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Students segregated at school for wishing to remain unvaccinated
2022-PG-FINAL
Was it to keep truckers out of Quebec?
Long.
Quebec scraps planned tax on the unvaccinated
The measure was first announced by Quebec Premier François Legault in January
Ainslie MacLellan, Laura Marchand, CBC News, Feb 01, 2022
(https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/vax-tax-nixed-1.6334828)
Quebec Premier François Legault announced his proposed tax on the unvaccinated earlier this month, but is now reportedly dropping the plan. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)
Quebec Premier François Legault says his government will not go ahead with a proposed tax on the unvaccinated, in order to protect “social cohesion” in the province.
Legault made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday, where he also eased restrictions on gyms and sports activities.
The tax, first announced in January by the premier, would have imposed a monetary penalty on Quebecers who are eligible but who refuse to get their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Legault says while his government has a bill ready to go, he’s decided not to table it after seeing “growing discontent” in the population.
Still, Legault denied that he was backing down due to demands by organizers of a protest planned for Thursday in Quebec City. He said he had already begun to have discussions “last week” about scrapping the tax.
Interim public health director Dr. Luc Boileau confirmed during the news conference that he had not been asked whether he approved of the tax.
Details of the tax had remained vague, with Legault saying it could be included in provincial tax filings. He had said he wanted the cost to be “significant,” suggesting it would be more than $100. Roughly 10 per cent of eligible Quebecers remain unvaccinated.
Legault reiterated Tuesday that data shows unvaccinated people are much more likely to end up in hospital and are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19.
But he said instead of a tax, the government will use different measures to try to persuade people to get vaccinated, such as sending teams door-to-door to offer at-home vaccination, or to encourage people to make an appointment.
Community advocates, bioethicists and other experts raised concerns about the proposal, saying that more education was needed, instead of punitive measures. Others questioned the legal ramifications, saying the proposed tax could run afoul of the Canada Health Act.
Vardit Ravitsky, a professor of bioethics at the Université de Montréal and at Harvard medical school, says the tax would have had a disproportionate impact on low-income people.
Ravitsky believes the proposal touched a nerve with many across the province and the country, because of how Canadian society views the right to health care.
“We see health as something that we get from the government free of charge, and the notion of attaching a tax or a penalty to the domain of health seems a step in the wrong direction,” she said.
She says “carrots, not sticks” are right approach to persuading more people to be vaccinated.
Tax was not ‘a serious plan’ says opposition
Opposition parties accused Legault Tuesday of only floating the idea of the tax in order to distract from the resignation of former public health director Dr. Horacio Arruda, something Legault denies.
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, house leader for Québec Solidaire, agreed that the tax was never “a serious plan,” adding that the government had wasted time with this debate, instead of focusing on rebuilding the health care system.
“It was something thrown in a press conference to make headlines. This is not how we should deal with a global pandemic,” he said.
Opposition leaders slam Legault government for unvaccinated tax saga
The Quebec government is accused of irresponsibly improvising, manipulating the public and wasting the public’s time by opposition leaders at the National Assembly. 2:11
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, leader of the Parti Québécois, accused the premier of “playing poker” with Quebecers and putting a strain on social cohesion in the province.
“We have a premier who takes his population for fools,” said Plamondon.
“I was going to say, ‘a premier who treats his population like children,’ but I treat my children with more respect for their intelligence and with more transparency than the premier is doing right now with the Quebec population.”
Christian Bourque, executive vice-president of the polling firm Leger, believes Legault may have been trying to tap into a sense of frustration among the vaccinated population when he proposed the tax, but later realized it would be too difficult to implement.
Bourque believes scrapping the tax now serves a dual political purpose of giving the population a bit of “positive news” and allowing Legault to claim he is being flexible, by acknowledging the opposition’s concerns.
“There have been several [times] now that he sort of backed off, but he always puts it off as, ‘you know what, I’m just listening.’ And he got away with it,” said Bourque.
Both Anglade and Plamondon have accused Legault and the CAQ of making decisions based on polling instead of science, noting that it is an election year. Quebecers will head to the polls to elect their provincial representatives this coming fall.
Quebec Provincial premier Backs Down on Vax Tax
By email
You sent politicians a clear message: no vax tax.
Quebec Premier François Legault was the first to introduce the idea of a tax on unvaccinated people, but he announced today he’s not going to go forward with his plan.
When Quebec announced the scheme, we emailed Canadian Taxpayers Federation supporters and asked them to oppose the policy. Thousands did just that. And it’s a good bet people just like you put the brakes on this bad policy.
And for that, you should feel proud.
The only thing that prevents bad policy from becoming law is good people making it clear to politicians that they won’t stand for it.
A lot of people complain, but few take action. Thousands of taxpayers like you took a stand. And the effect was quite clear. You got a premier to back down and stopped a bad policy.
We’ll be sure to keep you informed should the idea get back on the table anywhere else in the country, but we wanted to make sure you were kept aware of this latest development.
Thank you for all you do.
– Renaud, Todd, Shannon and the entire CTF team.
PS: Do you trust politicians and the media to be the only ones keeping an eye on your government? Do you think there needs to be an independent watchdog, fighting for you? You can join thousands of taxpayers and take a stand by making a donation via our secure website at: https://www.taxpayer.com/
Yay, Quebec!
Long.
Even black men can be fired for not being “woke” enough
Part one of a five-part series on my departure from Bell Media and iHeartRadio
Jamil Jivani,
(https://jamiljivani.substack.com/p/fired)
French President Emmanuel Macron made international headlines when he expressed concerns that American cultural influence is creating division in France. As a Canadian, I have made similar observations in my country, too.
Wokeness—a political agenda with a superficial commitment to diversity and inclusion—has become a global ideological movement. And, more than government policy, it’s big corporations pushing this agenda and punishing those who refuse to comply.
Weeks after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in 2020, Bell Media hired me to be part of the iHeartRadio talk network as a radio host. From my perspective, Bell Media/iHeartRadio recognized that despite its publicized commitment to valuing people from different backgrounds, they had yet to ever hire a fulltime black talk radio host in their Canadian market. What my experience made clear is that the company failed to consider what it would mean to sincerely engage someone from a black community, without expectations that we conform to the pressures of tokenism.
Elite institutions often make assumptions about a person’s political views based on what he looks like or where his parents are from. Soon after being hired, I could see that Bell Media/iHeartRadio erred in making the same assumptions. I felt that they were hoping to have hired a liberal stereotype of a black man who espouses their expected political talking points. Bell Media/iHeartRadio was not prepared for a black man who loves his country, rejects victimhood politics, maintains strong ties to his faith community, and shares heterodox views on a wide range of issues.
In June 2021, executives encouraged on-air talent to decry our country as racist in the lead up to our independence day. On the day before Canada Day, our radio shows were made to air multiple audio clips per hour that defined our country by the worst, most racist parts of its colonial history. My show was exempt from this mandatory content because of its time slot, and I decided to counter this divisive narrative. That day, I celebrated my country by interviewing immigrants, veterans, and others who love Canada.
Months later, corporate executives shared by email a vision for diversity and inclusion that involved dividing employees up by race, gender, and sexuality for “equity consultations.” I refused to participate, and suggested that the company ought to demonstrate a commitment to true diversity: diversity of thought.
Bell Media/iHeartRadio failed to acknowledge that the radio shows I hosted were uniquely diverse and inclusive, even though I didn’t conform to the company’s political agenda. We welcomed more black journalists, professors, and business leaders than any other show in our markets. Guests included Toronto Raptors’ Fred VanVleet, Brown University’s Glenn Loury, rapper and writer Coleman Hughes, social entrepreneur Tanya Lee, sports journalist Jason Whitlock, and Canada’s first black Minister of Justice, Alberta’s Kaycee Madu. The shows I hosted featured regular commentary from Jeff Charles of RedState.com, The Blaze’s Delano Squires, Kentucky State professor Wilfred Reilly, and Samuel Sey of SlowtoWrite.com.
By December 2021, Bell Media/iHeartRadio attempted to pressure me into being a liberal stereotype. In spite of my efforts to engage a wide range of guests and ideas, one executive in particular began to question my commitment to “Diversity and Inclusion” (I assume she capitalized the letters D and I to show how serious she was). Her attempts came across to me as actually questioning my willingness to parrot her preferred ideological talking points on identity politics.
I took their pressure as an opportunity to stand up for myself and my community. I detailed to senior management that the radio shows I hosted were indeed diverse and inclusive by embracing heterodox perspectives on important issues. I explained that the views expressed on the show reflect different strands of political and cultural thought in black communities, including black Christian traditions. I also asked for, but never received, specific examples of how exactly my black guests and I weren’t aligned with the company’s values.
To make a long story short, I was lied to. Bell Media/iHeartRadio took me off the air, with a promise that we would discuss all of my concerns in the new year. In January 2022, during a phone call where I expected to speak with senior management and iron out our differences, I was informed that due to a “corporate restructuring,” I was being let go. That would be the end of our conversation about “Diversity and Inclusion” with a capital D and I.
Needless to say, the firing appeared to be a mix of retaliation and cowardice. It felt like they wanted to punish me for standing up for myself and also bury my substantive concerns about the company’s ethics. I personally believe Bell Media/iHeartRadio fabricated a restructuring narrative to avoid confronting the reality that their vision for diversity and inclusion does not welcome black men who think for themselves.
I am a black man. I am also a conservative, a proud Canadian, a son to a wonderful mother, a Christian, and a lawyer. None of these elements of my identity contradict each other. But too many big corporations have decided to push a political agenda that suggests people like me either don’t exist, or should hide our authentic selves for the sake of careerism.
My experience shows exactly why it’s critical for politicians and business leaders to challenge the power of woke capital. What these companies are doing is not just business; it’s politics.
Look out for part two of this five-part series on Monday, February 7.
If you can relate to my experience, please consider contacting [email protected]. We’d love to hear your story and help you share it with others. Visit www.SpeakForOurselves.ca
D’Souza Media’s investigation of voter fraud: 2000 Mules (Trailer) Coming
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(Or go to https://rumble.com/vtlq96-explosive-new-surveillance-footage-of-ballot-drop-boxes.html.)