Reflections on Christmas and 2022

I hope that in the new year we can all reflect on the questions I ask today. I hope Canada of 2023 becomes Canada of 2019. Not Canada of 2021-22.

This week my family and I will celebrate Christmas. I’m really looking forward to it. After a hectic few months, we are going to enjoy a quiet week. This will be the first Christmas since 2019 that our governments don't make gatherings illegal. It will be the first Christmas in a while that our health authorities don’t broadly encourage us to avoid certain people or treat them like second class citizens.* Even though we have just as many cases of COVID, hospitalizations and deaths as we ever had**, our governments will not attempt the same harmful and counterproductive rules as years past. 

*This time last year, nearly every public health unit in Ontario advised the public not to invite unvaccinated people to their gatherings (or have them stay outside like dogs…). In Alberta it was actually illegal to invite an unvaccinated person in your home. 

**We have 310% more people hospitalized for COVID in Canada compared to this exact same time last year when our leaders decided to cancel Christmas again. 

Even with the apparent disappearance of government authoritarianism, I won’t be attending any large Christmas gatherings this year. I’ll be happily cooped up at home with my amazing wife and children. Although I am feeling festive and really looking forward to spoiling our kids on Christmas Day, the Christmas season just doesn’t feel the same as it used to. 

I believe this is mostly because I don’t feel the same about society as I used to. 

This past year has left me deflated and demoralized about the state of our country. I still hold a lot of resentment towards society as a whole and especially towards many who disappointed me most. My new year's resolution will be to try and cope with some of that resentment. Part of that process is to properly understand and express it. 

For two years our governments and single-minded, stubborn health experts stole so much away from us. They stole our normalcy. They stole childhoods. They stole important holidays. But the worst thing they did was ridicule and shame us. 

They shamed and blamed those who believed canceling holidays and kids activities was wrong. They ridiculed those who believed wearing masks for extending periods of time (and affecting our long term immunity) was a mistake. They ridiculed and questioned our intelligence when we simply refused a brand new synthetic medical product that didn’t seem to stop spread. 

Even today many government and health leaders still choose to shame and ridicule those who didn’t want to take a novel mRNA technology to fight a respiratory virus that many of us can easily fight with our immune system. 

Many rules still exist making me and many others second class citizens. Thousands across our country are still off work because stubborn employers won’t remove punitive COVID policies. Thousands of caregivers won’t be able to enter some nursing homes this Christmas because some administrators still choose to punish those who “didn’t make the right health choice”. 

It’s obvious why I have feelings of deep disappointment in our leaders who cannot end their control over us. But my disappointment in society is based on indifference. 

The majority were indifferent to the draconian rules of the last year that saw people fired, denied entry to restaurants, kids activities and many other settings. The majority even supported these and quietly ridiculed those who were being excluded from society. We were in fact anti-science. 

I’ve complained a lot lately about the remaining rules and some probably find me annoying. Many are still indifferent to these rules or don’t think the policies are that bad. And that is the reason I’m feeling deflated today. I honestly don’t care if my plight to end these rules is annoying. 

The indifference of people tells me they still support these policies or believe they are justified. This tells me that they believe that I am inferior to them or pose some sort of health threat to you or society. 

They are subtly saying that they believe what those who declined the COVID vaccines went through over the last year deserved it. We

deserved to be called extremists by our prime minister. We deserved to be called out by politicians and the media as being directly responsible for lockdowns, delayed surgeries and for closing children’s’ schools. 

This was not easy. All we did was decline a brand new medical product which (by mid 2021) already proved to not stop the spread of this virus. Many may have thought that our decision was stupid but ultimately it was a personal health choice. No stupider than someone else choosing to drink more than 5 alcoholic drinks per week (which raises your risk factor for COVID) or someone’s choice to go downhill skiing on weekends (very high chance of hospitalization) or someone’s choice to eat fast food regularly. 

We weren’t responsible for government closures and for people missing life-saving surgeries. This was clear over a year ago. The data is not new. It's been obvious since the Summer of 2021 that these particular shots did not stop transmission. 

I believe health authorities knew that the shot didn’t stop the spread. They simply chose to blame one segment of society because they needed a scapegoat. They justified this because their shaming and ridicule would ultimately just get people to make a better health choice (in their view). They had to put aside quite a bit of ethics and morals to do this. But they did. 

They needed a scapegoat because people were fed up with lockdowns and endless rules. We had been promised “2 weeks to flatten the curve”, then just get through the Winter of 2021. Then we were told to just cooperate a little longer until we all could get the shot. Society had followed all the rules and still we were faced with another Winter lockdown. So our leaders deflected the blame from themselves and pointed to us. The ones who didn’t wait patiently and buy into the endless promises.

And most of society mistakenly bought in. 

We didn’t deserve that blame…

Yes.  We felt the blame. Yes. We felt the shame. 

After seeing society be denied their second Christmas in a row and seeing most businesses shut down once again. After seeing thousands of surgeries delayed and children’s activities and schools shuttered once again. Amidst the darkest, coldest and most mentally challenging month of the year. Even if we didn’t say it or acknowledge it, we felt the stigma, the blame and the shame directed at us by our own family and friends.  

A mainstream media poll that was widely published across Canada showed just how much society bought in and blamed us. 

In January 2021 77% of Canadians supported the idea that we should be barred from all public places. Only 19% of those asked said they had sympathy for the ones without the COVID shot and got sick. 37% even believed that those who chose to decline the COVID shot should be denied all health care (i.e. left to die because of our health choice). One third of the country believed we should be forbidden from driving and more than a quarter of the population believed we should be imprisoned. 

This poll is not a joke and is not satire. The fact that the mainstream media even asked this type of questions and broadcasted the results shows how deep into hatred our country fell. 

Try waking up in January and reading those stats of what your country thinks of you… 

You all bought in. You all proudly printed your QR codes to enter restaurants and bring your kids to hockey arenas. Almost nobody pushed back. Because the health authorities' narrative comforted you. You did your part to end this never ending pandemic.  And we didn’t… Another Winter lockdown was frustrating and you could choose to blame politicians, health experts or us. Almost everybody chose us. 

Except that was a lie. You were either fooled by your government, or refused to see the obvious. 

Even today, with many rules still in place stigmatizing and humiliating those who made a different health choice (i.e. treating unvaccinated people like prison visitors at some nursing homes) most just don’t care. They don’t care that on Christmas Day, some seniors will be alone because their closest family members cannot enter their home. For no reason…

To care would mean to acknowledge that these rules don’t make any sense. To acknowledge that these rules are unjustified now means they were never justified. Because there are just as many cases, deaths and hospitalization attributable to COVID now than a year ago when many wanted to put us in jail. COVID therapeutics and more importantly COVID therapeutic mandates, did nothing to reduce COVID in our society. 

This week, my municipal council finally agreed to remove their vaccine mandate for staff. Right at the peak or respiratory season. Today there are 310% more people hospitalized for COVID in Canada than there were when this city drafted this policy a year ago. But still, many will say that this policy was justified. Because acknowledging the opposite is too difficult. Acknowledging that people lost their livelihoods, fell into depression, lost family and friends because of these policies you supported is too difficult. 

The thing is, most of society knows what I’ve stated today is true. But to acknowledge the harms that you participated in is very difficult. 

The data clearly shows that most of society understands now that these vaccines don’t stop spread, are not the antidote to lockdowns and do not protect their loved ones. 

In Ontario, over 75% of the population have chosen not to take a booster in the last 6 months (as is recommended by the authorities). Over 75% have passed on the new bivalent formulation recommended to all, months after it has now been available to them. Only 32% of parents in Ontario chose to give their children the first two doses and only 3.6% have chosen to give their kids a booster. Yes. Only 3.6%…

If these people believed that a year ago those without a shot caused our lockdowns, why would they decline the most updated shot for them and overwhelmingly for their children. 

Most of society knows the obvious. These shots don’t stop spread. They are not a traditional vaccine like the ones for measles or polio meant to eradicate a disease. They are a preventive health product meant to possibly lessen ones symptoms. Individuals should choose or not choose them based on their personal circumstances. That’s it. They should not be ridiculed, shamed or denied any ability to live, earn a living or care for other based on that health decision 

But almost everybody still pretends like this isn't the case. They still walk around like they didn’t get fooled into treating their neighbors and friends into second class citizens. They walk around like the remaining stigmatizing rules affecting us are needed (i.e. our inability to cross our only international land border and our government’s complete indifference and refusal to advocate for us). 

Sorry if this essay sounds harsh but it’s easier to get the feelings out than keep them in. 

When over three quarters of my supposed compassionate country thought I deserved to be excluded from society for my personal health choice. And now are making the same choice I made (by declining a recommended medical product). But they can't even stand up or speak up for the remaining rules today. I’m sorry if I say I don’t feel too optimistic about my society. I’m sorry I don’t feel too joyful towards my community. 

I will enjoy my Christmas with my small family. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and I hope that in the new year we can all reflect on the questions I ask today. I hope Canada of 2023 becomes Canada of 2019. Not Canada of 2021-22.