Alberta and Saskatchewan, two of Canada’s ten provinces, announced yesterday that they will be lifting all COVID-19 mandates. These announcements come as Canada is in its second week of mass protests against COVID mandates, sparked by the Freedom Convoy truckers.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said that the province will begin eliminating the COVID-19 mandates in three stages, beginning with vaccine passports. Vaccine passports were repealed at 11:59 local time last night. Mask mandates for students will end in schools Monday. Mask mandates for children under 12 will end everywhere Monday.
"We'll never be able to do a full accounting of the extent of the pain and hardship that restrictions have caused," Kenney said.
“We cannot remain at a heightened state of emergency forever. We have to begin to heal,” he added.
The premier also took a shot at Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is the prime focus of the protests. As reported by AFLDS Frontline News, Trudeau reacted to the protests by punishing truckers further with inter-provincial vaccine mandates.
“If the Canada-USA trucker vaccine mandate wasn't bad enough, now Justin Trudeau wants to bring in a mandate for truckers going between provinces,” Kenney tweeted yesterday. “Alberta will fight this every step of the way - including in court, if we have to.”
“These restrictions have led to terrible division,” Kenney said.
This sentiment was echoed by Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe as he announced the beginning of the end of COVID mandates in his province.
“Let’s not judge our neighbor because they may be vaccinated or because they may not be vaccinated,” said Moe in a press conference. “Let’s not judge our neighbor if they choose to wear a mask or if they should not choose to wear a mask in the weeks ahead.”
Moe then announced that the province’s vaccine passport system will end on February 14th.
“It’s time for each of us now as individuals to make a conscious effort to treat everyone in our daily lives that we encounter equally. It’s also time for the proof of vaccination mandate to end. So effective at midnight this Sunday February the 13th all provincial proof of vaccination requirements will end.”
Moe said that the mask mandate will be in effect until the end of February.
