsenic possible.”

More rallies are scheduled successful the coming weeks successful Vancouver, including a solidarity rally for health-care workers connected Oct. 26, and a basal for state rally co-ordinated by The Freedom Organization connected Nov. 20.