Leaving Covid in the Rear View Window...NOT!!!
Response to media pundits & others who think Covid is OVER...Not till there is Justice for the Vaccinated... & those harmed by lockdowns, isolation and masking!!
Please share with anyone who thinks we are DONE with COVID and it is TIME TO MOVE ON…
Here is a “behind the scenes” look at conversation among some of the countless volunteers helping with the transcriptions of the 350ish testimonies presented to the the National Citizens’ Inquiry just a few weeks ago. Testimonies are being transcribed, translated into both official languages, edited, archived, etc. with the aim of finalizing a complete account of every word that was said and all questions asked and answered over the 24 days. Other volunteers are turning the full day recordings of testimonies into shorter clips for easier circulation on social media. Graphic artists, data base archivists, writers, viewers, social media magic makers, all kinds of dedicated people are pushing their lives to the side to get this massive job done as soon as possible.
Heart-wrenching testimony
Here was an interchange between one of the volunteers (V) and one of the volunteer coordinators (VC):
RE: the testimony of retired 73 year old doctor of chiropractic medicine Dr. Gerald Bohemier which starts at 9:20:09 here: https://rumble.com/v2i6qmk-national-citizens-inquiry-winnipeg-day-2.html. (Until every testimony is posted separately, the full day videos plus time stamps can be found here: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/testimony/).
V) Just a little heads up... I am almost done with Gerald Bohemier's testimony (Winnipeg day 2, witness 12) but I will need more time to go through it because I keep on getting very emotional listening to what our police and judicial system put him through. I promise to submit the proofed transcript if not by tonight by tomorrow. I just get so angry at the mistreatment this wonderful elder had to endure.
VC) Even reading your reaction is heart-breaking. Do take the time you need. It does not sound like you're asking for this, but please know: if you need to return this transcript and get a different one, it would be an option too. Some of these testimonies are so awful.
A day later:
V) I am very grateful I was able to finish Dr. Bohemier's testimony. It is seared into every brain cell I have.
VC) Thanks so much! Take care of yourself and we‘ll see you when you are ready for another…
What it feels like to be part of this NCI volunteer team
V#1) In some ways, I feel like this group and the transcript work has been an added healing component for me for these past 3 awful years. Thanks so much!
V#2) I agree! I feel the same way.
V#3) Me too! It sure beats ranting in futility in social media!
V#4) I totally agree with you. This has been the best medicine for my soul.
V#5) Yes, absolutely, it's the most positive I've felt since the convoy. I feel connected to people across this country again!!!
V#6) Agreed. It’s like a slow-moving convoy, working in reverse.
A volunteer’s response to political commentators and the news station that hosted them:
After watching some Alberta election night coverage, one of the transcription team volunteers shared this draft letter to a particular media outlet with the rest of the team. While this already goes back to May 29, it is even more valid now, given that the elected politicians are settling into their roles… and more and more people are feeling that COVID is OVER! Everyone eager to move on to the “next chapter” needs to realize that in so doing, they end up leaving the victims in the dark and the perpetrators off scot free!
I am a supporter of NAME OF MEDIA OUTLET and I tuned into your election coverage tonight for a while before I return to transcribing for the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) on Canada's Response to COVID. I'm volunteering my evenings to help ensure the stories of the people affected by the COVID response are heard.
I was appalled to hear your commentators speak of COVID with such dismissal. They said the topic is unpopular and "everyone needs to move on." Well, I can tell you from transcribing testimony after testimony from the NCI that there are thousands of Albertans that can't just "move on." There are people who were vaccine injured, who lost jobs, who lost businesses, who have fines, who are still in jail – people who continue to live the nightmare every day. Families and neighbourhoods that cannot repair from the division that was created, people who still walk around with masks in fear, children who cannot speak or learn properly – and we're supposed to "just move on?!?"
If that's the attitude, would it be OK to tell the First Nations people to "just move on?" Does our need to move on mean all that stuff with residential schools is unimportant? Is it also unpopular and are people tired of it? Does that justify moving on and not acknowledging the damage that was done to this group of people and help heal our communities?
For so many, COVID is NOT over. And your commentators say, "we just want to move on." How unfair, insensitive, and dismissive of your fellow Albertans.
Spend some time and watch a full day of NCI testimonies from just one city. Here are the links to three days of testimonies given in Red Deer, for example: https://rumble.com/user/NationalCitizensInquiryCA?q=Red%20Deer (or pick Vancouver, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City or Truro).
Hear what people went through – it'll break your heart. Suicides, isolation, elder abuse, skyrockecting drug and alcohol abuse— so much damage to our nation. It's wrong to shove the whole COVID nightmare to the side for the sake of "just moving on." We've learned NOTHING from the experience and comments like those I heard tonight will ensure that we never do. "Just move on" – what an insult to so many.
Our COVID response needs to be scrutinized carefully. Our institutions and government need to be fixed. And those who made mistakes need to compensate those who suffered. A healing needs to happen.
Please DO NOT allow your reporters to just callously say we're bored with the topic and need to move on. What a slap in the face for those who are so hurt, tortured, and damaged.
I'm tempted to end my support for your organization, but I believe in independent media.
At the very least, please have a talk with your staff and invited guests and ensure the COVID issue is taken more seriously than the commentators indicated this evening.
I think an apology is due.
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Trying to get into the mindset of the denialists
The above letter was commented on by another volunteer on the transcription team:
I think their reaction is fairly typical in Canada in general. There are likely a few reasons at play.
(1) The narrative here has been so pervasive that you either find sources outside the norm or outside the country. If you don’t make the effort to educate yourself (and Canadians as a whole tend to be lazy about this - it’s part of the downside of living in a safe, stable society that people either tune out or take up boutique causes), you won’t know that there is soooo much more information out there … and it’s not all the same.
(2) Few people ever want to admit when they made mistakes. Given the levels of discrimination and fear that we have gone through/are going through, the only way people can justify what they have said and done perhaps is to cling to the idea that they were right all along. As time passes, and consequences become more apparent, how many people are going to discover that things like “vaccinating” their kids was a bad idea? Who do you blame then?
(3) People who complied to all the measures all the time don’t really understand how limited others were … I personally found it very interesting that the mainstream media (MSM) reported that the US was bringing in Title 42 legislation regarding increased migration over the southern border that had previously been stopped by Covid measures, but did NOT report that unvaccinated Canadians could now freely travel to the US as of May 12.
(4) Above all, the biggest one is fear through. Human brains can only handle negative threat for so long before they need to find a way to make it go away. Years of pervasive Covid fear take their toll, and relegating such negative experience to “the past” works for a lot of people. Of course, it does no one any good when a similar scenario arises and we have failed to learn.
… a few hours later…
One last point I should have added as penultimate in my rant… let’s call it (3a) now I guess. Over the past few decades, and across many fields, the thinking has been pushing a reliance on “experts” and credentialism. This reliance underpins the idea that no one should think for themselves; no one should question what they have been told by an “expert”. Holding a few qualifications myself, I will agree that experts should have knowledge that others don’t, and if they have the capacity to effectively share that knowledge, they can be golden. With any luck, they should also have the capacity to know HOW to think beyond their training (though I think this is becoming less common). What we’ve been seeing, however, is a misrepresentation of expertise (think of all the favourite scientists who made a reputation for themselves becoming the darlings of the MSM) with the emphasis on building a narrative rather than holding discussion. It is a dangerous and authoritarian-style game our governments and public authorities are playing. People want to be able to trust their public authorities; they want to believe that they are acting in everyone’s best interest.
What happens when it becomes clear they are not? (And when is the last time we ever heard a government anywhere admit responsibility and apologize for something THEY actually did, particularly when it led to avoidable harm? Apologies for historic grievances don’t count.)
Thanks for hearing me out. 😊
In response, a third volunteer wrote:
I think it’s a good idea to send them your critique. Just a thought…maybe you could request they do a story on the NCI. That could go a long way in terms of correcting their stance as well as informing them so they improve their coverage. It has potential to give our movement some attention.
Why we can’t leave COVID in the rear view mirror:
We read hopes like these expressed in the social media circles of some of the valiant local vaccine injury survivors:
My wish is for everyone to expose and make right the global massacre that is still happening. Politicians cannot and must not remain silent on vaccine injury and vaccine death. Things are still so wickedly broken. We cannot let politicians like sweep it under the rug while distracting with economics and fighting Trudeau. Global mass murder took place and the number of excess deaths of “cause unknown” has continued to rise the last time I checked.*
A buried part of me will remain traumatized until the truth is no longer obscured. May all obstacles be removed from our path.
*”Global mass murder” is definitely not exaggeration. Please listen here as Dr. Denis Rancourt explains how the count of 13 million deaths world wide from Covid mRNA injections (so far) was arrived at: https://rumble.com/user/NationalCitizensInquiryCA?q=rancourt
SO MANY REASONS NOT TO ASSUME WE ARE “DONE” WITH COVID!!!
If you want to “leave Covid behind,” transform your thinking — We are stuck with it and need to face the consequences of the actions of those in whom we trusted. Sadly, these experts were fed the wrong information and didn’t use their own critical thinking skills to question it.
COVID is far from OVER!!
Image source: https://darcyluoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Take-Time-to-Look-Back-DLCC-Blog-Post.png
And Sharing some Good News!
To balance out the negativity re: folks wanting to leave COVID behind, one of the aforementioned volunteers also had this to share:
I wanted also to share a good experience with you all as well...
Today I attended a seminar on Mental Health. The slideshow began with a provocative question: The pandemic is over, so we're all OK, right? This was followed by statistics that showed that we are clearly not all OK. Our mental health has suffered dramatically.
It gave me the opportunity to share with my colleagues the work I'm doing with you all here and tell more people about the NCI. … I expressed how this is so not over for thousands of people across the country, people are traumatized and having difficulty recovering. The stories are heartbreaking.
What followed were others who shared what they were dealing with personally in the wake of the pandemic. Heads were nodding and people were sharing openly about the damage that was done.
I can't tell you how encouraging it was to be heard, to share this with my co-workers and be understood, not shunned. Having been muted in past Zoom meetings by the moderator for simply mentioning the impact of vaccine mandates, it was refreshing and gave me hope.
I think the work we are doing is epic and has a chance at changing our country for the better. This experience really fuelled my optimism.
Despite the ugliness that we saw from people during the pandemic, there are many compassionate and caring Canadians who can empathize with those who suffered. I think we can reach those people with these testimonies to build back the Canada we all love and want to call home.
Hope that is encouraging to you all.
IN LIEU of a “Support me by subscribing” message here… there are 5 ways to support the NCI itself: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/donate/