Draft Open Letter to Manitoba's Post-Secondary Institutions
Addressed to Dr. Michael Benarroch (UofM), Dr. James Currie (UofW) and Fred Meier (RRC)
Contact: DignityofRisk@protonmail.com
To Dr. Michael Benarroch, President of the University of Manitoba; Dr. James Currie, President of the University of Winnipeg; and Fred Meier, President and CEO of Red River College:
In June 2021, Dignity of Risk Alliance was founded with the mission of defending the right to informed consent and medical freedom. This includes the right of an individual to take potentially lifesaving medical risks, whether that means trying off-label treatments or declining a treatment to allow their own body to mount a defense or to heal. As cofounder of the organization, I am writing on behalf of my partners and our supporters. We believe education on the interpretation of probabilities, and how to weigh risks make it possible for individuals to take personal responsibility for medical decisions and, ultimately, empowers them to positively impact their health in the short and long term. Acting on mandated orders is the antithesis of agency, usurps the right of informed consent, and, simply, has no place in a free society.
I am surprised that I must sit and write a letter to remind you that good intentions are not enough to prevent the atrocities that a violation of human rights can precipitate.
The system of residential schools established in Canada, dating back to the Indian Act of 1876, had a mandate:
…to isolate indigenous children from the influence of their own native culture and religion in order to assimilate them into the dominant Canadian culture.[1]
However diabolical it may appear today; the intention was justified as noble by the authorities at the time. Perhaps they felt their beliefs supported the greater good; that assimilation was desirable even at the risk of unintended consequences. Through the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, we now know the continued toll that mandate has had.
Yet on August 19th, 2021, email correspondence was sent to all members of your community to mandate vaccines on campus. I am writing to inform you that your mandates imposes a dominant cultural belief on people that have a difference of opinion about the COVID-19 vaccine. After all, who was the COVID-19 vaccine mandate intended for, but those that are opposed to taking the vaccine?
Human rights were written into law at the international, national, and regional levels lest we forget the barbarism of human rights violations in our past. A Human Rights Museum of international acclaim was conceived, planned, and erected in Winnipeg, Manitoba as a testament to the brutality of dogmatic thinking and genocide with the aim of creating awareness and preventing future carnage.
In this spirit, Section 97 of The Public Health Act of Manitoba[2] states that:
Despite any other provision of this Act, no person is required to comply with an order made under this Act requiring him or her to receive treatment or be immunized, if the person objects to the treatment or immunization.
Because of this provision, the Government of Manitoba cannot mandate inoculation. Yet the post-secondary institutions have attempted to circumvent this protection and instead announced their own mandate on students, employees, and visitors to the campus. What you have attempted to do by mandating the COVID-19 vaccine is unprecedented.
At the federal level, Health Canada has recognized the limits of the government to mandate inoculation in the past. In a document called the Canadian National Report on Immunization 1996, on page 3, authors at Health Canada state:
Unlike some countries, immunization is not mandatory in Canada; it cannot be made mandatory because of the Canadian Constitution.[3]
In fact, in Section 52(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982 – The supremacy clause affirms:
The Constitution of Canada is the supreme law of Canada, and any law that is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution is, to the extent of the inconsistency, of no force or effect.[4]
I challenge your institution’s belief that your public health reductionist, and self-serving mandate supersede the supreme law of Canada. Furthermore, I would like you to be aware that you are accountable for threatening citizens that they must surrender to a medical treatment to earn their freedom and, consequently, have committed an act of extortion under the Criminal Code of Canada.
Section 346 (1) and (1.1) of the Criminal Code of Canada[5] states:
(1) Every one commits extortion who, without reasonable justification or excuse and with intent to obtain anything, by threats, accusations, menaces or violence induces or attempts to induce any person, whether or not he is the person threatened, accused or menaced or to whom violence is shown, to do anything or cause anything to be done.
(1.1) Every person who commits extortion is guilty of an indictable offense and liable.
There has never been a formal debate about the advantages, and disadvantages of the COVID-19 vaccine, nor about the vaccine mandate in the private and public sectors in Manitoba. The College of Physicians and Surgeons, the local and national media and remote big-tech companies have operated in a resolute and orchestrated way to manufacture a singular positive message about the COVID-19 vaccine. My experience in social media is very different. I am here to tell you there are thousands of Manitobans that disagree with the testing and vaccine strategy as well as mandates. A people’s movement is forming to ensure their voices are heard. A rally is planned at the University of Winnipeg for Saturday, November 20th; if you are not comfortable with attending, there should be a livestream, and subsequent recording, of the rally available through Winnipeg Alternative Media. Invitations have been sent to the 12,500 Manitobans that have signed this petition against mandated vaccines at the University of Manitoba; they have also been sent to the supporters of the cease-and-desist letter addressed to Dr. James Currie of the University of Winnipeg by faculty, and the 5,000 people that are active in this Instagram group opposed to the Red River College Mandate. MORE TO COME….
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system
[2] https://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/p210e.php
[3] https://publications.gc.ca/.../aspc-phac/HP3-1-23-S4-eng.pdf
[4] https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/check/art521.html
[5] https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/section-346.html