March 3 Health Board – Mark Delegation
Thank you to the board of health for allowing me time to address you. I respect the work that is done to ensure public health.
For context, I’m going to speak briefly about my personal background and experience. I have a long history of working in helping professions. I spent 15 years in children’s mental health and working in schools. Before that I had an intimate knowledge of the foster care system in Guelph. I was also an active union steward through my years in education / mental health. So I have a deep understanding of policy development. Along with a deep understanding of child protection and best practices with regard to policy making for at risk populations of youth.
That’s why i’m speaking out. What is going on in our city and our province is abhorrent and unacceptable. It violates our basic rights. The recommended abuse by public health for children who are healthy yet deemed high risk contacts is frightening as it’s been brought to light and ignored by leadership at the provincial level.
The Milgram experiment, referenced in my letter is a good example of what we’re currently living through. In Milgram they measured the public’s compliance with authority. What it found was that if a person in authority told a “teacher” to administer an electric shock to a “learner” the “teacher” would be upset, would beg the person in authority to stop the trial, but they would comply. They would administer those electric shocks until the subject’s death. That is exactly what’s happening right now with mandatory masking across the health unit. You have created a situation where basic rights don’t matter and authority figures (you) are telling parents through public orders to harm their children. And they are complying. You are the only ones who can stop this horrific abuse.
The damage being done by mask mandates is very concerning. We have had a child suspended in Guelph for accessing his exemption at school. He was distanced and got punished for removing his mask. This is despite a large body of evidence that mandatory masking does not reduce the spread of respiratory virus. I outline the data in my letter, so i won’t rehash it here. We have had public health recommend isolating children by themselves for 14 days if they are deemed “high risk contacts.” If i were to do that to a child outside of public health’s direction I would very likely have my children removed from my care. Yet the “leadership” has said nothing. This is shocking and abhorrent. It is now your responsibility to stand up for our children.
Early in the pandemic there was caution by many doctors and public health that wearing masks for healthy people is not beneficial because people fiddle with them and touch their face a lot more when wearing masks. What studies or data have been released that nullify that concern?
What are the potential developmental impacts, physical impacts? Are instances of bacterial pneumonia or hypoxia considered? Instances of impetigo? What are the developmental impacts to children under 7 of being forced to wear a mask for extended periods multiple days in a row? Was the still face experiment taken into consideration? (referenced in my letter) Are parents informed of these potential risks? If not why not, as informed consent is necessary for any medical intervention? Where is that handout that outlines the risk factors for prolonged masking of children or the risk factors for prolonged masking of humans?
Now that you’re aware of the damage being inflicted to children in our health unit, what compelling evidence do you have that masking works? How are you measuring the efficacy of masks in the school setting? Specifically what studies and what data are being used to drive the decision to continue to force children to wear masks all day?
Further – what criteria need to be achieved to repeal this damaging and ineffective intervention?
Infection curves in places with mandatory masking are the same as curves in places without mandatory masking. How and why is that being ignored?
Similar to lockdown metrics, it seems that the data used to continue the mandatory masking of children is not robust and is not public. Without a clear way to measure success or failure it is impossible to gauge our progress , regarding both masks and lockdowns.
Why did this health unit remove the number of active cases in the hospital from the data dashboard? What rationale was used to justify removing this information from public consumption?
When children become victims of bad policy it is time to act. The child who was suspended in Guelph because he removed his mask was complying with the law. Because the people in authority (public health) have the section 22 mandate in place this child’s right to decide if he needed to breathe freely was removed. He was punished for having the gall to do it anyway. Suspended from education. For the crime of removing his mask. When the exemption is clearly written into the law. Was this the intent of the mask mandate?
When children become victims of bad policy it’s time to act. We have far too many victims in this pandemic anyway, we don’t need to create more by continuing bad policy. One more story.
When a peer in a class gets sick and a healthy child is deemed a high risk contact they still get a letter sent home telling parents the child must isolate for 14 days even with a negative covid test. The guidelines around this self isolation are not appropriate and would constitute abuse/neglect in another context. Parents have followed this advice.
If you don’t act, and act now, who will? Who can?