The announcements portion at the end of council committee and council meetings is often used to share well wishes, gratitude or other good news, but one councillor flipped the script Monday.
At the conclusion of the council committee meeting, Coun. Jay Fallis used the opportunity to publicly call out those who took part in an anti-lockdown, anti-mask protest in town on April 23.
“I was really disappointed to see the most recent protests downtown in Orillia,” Fallis said, adding participants were not wearing masks and were not physically distanced.
He was “really disappointed to see that level of immaturity.”
“I hope all of them reflect on who they're impacting,” he said, using first responders as an example.
The response on social media, however, was reassuring to Fallis.
“I was proud to see that a lot of commenters on Facebook and OrilliaMatters were universal in their opposition,” he said.
“I hope we can learn from those situations as a society as COVID, hopefully, is coming to an end soon.”
Mayor Steve Clarke used the opportunity to give his two cents’ worth, too.
“Those actions by those people actually have the ability to prolong and create more lockdowns, which is what they seem to be fighting against. The irony of that is not lost on me,” he said.
