Just one day after uniformed RCMP officers forced a political debate in Innisfail to close because some in the crowd weren’t wearing masks, a second political confab was cancelled in Red Deer..The federal election forum at Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) Thursday lasted about 30 minutes before it was cancelled..As first reported in rdnewsNOW, members of the audience were given repeated warnings, but some refused to properly wear masks, with a few outright refusing to wear them at all..Each candidate from the Red Deer-Mountain View and Red Deer-Lacombe gave opening statements — just as candidates did during the Innisfail all candidates debate in Innisfail the day before — but after a few questions were asked, president of the RDP Students’ Association and moderator of the event, Savannah Snow, announced the event was over..During her opening remarks a few minutes before, Snow emphasized the importance of following RDP’s rules regarding masking..Snow said she was frustrated and disappointed with the outcome of the event..“We’ve put in an exponential amount of effort to bring this event to you guys, and it’s really frustrating that the rules couldn’t be respected here,” as quoted in rdnewsNOW..“I realize everybody in the audience made the time to come out here today and this was all we asked.”.Snow said her team discussed risk management about the event and spoke to school security and the health department about how to safely put on the event..“Ultimately it came down to us because we were hosting the event, so I had to make the decision (to cancel the meet). It wasn’t easy and I didn’t want to do it, but I’ve got to respect the rights of our students to have access to a clean and safe environment.”.Maverick Candidate Harry Joujan opened with what would turn out to be a telling statement about how the night would go..“Government COVID mandates have already caused three candidate forums in my riding to cancel. Potential liability to those organizing these events made it not worth the risk. I will not place the organizers of this event at risk of liability; however, I do not support government mandates and vaccines, vaccine passports, or government mask mandates.”.The day before the Red Deer event, on September 8, Mounties broke up an all-candidates debate in Innisfail because some among the 100 or so people who attended the event did not mask up..Unconfirmed rumours said it was the organizers of the event itself who called the cops.
