Editor:

We are long time community members, well-respected and well-liked here in beautiful 亚洲天堂 Lake. We remember days when getting sick was normal. The flu season of 2019 was particularly hard on 亚洲天堂 Lake. We remember a lot of people getting sick. Back then we were kind to each other, we covered our coughs and sneezes and wished each other well. Being out in public when you were sick was something most of us tried to avoid, but it was not uncommon to see people with colds and flus out and about. We never shamed them or made them feel dirty. It was normal!

Canada is a free country made up of free individuals, and we pride ourselves on that. We gladly welcome those who want to escape the tyranny of their home country. In Canada, we see our population as competent people capable of making their own risk assessments and decisions.

Democracy requires opposition, otherwise it is tyranny. The price you pay for freedom is that you have to accept that some people will not agree with you (remember agree to disagree?). Some people will make choices you don鈥檛 agree with, but that is what freedom is. You cannot demand others act or think a certain way, you cannot regulate speech, you cannot censor ideas. That is not freedom.

亚洲天堂 Lake prides itself on being a friendly place. But we do not feel it is very friendly anymore. People are spying and snitching on each other, there is bullying and shaming occurring, people are being peer pressured into medical treatments. This does not feel like a free place.

There are thousands of experts with pages of credentials that are speaking out against the harms of our current medical 鈥渃onsensus鈥� and health measures, but they are being silenced. How is it freedom to only hear one side of an issue? Should we not hear both sides and make an informed decision from that? Who gets to pick the experts?

In our 鈥渘ew Normal鈥� it is now perfectly acceptable to require someone get a medical treatment to have their basic human rights. We treat each other like diseased lepers. Sick until proven healthy. This is not okay and it does not lead good places. History has shown what humanity can do to the 鈥渦nclean鈥�.

I do not want 亚洲天堂 Lake, or Canada to go down that route. I want medical freedom and medical privacy. Let people make their own decisions and let people be free. I know the risks of covid, we had time to ramp up hospitals, the people who want the vaccine can have it, and those who don鈥檛 should be free to choose. So, let鈥檚 go back to normal.

Andrea Zahnd