National Citizens Inquiry looks into the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic by the federal government

It was day two of the National Citizens Inquiry into the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The hearings this week are taking place in Winnipeg.

Rick Wall, the president of Richland Transport was one of the witnesses at the Winnipeg inquiry. He was part of anti-mask rallies and the Freedom Convoy. He also organized the rally of semi-trucks at the Pembina-Emerson port of entry in southern Manitoba by the Canada/US border.

He explained why he went there to protest government COVID-19 mandates.

“Our plan was to basically abide by all traffic laws. We had no intentions of blocking the road. We just basically wanted to slow traffic down and come up with our flags and signs and show our- basically show our dislike with the decision the government had made for truckers at this point. The truck drivers were the heroes throughout the entire duration from when COVID started up to this point, willing to go where nobody else was going to go. And so they basically went from hero to zero pretty quickly.”

Natalie Kim Bjorklund-Gordon, a geneticist and epidemiologist, who has a PHD in the department of Biochemistry and Medical Genetics from the University of Manitoba was also a witness at the inquiry. She says she is semi-retired but still works as a scientist part-time. She explained why she thought the government’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns was not the right one.

“You cannot eradicate a respiratory virus. At that time we were told that this was a virus that came out of an animal reservoir. If you have a raw virus in an animal reservoir that occasionally crosses over to humans, you’re not going to be able to eliminate it ever. It’s just something you’re going to have to live with. And yet they were approaching this response to this virus as if they could eradicate it in the human population. And that made no sense to me either.”

The hearings will move to Saskatoon from April 20th through the 22nd and then on to Red Deer April 26th to the 28th.