Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus will remain until the province eases provincial guidelines, Mayor Greg Dionne said Monday.
Dionne was speaking following a demonstration by a group of about 60 people in City Hall just prior to a regularly-scheduled meeting of the Executive Committee.
“We will follow what the province does,” said Dionne.
He dismissed comments by local resident Melanie Markling comparing local COVID restrictions on city-owned facilities to fascism. The City has required proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test since October of 2021.
“That just tells me how desperate they are. They don’t have the facts of case so they’re coming up with these extremes of the Holocaust and things like that,” said Dionne. “Well, the Human Rights Commission has already ruled that we’re not.
“It is frustrating but at the end of the day, you just move on. We’ve worked and we’ve gone with the majority. I want to thank them. They were very respectful and they put masks on,” Dionne added.
Masks are required at the moment but the foyer of City Hall is one of the locations where proof of vaccination is not required. The other is in either of Prince Albert Police stations foyers.
The single man who refused to wear a mask was asked to leave by one of the two Prince Albert Police Service members who were there.
Representatives of the Sask. Health Authority were also in the foyer.
Markling spoke to council as a delegation, asking for the name of the person who evicted her from a sports event recently.
“First I would like to know the name of the person responsible for banning me from the Alfred Jenkins Field House recently,” she said. “Who bestowed this penalty on me?”
Markling said she was at the Field House to watch her son’s soccer game.
“I have the right to confront my accuser,” she said.
Markling brought with her a petition she said contained 1,500 signatures of people who are also concerned about the requirement to provide a negative test in lieu of a proof of vaccine.
Big crowd out for tonight's @cityof_pa council meeting. #covid19sk #skpoli pic.twitter.com/ItJgpcNMZt
— Jason Kerr (@kerr_jas) January 31, 2022
“This petition represents a fraction of those who are not consenting to this medical procedure,” she said. “As well as those who have been injured by these vaccines or who have had a family member injured or passed away because of one.”
According to Health Canada, there have been 7,526 adverse events following COVID vaccinations, which represents 0.01 per cent of all the doses given. Of those, the largest single side effect was a tingling sensation followed by pain at the vaccination site.
Further broken down into adverse events that are of special interest, 277 deaths were reported following a vaccination but, of those, 135 did not have enough information to make a determination of cause, 97 were unlikely due to the vaccine and 45 remain under investigation.
So far, 33,870 deaths have been reported following COVID-19 infection.
Markling said that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives citizens the power to decide for themselves if they want to be vaccinated or not.
“We have been coerced, bribed, guilted, shamed manipulated into taking this medical injection. This is not informed consent,” Markling said.
She also quoted former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker who wrote the Bill of Rights.
“Mandating restrictions on people who have decided not to receive this vaccine is a violation of our rights,” Markling said. “Today, there has been no evidence of transmission in any city facility.”
She denied that any health crisis involving COVID-19 is real.
“The emergency measures are based on the claim that we are experiencing a public health emergency,” said Markling. “There’s no evidence to substantiate this claim. The evidence indicates that we are experiencing a rate of infection consistent with a normal influenza season.”
In the last regular flu season before the start of the pandemic, 1,334 cases of the flu were reported in Saskatchewan, resulting in 11 deaths and 24 people needing intensive care throughout the season.
On Jan 31, 2022, 118 people were in the hospital with COVID-related illnesses and 33 people were in the ICU with COVID-related illness.
The province began separating COVID hospitalization reporting at the start of 2022, sorting by incidental/asymptomatic infection and actual COVID-related illness.
Markling further questioned other public health measures, such as the types of medications given to treat COVID illness.
“There are no clinical trials showing proof of asymptomatic people spreading the virus. Natural immunity and therapeutics are suppressed, ridiculed and censored by our governing health care. Whereas other countries have successfully provided early treatments, keeping people out of our hospitals,” she stated.
Several studies cited in the medical journal, The Lancet, and Jama Network have concluded that asymptomatic spread does happen and that asymptomatic people account for up to 24 per cent of transmission.
The JAMA study was published in January 2021, at the start of the spread of the Delta variant and well before the Omicron variant.
Markling also claimed that hospitals have been overburdened for 10 years and that problems with capacity are due to chronic underfunding.
“In the US, there is 31 ICU beds per 100,000 people, in Germany there is 29 and here in Saskatchewan we’ve got 11,” Markling said. “There are staff in these facilities that are afraid to come forward in the threat of being dismissed, attacked and censored. It’s a torture tactic and its happening in our city.”
She also said that council should have been more suspicious of the information provided by the province.
“It is your job to ask questions, Markling told council. “Where is the proof of claim? How many deaths and how many hospitalizations were prevented by these measures? If you’re not allowed to question it, is isn’t science.”
Council made its decisions on both requiring masks or proof of vaccination/negative test at the request of the local medical officer of health, Dr. Chokani.
She also said that by requiring masks and proof of vaccination or a negative test, the city is acting as a doctor.
“Elected officials are not medical professionals, therefore you are unlawfully practicing medicine by prescribing, recommending and using coercion to insist citizens submit to the experimental medical treatment for COVID-19, including the requirement of negative tests. It’s an indictable offense to force anyone to take a DNA or RNA test or deny any service, employment or any educational opportunity to anyone who refuses to take such a test,” Markling said.
“Your threats and intimidation have infringed on our human rights and you’re putting yourselves personally at risk of a civil lawsuit for damages.”
No councillors commented on Markling’s presentation before voting to receive it for information, which means that no action will be taken. The vote was unanimous.
More than 60 people showed up to listen to the presentation. Many carried Canadian and Saskatchewan flags, banners, and signs to show their support, while others banged drums and sang O Canada.
Marking received a loud cheer from those in attendance, afterward emerging from council chambers.
“It’s just the beginning,” she told supporters gathered at City Hall. “We’re still not even close to being what we can, right. There’s still a long way to go.”
Marking told reporters she was confident council would take a closer look at the petition and notice of liability they received on Monday.
“At this point, they are being presented with some other information that maybe they may or may not have had access to previously, which led to the situation we find ourselves in now, where there is segregation, bullying, (and) discrimination,” she said during an interview.
Marking added that she believed council took her concerns seriously, despite the odd chuckle. She said people have accused her of being a tin-foil hat conspiracy theorist—a label she rejected.
“I’m not a scientist, or a doctor or a lawyer, but I do have a brain, and I can take it upon myself to educate myself, find resources, and make my own decisions from that,” she said.
“There’s a large group of us in the community, and we’re not just going to stop because they (critics) are uncomfortable,” she added. “There’s a lot of information that I presented, and they should be asking questions.”
—with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald