Push back against this

Re: Protest outside Castanet

It is imperative that all clear-thinking people in Canada, regardless of political affiliation, quickly repudiate the claims of any and all COVID conspiracy protesters. Our governments throughout Canada at all levels have been working incredibly hard to provide leadership in an effort to protect all citizens during this pandemic.  In conjunction with the scientific community and health officials, they have done an admirable job of guiding us through this challenging time.

At a time like this where we need the cooperation of all persons to minimize the harm done by this pandemic, the last thing we need as a nation is to have individuals and groups undermining trust in the very institutions that we have established to represent us and protect our health and safety. This is especially true when conspiracy protestors have little, if any, proof to base their claims on. 

One example of how dangerous such conspiracy nonsense can be is the case of the anti-vaxxers.  Their claims that the increase in autism over the last few decades has been caused by vaccinations has been clearly debunked by the scientific community and yet we see the recent spread of serious childhood diseases that at one point were almost eliminated. We also see the harm being done in the United States as a result of the widespread undermining of trust in reputable institutions by those that propagate unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact.

We must all strongly and quickly repudiate the nonsense being put forward by the COVID conspiracy protesters and not allow their baseless claims to spread through our community.

Doug Cruikshank