A Rally to Give Voice to Thousands Silenced
On March 19, we will rally once again and give voice to the 58% of residents who “consider COVID-19 as a real threat to them and their family’s health and safety” and to assert our rights to the information and services that we need to keep ourselves and loved ones safe in the alleged “return to normal.”
Please RSVP to and/or share the Facebook events:
We are here to speak for those who are silenced
Thousands of our friends, family and neighbours from every corner of this province cannot speak out at a rally because of the health risk of being in public, the fear of public persecution against them or their business, threats to their job security, or because they are too young, too old, or have mental and physical health issues. And the 1,135 people known to have needlessly died from the pandemic have had their voices silenced— forever.
Their voices are unheard, but their insights are poignant and needed.
For this rally we invite everyone who cannot be there to appoint someone to represent them. To get their message on a placard at the rally where it will be heard. Heard by people who value their words, their experience, their needs or their losses. Members of the public are encouraged to support getting and displaying the messages on behalf of their friends, family and community members. Volunteers are also invited to represent those without connections.
We are here to say that COVID is not over
We will not be silenced by the government’s efforts to coerce, manipulate, falsify, and deny the science-based response and let our health infrastructure, required to protect our citizens during this pandemic, continue to fall into tatters. A sizable number of professionals in our public health care system, who Moe and Merriman openly abuse with their pandemic policies that ensure burnout and trauma, are strongly considering changing professions.
Even though the government is acting forcibly to convince us that the seriousness of the Covid pandemic has passed us, the 143 recorded deaths last month scream against that fallacy. An intolerable number of our province’s loved ones continue to die, while thousands more must choose between isolation and high-risk exposure to meet our minimal needs, like getting groceries and taking public transit to work.
New studies are just starting to shed light on the devastating impact long-haul Covid will have on a large portion of our population. We ask: is this the government that will have our backs when so many of us apply for short- and long-term disability?
The government is gambling with our lives, letting sickness and tragedy fall where it may, ensuring society’s most vulnerable individuals and communities suffer the most severe outcomes. And we are many.
All of this is being done in conscious denial of and under threat against the doctors, scientists and healthcare professionals’ informed recommendations based on the realities of Covid-19.
We are here to assert our right to the information and the services we need to manage our risk, and keep ourselves and our families safe.
The Saskatchewan government’s recent moves to end all collective public health measures is absurd, extreme, dangerous to many in our province, and in direct opposition to the consensus of pandemic expertise which says removing these is happening far too soon.
Even more angering, however, is the utter insincerity of our premier and his MLAs to give individuals and families ‘choices’ in surviving the Omicron wave and telling us that “we each should do our own personal risk assessment”, while failing to give us necessary tools to do so: free and accessible PCR tests, daily and timely reporting, mandatory paid sick days.
“We must learn to live with the virus” is Scott Moe’s catchphrase for forcing a ‘herd immunity’ approach that equates to “make everyone sick from the virus.” Indeed, this will guarantee that a larger number of ourselves and our loved ones will be learning what it’s like to die from the virus.
The ending of timely and informative reporting about hospitalizations and death is clearly designed to lull us into complacency, as well as collective amnesia of the Saskatchewan government’s continued pandemic failures, even as more of us are injured or killed as we work, shop, and circulate.
COVID is not over. We are here to assert our rights as individuals and families in Saskatchewan and insist on what we need to protect ourselves:
- Free and accessible PCR testing.
- Timely and detailed reporting so that we may assess our own risk.
- The return of mandatory self-isolation periods when contracting COVID-19.
- Mandatory paid sick days for all workers in Saskatchewan so we do not have to choose between spreading the virus and earning a paycheque.
- Leave it up to school boards to determine their own masking policies.
We also call on the Moe government to establish a clear social contract with Saskatchewan regarding the relaxation of public health measures, similar to countries such as Denmark (who the Premier loves to compare us to): If Omicron or another variant comes roaring back, leading to increased hospitalization and loss of life, then collective public health measures must be back on the table.