this is a catastrophically idiotic decision.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/canada-doubling-carbon-price-rebate-rural-top-up-pausing-charge-on-heating-oil-trudeau-1.6618613

(the irony is that at the same time that the government is going to the brink forcing google and facebook to pay journalists, sites that have been free for years are putting up paywalls. i expect the cbc will remain free. it may be hard to find private sector media in canada, so let's all blog more.)

i don't agree with either of them.

a blanket ban on vaccine mandates would be a terrible policy as covid was likely a dry run for an actually serious pandemic that kills people that aren't already almost dead. yet,vaccine mandates, as they were applied, were a drastic over-reaction to the actual threat.

what is required is a better mechanism to determine when a virus is dangerous. theresa tam prove herself a politician, as did many of the other doctors involved. a truly independent mechanism that excludes political decision makers is what is required.

if we can agree that the government overreacted and that protocols need to be changed, polievre's prescription is an absurd overreaction that is worse than the disease, itself.

my position from the start was that the data doesn't support vaccine mandates and the politicians acted hysterically; the data might have pointed elsewhere, if the virus was different.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/poilievre-anti-vaccine-mandate-bill-1.7007562