Russ Cooper – David v Goliath

Never let a crisis go to waste

Former Obama Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, popularised the phrase, “Never let a crisis go to waste”. He meant to say that times of crisis present opportunities to do things that, otherwise, would not be possible. And so it is today that we find ourselves in the throes of an election in spite of the stable minority government that has ruled the nation for the past two years. After all, the crisis afforded by the advent of the Wuhan virus has given the government-of-the-day the perfect excuse to raid the public coffers and ply its constituents with free money – all in an effort to blunt the economic pain levied by the same government’s lockdown and business-crushing policies.

Businesses closed as public purse opens

And what better time to cash in on the largesse? A year and a half and three waves into the Wuhan virus and Canadians still believe their social interactions and vaccination status are the problems. If only the laggards among them didn’t resist vaccination and persist in offering up their bodies as incubators for more contagious, virulent variants of the virus. The timing is perfect, but tight, as the “scientific” basis for such notions is eroding fast in the face of inescapable and worldwide developments. In almost fully vaccinated Israel, for example, it is the vaccinated that are spreading the contagion and suffering most in hospital settings. The same is happening in other jurisdictions, like the UK and Iceland, that are heavily vaccinated and mere months ahead of Canada when it comes to such programs. Indeed, had the Canadian government waited to call its election it might very well have found itself in a similar situation – in the midst of a fourth wave with monies spent seen as a waste rather than a “we’ve got your back” blessing.

Then again and as the evidence mounts, the Liberal government just might find itself in the midst of a national realization that Canadian politicians and healthcrats have been making the contagion worse with its “zero Covid”, vaccine-only remedies. If and when asked, how would they explain that:

• cases are surging in an Israel characterized by 90% vaccination rates and that “boosters” are now required;

• Upwards of 95% of those hospitalized with severe Covid illness in Israel are fully vaccinated; and

• those with natural immunity to the Wuhan virus are much better protected than those with vaccine immunity.

The political and bureaucratic elites were delighted in the past by the knowledge that the main stream media was on their side with no intention of asking these obvious questions. Problem is, the cat is out of the bag, now, with everyday citizens asking for, and even demanding, answers. Witness the need for the Trudeau campaign to cancel a Bolton, Ontario event to avoid rowdy, unsafe crowds. And note the submission of legal suits by grassroot organizations to block draconian and mandatory vaccine injection and passport measures. Have the Liberals run out of time?

It does appear that the Liberal government could very well be a day late and a dollar short with its election call. This, as citizens wrestle with what a vaccine passport Canada will look like even as they are sickened by the profligate spending aimed at buying their votes. Still, the government has decided to roll the dice by exploiting vaccine passports as a “wedge” issue even as it continues to promise new spending measures on a daily basis. In the case of the passports, they are no doubt placing their bets on focus groups and internal polling that suggest a fearful populace is craving the security afforded by 100% vaccination rates. But should the Party be worried that the polls are wrong as evidenced by a disastrous first week of campaigning and the desperate need to change the channel?

In retrospect, perhaps the Liberals should be thanked for raising the vaccine issues as campaign “wedges”. After all, the civil liberty questions raised by both federal and provincial actions across the country have been ignored by a compliant media and replaced with case counts that have instilled fear in the Canadian populace. This, even though individual rights and freedoms are central to what it means to be a Canadian in our heretofore free and democratic society. The fact that these issues have been ignored throughout the Wuhan virus crisis, to the detriment of all Canadians, is an understatement and in great need of rectification. After all, the implementation of emergency measures that limit the individual rights of Canadians come with a concomitant requirement to “demonstrate” that they are “prescribed by law”, meet the objective and are proportional – in accordance with Section 1 of the Charter.

Canadians could be forgiven for wondering if such deliberations were ever entertained as, after almost two years of emergency edicts issued by both federal and provincial governments, they have yet to see related debates take place in their political halls of power. Indeed, throughout this whole period political authorities have accepted as fact any and all WHO-based remedies that have been funnelled to them through their public health authorities. Unfortunately, these new “lockdown” strategies come to us from China’s experience in dealing with the Wuhan virus and depart markedly from the WHO’s own Pandemic Planning Guidelines of 2019. These guidelines recognized the massive damage that can be visited upon societies that close borders and industries and recommended vociferously against such measures. How could such considerations have escaped the attention of our political leaders before they lowered the boom on our civil liberties in the name of the Wuhan virus?

David v Goliath (Garneau)

It is clear now that the ballot-box question of Election 2021 has moved beyond mundane vote-buying to embrace the individual rights and freedoms that have been so ravaged by government fiat over the past 18 months. Besides the controversial vaccine mandates and passports that have been recently announced by various governments, the related debate is being propelled by data coming out of countries that are ahead of Canada when it comes to the rollout of vaccine programs. And so we see in Israel and the UK the surge of new and serious cases of “Delta” infections in fully vaccinated individuals. Indeed, in both countries over 60% of the serious illnesses and death are occurring in the fully vaccinated. Additionally, it is beginning to appear that it is the vaccinated who are responsible for incubating “mutations” even as they serve as “super-spreaders” of the virus.

There can be little doubt that this unfolding evidence and data is driving a new “Ballot-Box” question that has been steadfastly ignored by the legacy federal parties. After all, they have, each and every one, been four-square behind the crushing of individual rights in the name of promoting the “common good” to defeat the Wuhan virus. But what if they are wrong? What if both the “common good” and individual liberties were better served by the pandemic planning guidelines that were based on decades of epidemiological science – the guidelines from 2019? What if they are asked to explain the new data coming out of Israel and the UK that sees flagging vaccine efficacy rates, the need for boosters and disease being spread by the fully vaccinated? What will or can they say? How will they explain away Sweden’s success at coming through the contagion without locking down when Canada faces a new “fourth wave”? This, even as our Prime Minister promises one billion dollars for provinces that implement vaccine passports and Ontario changes course to cash in?

If we are going to see these questions play out it will very likely be in the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount. The riding should be a slam-dunk for the Liberal incumbent, Marc Garneau. After all, he is the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, a past contender for the Liberal Party leadership, Canada’s first astronaut and former Executive Vice President of Canada’s Space Agency. Problem is and as noted in previous “updates”, he is a solid member of the party system that has usurped power from the individual Member of Parliament to vest it in the party itself. He was an integral member of the Cabinet that ousted Jodie Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott in the face of the SNC Lavalin scandal and he stood for the suspending and proroguing of parliament to skate around the WE debacle. One wonders, can he expect to be re-elected on a platform that includes dividing Canadians on the basis of their medical status?

Then again we have M. Garneau’s competitor from the People’s Party of Canada (PPC), David Freiheit. The PPC is one of the few federal parties, the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) among them, that promises to restore individual rights and freedoms and re-instate the proven pandemic measures of the past. For his part, David Freiheit, a litigation lawyer by trade, has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Charter and the need to restrict related fundamental freedoms only given “prescribed laws” that can be “demonstrated” to be necessary. C3RF had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Freiheit and he can be seen to expound on his freedom-based leanings here. M. Garneau has been invited to be interviewed by yours truly but, as of yet, has not responded. In any event, the recognition of vaccine mandates and passports as the “Ballot-Box” question of Election 2021 and the contribution of these two gentlemen in the related debate is much appreciated and looked forward to.

PPC Candidate for Notre-Dame-de-Grace-Westmount, David Freiheit

Russ Cooper is retired from both the Royal Canadian Air Force and Air Canada. In his military career, he was a decorated CF18 combat pilot and served in several staff positions as a Director of major capital acquisition projects. In the civilian aviation sector, he complemented service as an international airliner pilot with national responsibilities in the field of post 9/11 civil aviation security. He is published internationally in this latter area.

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Now fully retired from his follow-on career as a Human Factors Engineer and a Transport Canada Flight Test Pilot delegate, he is pursuing an abiding interest in the preservation of fundamental Canadian Charter rights. This latter pursuit has been prompted by his sense that these rights, hard-won by the sacrifice of Canadians past, are under attack and on the verge of being lost.

First published: https://www.canadiancitizens.org/single-post/c3rf-update-03-sep-2021-david-v-goliath