City council repealed its COVID-19 prevention policy for staff at its Monday meeting, but not before several members of the public took the opportunity to air out their grievances with public health measures introduced through the pandemic.
The decision to repeal the policy was initially deferred by council on Feb. 27, as council requested a statement from the health unit and the status of policies in surrounding municipalities.
Three residents spoke during the seldom-used open public forum section of Monday’s meeting. (The opinions of the three individuals who spoke in the open forum run counter to the judgment of the majority of scientific and public health experts across the globe)
One resident, identified only as Cathy, said the response to the pandemic was based on fear and not in science.
“Everything changed three years ago: the threat of a virus sent the world and our fair city into a panic mode. Fear took over; separation and masking were immediately required; schools, playgrounds, parks, everyone told to stay home,” she said.
“Where was the talk on healthy bodies and immune systems, changing diets and adding supplements to boost (your immune) system? Fear took over. The message was get vaccinated or lose your job,” she said. “This is the problem: no discussion, do what you're told, trust the science. This is not science.”
Another resident, Cathy Kerr, said she holds a bachelor of science degree in nursing. She argued that there was no pandemic, and said case counts, the vaccines, and more were deliberately and "malevolently" fabricated.
“The so-called pandemic has been planned and patented for decades,” she said. “The real pandemic is not COVID but in fact a false PCR test of case numbers that can't tell the difference between a cold or flu. The virus has never been isolated … did you ever wonder what happened to the common flu in 2020? It was replaced with COVID.”
Kerr argued the COVID-19 vaccines did not protect people from illness, and that they are, in fact, not vaccines at all.
“You'll come to learn the so-called COVID vaccines are not in fact vaccines at all: they're biologics based on a computer generated genome. It doesn't prevent hospitalization or death, and it doesn't stop you from getting sick, as a matter of fact,” she said.
“We were separated from loved ones, neighbours and friends, only to learn that the injection did not protect us because by the third injection natural immunity is lost.”
The decision to continue having a COVID-19 policy would be a choice of politics, not science, argued resident Lynn Kennedy.
“It is well known now that the vaccines do not stop transmission, that people (who) have been fully vaccinated get COVID and spread (it),” she said. “Prior to COVID-19, our Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protected our fundamental rights, such as bodily autonomy, mobility and livelihood, along with the provincial Health Care Consent Act protecting our bodily autonomy.
“On or about the end of April 2022, two things happened: the Reopening Ontario Act was terminated, which lifted the COVID-19 declared emergency and all COVID measures, so why are we here today about mandates?” she said.
Kennedy also questioned why other treatments – such as the contested use of Ivermectin – were not used to treat COVID-19 prior to vaccines rolling out.
“Frontline doctors had discovered and were successfully treating COVID with early treatment protocols such as ivermectin, and vitamins,” she said. “Why has our federal, provincial governments, and public health criminally suppressed available FDA-approved early treatment protocols?”
Council made the decision to repeal the city’s COVID-19 policy later in Monday’s meeting.
Since it was introduced in September 2021, the policy has been subject to regular review by the city’s senior staff, with several minor amendments made as the pandemic waned.
Under the most recent guidelines, new city employees were required to have had two vaccinations, among other health measures, whereas Barrie, Collingwood, Innisfil, Midland, and others no longer required new staff to disclose their vaccination status, city staff explained in February.
At the city’s request, medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner provided the following statement ahead of Monday’s council meeting.
“The decision of employers regarding workplace vaccination policies rests with the employers,” Gardner said.
“At (Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit) we have posted overall guidance on our website recommending that employers maintain COVID vaccination policies to support employees to be up to date for immunization, in keeping with recommendations from the provincial Ministry of Health as they change over time.”
As of March 20, 51,800 COVID-19 related deaths had been reported in Canada.
