“Journalists should be watchdogs, not lapdogs.”
Newton Lee
I Googled “Help for Unvaccinated”. A Global News article came up that was supposed to be about a new job site for unvaccinated people. The fact that I was actually Googling this phrase should give you an idea of the state of my mental health. But I digress. You can read the original article, here: https://globalnews.ca/news/8434208/unvaccinated-jobs-covid-pandemic/
The article started off in the factual way that most of these things do but then it went off the rails. It got so blatantly biased that I felt betrayed as a reader. The language became more and more one-sided and it became exhausting for me to finish. By the end of the article, I began to wonder if the author was having a breakdown. Or trying to make me have one!
The real purpose of the article seemed to be to shame the government into making vaccines mandatory for ALL staff, ALL people, everywhere.
Forcing People to Get Vaccines Increases Vaccine Rates!
The author, Ashleigh Stewart, quoting from a Canadian Medical Association report, states that: “mandates increase vaccine rates.” Put more honestly, “Forcing people to get vaccines by threatening them with job loss and restriction of freedom increases vaccine rates.” She goes on to say, “Private employers are left to decide for themselves what rules they will impose on their staff.” Ashleigh does not seem to believe that private business owners should be allowed to decide how to run their own businesses but that they should be mandated to force vaccination on their staff. How the employees feel about this, or their employers, does not seem to matter at all.
That I have to point out how unfair and heavy-handed this is shows how incredibly fast the government has been able to impose its will on its people. The government’s propaganda machine has worked too well. Only a few short months ago, no one would have dreamed that the government could tell a pub owner that he would have to insist his staff have a medical procedure against their wills or be fired. That it didn’t matter how many years that staff member had been with him, or how well they did their job.
The government should keep its busy-body hands off of all private employers. Instead, they have forced small businesses to suddenly close or limit patrons, or to stop people from dancing in a dance club, or serving alcohol on New Year’s Eve, to install useless plexiglass screens, and stinky hand sanitizer everywhere for an airborne illness. The government even offloaded the cost and responsibility of policing draconian mask and vax policies onto small businesses and their often young staff. If the employer feels that mandates are an infringement on their employee’s rights they should be applauded for minding their own business.
Don’t Quote Me, But the Government is Out to Get Me
In talking about these business owners, Ashleigh notes, “Despite many having strong opinions on COVID-19 vaccines, most people refused to be quoted on the record.”
Considering the hostile attitude most people have toward anyone who is not for government intervention and mandatory vaccination this is hardly surprising. On November 15, 2021, Global News released a poll that showed 70% of respondents supported people getting fired over not wanting to be vaccinated: https://globalnews.ca/news/8376304/covid-vaccine-refusal-termination-poll/
“Three company representatives just responded with abuse and claims the ‘mainstream media’ is corrupt,” she reports. After reading her article in its entirety, I’d say it does nothing to dispel the corrupt nature of media and seems only to add to the growing body of evidence that the mainstream media is at least heavily invested in promoting the government’s agenda.
Canadian Mainstream Media is Funded by Government
The mainstream media, it should be noted, have been given generous funding by the government throughout the pandemic. That Ashleigh would belittle claims that the mainstream media is corrupt is understandable – after all, Global News is on the take and so cannot be considered an “independent” news source. The mainstream media has been silent on these massive payouts and funding from Government as it would be like biting the hand that feeds them.
Looking into this would be a terrific opportunity for a real investigative journalist as this is a dirty secret that the public needs to know. There is no chance that any of our mainstream media has been able to report independently throughout this pandemic: https://www.canadaland.com/canadian-media-liberals-trudeau-government-funding-covid-cbc-erin-otoole/
https://financialpost.com/opinion/opinion-in-a-democracy-the-government-shouldnt-fund-the-media
Vaccines Are Safe! (As Long As You Don’t Have a Problem)
Still, some business owners did speak with her. The “journalist” did not listen or even try to hear what they were saying, however. She writes, “Those who did agree to speak commonly repeated baseless claims about vaccine safety and mandates as an infringement on people’s rights.”
Boldly she states, “The COVID-19 vaccines are not harmful to people’s health” but this isn’t always true. It’s amazing that Global’s lawyers are comfortable with her statement. Many Canadians have been hurt or have died after receiving the vaccinations, although receiving help or support from medical professionals or journalists is hard to come by. They can’t even post on Facebook or they get removed from the platform.
There are several places where people injured by vaccines are telling their stories, although most are American. The C19vaxreactions.com site has stories from many ordinary Canadians:
https://www.c19vaxreactions.com/
Here is an article from CBC reporting on the compensation program for those who have been injured by vaccination: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/friday-covid-vaccine-injury-compensation-1.6052222
And a story from Reuter’s talking about how difficult it is for anyone to prove their injury came from vaccination as the burden of proof is so high: https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/covid-vaccine-injury-claims-mount-recourse-is-lacking-those-harmed-2021-10-19/
To make a blanket statement that “vaccines are not harmful” is not true – especially if you or your loved one happens to be one of the ones who are injured or dies.
Mandates ARE an Infringement – I Live This Every Day
The reporter considers any claims that vaccines are unsafe as “baseless” but to also sweep concerns that mandates are an infringement on people’s rights aside is arrogant. What gives the government, an employer, or some reporter like Ashleigh the right to restrict another human being’s access to places others enjoy, to travel, or now to even be able to work just because of a health choice?
Ashleigh should try living like an unvaccinated person for a month and do a story about how it feels to be excluded from gatherings with friends, restaurant meals, concerts, or live theatre. What it feels like to be up all night with financial worry after getting fired. She might then understand what “infringement” means. No unvaccinated person can get on an airplane. Or cross over a border to the US, or travel by train. If this isn’t infringement on a person’s rights in what used to be a free country, what is?
You’ve Been Vaccinated? Good. Now Stop Worrying About Everyone Else and Mind Your Own Business
Following Ashleigh’s logic, there should be no need for all small business staff to be vaccinated because, if vaccination works so well, people who are double-vaxxed should be safe from catching Covid. Why should they be worried about ANYONE who remains unvaccinated? They should just sit and gloat over their ability to go out and enjoy a meal in their favourite restaurant and leave everyone else alone.
Unless they don’t believe in the protection of their own vaccines and realize they can still spread Covid to each other as well as to other patrons. But if this is the case, why punish the people who don’t want to be vaccinated by not letting them go out or hold jobs? The virus will still spread and mutate in poor countries all over the globe so unless the borders and air traffic are closed forever, there is no stopping a coronavirus.
Alpha to Omicron
Ashleigh then trots out old stats from Health Canada about the effectiveness of the vaccines, which are from the first Alpha strain – do you remember that one? Against Delta the efficacy has been waning every month. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-vaccine-booster-shot-cdc-effectiveness/
Against Omicron? The vaccines are not stopping infection or spread much at all. People with two doses of any vaccination are still getting infected with Covid-19: https://globalnews.ca/news/8447971/covid-19-omicron-cases-antibodies-vaccine-study/
What About the Hope for Jobs?
The article veers off of focusing on jobs for unvaccinated people and begins spewing the same old propaganda that can, and is, found everywhere. What was particularly hurtful to me, who has been fired because of a health choice, was that I had been hoping that someone would actually give me some good news. Instead of making me the scapegoat and portraying me as some nut job, I was hoping that some kindness and human decency would prevail. “Look, we understand you’ve been fired over all of this crap, but we really need your tax dollars so here are a few measly jobs that you can apply for – good luck!” But no, it was more of the same picking on the unvaccinated, with the site “Jabless Jobs” an excuse to push more of the same government propaganda. (Jabless Jobs – A Non Discriminatory Employment Service, can be found here: https://jablessjobs.work/)
To be an Investigative Journalist…or not to be?
If Ashleigh wants to be considered an investigative journalist, why not report on how it is that EVERY case of Covid coming into Canada for months now has been from a double-vaccinated person who flew on an airplane or crossed a border? Or why it is that our Canadian government is so quick to believe the vaccine manufacturer that a third dose will work when the first and second doses haven’t?
Hey, Mainstream Media! Protests Against Mandates are a Thing!
What really bothers me is the reporter’s almost gleeful bias toward more mandates. She states, “On a national level, there is no general vaccine mandate, other than those announced for federal employees and RCMP members. That’s despite countries across the world increasingly turning to national vaccine mandates and severe restrictions for the unvaccinated.”
Surely Ashleigh, being a freelance journalist, has been following all the protests in countries over these mandates? Some have been as large as 40,000 people. YouTube might take this down but here is a story on protests in Barcelona, Madrid, Vienna, and Luxembourg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFZtjxPT9NA
Why does Ashleigh want to impose “severe restrictions” on people who don’t want to be vaccinated?
If double-vaccinated people are still getting and spreading Covid all over the world, the only purpose of a mandate is to punish people. This seems to be a theme in many of the “news” stories – “I had to get vaccinated, therefore you have to. too.”
Poor Mental Health? Inequality? Underrepresented? YES!
According to Ashleigh’s bio, she is “particularly interested in stories about mental health, inequality and underrepresented communities.” I am surprised that she doesn’t realize that she is causing stress and worsening mental health and inequality with her writing and is actually contributing to the marginalization of a group of people.
I shouldn’t be so hard on her. She is a freelancer and trying to earn a living. If she tried to do a story on the declining mental health of those of us who refuse to be vaccinated and who are being blamed for this whole pandemic, punished by neighbours and governments alike, no outlet would buy it. But it would sure make her a hero in my eyes.
