In the early 20th Century, Chinese immigrants to Canada faced considerable discrimination. The media of the era blamed this small minority for all kind of criminal activity, depicting the Chinese as luring innocent whites into gambling, prostitution and drug addiction. This threat, of course, was a contrived fiction, but many in the public believed it or chose to believe it. Ottawa responded to this so-called “yellow peril” with the Chinese Exclusion Act and a $50 “head tax.”.Fifty dollars was a lot of money at the turn of the century. This left many Chinese immigrants unable to openly participate in the economy or the social life of Canada until they paid up, so many went underground in places like Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. To this day, you can today still visit the tunnels where these industrious and persecuted people lived and worked for a while to avoid such unfair and discriminatory treatment. .Canadians today would not tolerate a Chinese Exclusion Act or “head tax” like we once did. But if those days seem distant, I assure you they’re not. We’ve only gotten more sophisticated at concealing our prejudices behind veils of moral superiority. .Today it’s “if you want to be allowed to practice medicine, you must refer patients for medical assistance in dying,” or “if you want to be a pharmacist, you must prescribe these pills.” There are many other similar examples. And it’s always those most deeply steeped in their moral superiority who will respond that doctors and pharmacists enjoy special state-granted privileges and must therefore forfeit their personal moral beliefs for the greater good. How smug..Present-day media is little better than it was. Salacious news titillates the public, brings clicks and sells ad space. Soon it will be clearer that Canada’s contemporary “yellow peril” are those Canadians who are not convinced of vaccine efficacy or safety. We call them “anti-vaxxers”, “science deniers” and other such things. .But in the age of COVID-19, there’s a new, subtly different group emerging. They are those who would happily take a vaccine under normal circumstances once it’s been proven safe and effective, but in the midst of a highly charged and politicized pandemic, they won’t consume medicine that has been rushed to production, skipping animal trials, in less than one year. These Canadians have assessed their personal risk and appreciate what it could mean for the development timeline to be without precedent. .There are highly credentialed vaccine specialists adding their names to the list of people raising serious concerns or taking this wait-and-see approach. Doctors Mike Yeardon, Wolfgang Wodarg, and Masayuki Miyasaka have each expressed concerns about the safety of these vaccines, as many others have about their necessity. Even the regulatory authority in Switzerland is currently withholding authorization because “important data on safety, efficacy and quality are still missing.” .Much of this will likely be cleared up in time, but the point is that currently, they are not. Despite this, some tone-deaf public health officials, like Ontario’s Dr. David Williams, are intimating that unvaccinated Canadians may be denied their legal right to fully participate in the economic and social life in his province. This is a terrible, illiberal and totalitarian response. Yet, it’s a typical smug made-in-Canada authoritarianism that needs to be dismantled permanently..Those hiding behind their veils of moral superiority will quibble that unvaccinated Canadians are making a personal choice. There’s a real peril, they opine, it’s about safety, after all. All they need to do is pay their “head tax” and move on with their lives. Don’t be deceived by these bait-and-switch assurances. I don’t remember such conditions being placed on living as a free Canadian, or that personal choices must be subjected to the will of the collective. What we are witnessing is the ongoing incremental growth of authoritarianism..Let’s tear away this veil of moral superiority and expose the authoritarians it hides. It should be an enormous concern to all of us that any public health official even dares to appear tolerant of discriminating against those with a different view of the world, or those whose instincts towards self-preservation have compelled them to decline vaccination. .If your goal is to divide a country, this is the path you take. Discriminating against Canadians for exercising their constitutionally protected right to make decisions of fundamental personal importance would deeply scar our already damaged social fabric..Derek James-From is a columnist for the Western Standard and a constitutional lawyer
In the early 20th Century, Chinese immigrants to Canada faced considerable discrimination. The media of the era blamed this small minority for all kind of criminal activity, depicting the Chinese as luring innocent whites into gambling, prostitution and drug addiction. This threat, of course, was a contrived fiction, but many in the public believed it or chose to believe it. Ottawa responded to this so-called “yellow peril” with the Chinese Exclusion Act and a $50 “head tax.”.Fifty dollars was a lot of money at the turn of the century. This left many Chinese immigrants unable to openly participate in the economy or the social life of Canada until they paid up, so many went underground in places like Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. To this day, you can today still visit the tunnels where these industrious and persecuted people lived and worked for a while to avoid such unfair and discriminatory treatment. .Canadians today would not tolerate a Chinese Exclusion Act or “head tax” like we once did. But if those days seem distant, I assure you they’re not. We’ve only gotten more sophisticated at concealing our prejudices behind veils of moral superiority. .Today it’s “if you want to be allowed to practice medicine, you must refer patients for medical assistance in dying,” or “if you want to be a pharmacist, you must prescribe these pills.” There are many other similar examples. And it’s always those most deeply steeped in their moral superiority who will respond that doctors and pharmacists enjoy special state-granted privileges and must therefore forfeit their personal moral beliefs for the greater good. How smug..Present-day media is little better than it was. Salacious news titillates the public, brings clicks and sells ad space. Soon it will be clearer that Canada’s contemporary “yellow peril” are those Canadians who are not convinced of vaccine efficacy or safety. We call them “anti-vaxxers”, “science deniers” and other such things. .But in the age of COVID-19, there’s a new, subtly different group emerging. They are those who would happily take a vaccine under normal circumstances once it’s been proven safe and effective, but in the midst of a highly charged and politicized pandemic, they won’t consume medicine that has been rushed to production, skipping animal trials, in less than one year. These Canadians have assessed their personal risk and appreciate what it could mean for the development timeline to be without precedent. .There are highly credentialed vaccine specialists adding their names to the list of people raising serious concerns or taking this wait-and-see approach. Doctors Mike Yeardon, Wolfgang Wodarg, and Masayuki Miyasaka have each expressed concerns about the safety of these vaccines, as many others have about their necessity. Even the regulatory authority in Switzerland is currently withholding authorization because “important data on safety, efficacy and quality are still missing.” .Much of this will likely be cleared up in time, but the point is that currently, they are not. Despite this, some tone-deaf public health officials, like Ontario’s Dr. David Williams, are intimating that unvaccinated Canadians may be denied their legal right to fully participate in the economic and social life in his province. This is a terrible, illiberal and totalitarian response. Yet, it’s a typical smug made-in-Canada authoritarianism that needs to be dismantled permanently..Those hiding behind their veils of moral superiority will quibble that unvaccinated Canadians are making a personal choice. There’s a real peril, they opine, it’s about safety, after all. All they need to do is pay their “head tax” and move on with their lives. Don’t be deceived by these bait-and-switch assurances. I don’t remember such conditions being placed on living as a free Canadian, or that personal choices must be subjected to the will of the collective. What we are witnessing is the ongoing incremental growth of authoritarianism..Let’s tear away this veil of moral superiority and expose the authoritarians it hides. It should be an enormous concern to all of us that any public health official even dares to appear tolerant of discriminating against those with a different view of the world, or those whose instincts towards self-preservation have compelled them to decline vaccination. .If your goal is to divide a country, this is the path you take. Discriminating against Canadians for exercising their constitutionally protected right to make decisions of fundamental personal importance would deeply scar our already damaged social fabric..Derek James-From is a columnist for the Western Standard and a constitutional lawyer
