When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy movement in Canada, few people carry as much weight as Dr. Byram Bridle. And speaking of weight, Bridle is using his now to sue the institution that gave him tenure and where he was, until recently, a valued faculty member. Bridle is suing the University of Guelph and key executive and faculty members for $3 million dollars. Continue reading “Anti-Vax Prof Bridle Sues U of G and Others For Impacts on Career”
The “official” end of the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa was Wednesday February 23, but it was a long road to get there, and it wasn’t really the end. Although the COVID-19 mandates that sparked the convoy have long since lifted, the anger and disinformation generated by the movement are still with us, and so is the fallout the Federal government’s call to use the Emergencies Act. Let’s look back at how it started… Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #Repeat – Hey, Remember the Freedom Convoy?”
This weekend, a group of bikers called “Rolling Thunder Ottawa” will be protesting in the nation’s capital for restoring “fundamental rights and freedoms” as part of a campaign dedicated to the “end of all tyrannical bills and legislation.” More locally, Guelph organizers are planning a town hall called “Shifting Perspectives: The Erosion of Human Rights.” Sounds interesting, right? However it sounds, this, and the biker rally, are both about the same things: conspiracy theories and COVID misinformation. Continue reading “Guelph Organizers Holding Conference on “Human Rights” Kitchener”
Canadaland once said of Kurt Phillips that he was hunting Nazis online before it was cool. Experts in online hate like Phillips have been very busy lately following the developments of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, which has now launched several branch convoy protests, including the most recent one on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor. How did it get this far? Continue reading “GUELPH POLITICAST #310 – It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”
Politicians and the public are still trying to make heads or tails of a weekend of protest and chaos in the nation’s capital. From the Prime Minister of Canada to the MPP for Guelph, there was widespread condemnation of the actions of the so-called “Freedom Convoy”, whether it’s the flaunting of public health rules, the use of hate symbols, the desecration of national monuments, and the generous misuse of support for homeless people. Continue reading “Condemnation and Regret After a Weekend of Madness in the Capital”
The Guelph edition of this weekend’s nation-wide protest against anti-lockdown measures and vaccine mandates was the largest such gathering in Guelph yet, and the emboldened crowd made it a road show. After hearing speeches in front of City Hall, a few hundred people marched up Wyndham Street, and entered Old Quebec Street maskless as an act of organized defiance. Continue reading “Biggest Anti-Lockdown Rally Yet Storms Old Quebec Street”
Next weekend, there are a series of so-called freedom rallies planned for our region, around Ontario, and across the country. Perhaps as a warm up act, or perhaps just to warm up, about two dozen people gathered at Wellington Street and Gordon Street to protest the new provincial lockdowns, vaccine mandates, masking rules, and the general malaise of the pandemic. Continue reading “Guelph Protesters Warm Up Before Country-Wide Freedom Rallies Next Weekend”
The wind didn’t howl so much as whistle though downtown Saturday afternoon, but it wasn’t the only thing making noise. Three weeks after a large protest among the pandemic skeptical in front of City Hall, about 60 people met again at 1 Carden Street to express their ongoing disgruntlement about the current state of things. In other words, it’s all going according to plan and they don’t care for it. Continue reading “Protestors Say They’re Fed Up With “Scariants” and the “One More Con” Virus”
Around a dozen protestors stood in front of the Edinburgh Road entrance to the St. Joseph’s Health Centre on Saturday over a labour issue. The issue? The long-term care home’s vaccine mandate. Several members of the protest identified themselves as personal support workers now let go from St. Joe’s because they refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Continue reading “St. Joe’s Protestors Say They’re Out of Work Because They Won’t Get Jabbed”
For the third Saturday in a row, a small group of the vaccine hesitant, people that might be called conspiracy theorists, and others who are just concerned about the inadequacies of the government’s COVID-19 response, gathered in Market Squared to hash it out. This time, there’s a perceptible increase in hostility towards the media covering the event as attendees believed that the coverage they’re getting does not accurately reflect their beliefs. Continue reading “COVID Skeptics Challenge Media to Represent Them “Right””
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