Editor:

Everyday I wake up and continue to see our world being ripped apart at the seams. Daily I read articles, watch videos, see posts online of people doing horrific and inexplicable things to each other and it scares me for the precedent we鈥檙e setting, not only for ourselves but for future generations. Why do we feel that this is acceptable behaviour and treatment towards other people?

This is not acceptable in the slightest, whether it be Prime Ministers, Presidents, government officials, people of influence or just your everyday person advocating and in some cases promoting this kind of behaviour, nothing about this is acceptable.

As we speak people are being discriminated against, labour laws are being broken, and constitutional rights and freedoms are being taken away from people. No matter what is happening in the world, people鈥檚 rights must not be given and taken away at will and they are most certainly not a bargaining chip.

We are living in a time of fear, division and uncertainty but also a time of hypocrisy. We have our governments and health agencies telling us our healthcare workers need to be treated with respect and our healthcare workers are understaffed and overworked, yet they have no problem forcing a quarter of the workforce out the door and treating them like worthless pieces of garbage for exercising a constitutional right. Who are we to question these people when they鈥檝e been the heroes on the front lines saving lives? That doesn鈥檛 matter now? We have organizations, companies and businesses firing good, honest, hard working, law abiding citizens because they choose to exercise their rights. Parents are even being told they don鈥檛 have the right to protect their own children. Strangers can now enter a school and stick a needle in your child鈥檚 arm without a parents say, not to mention many other medical decisions and procedures that have no business taking place without parental consent. How can anyone, regardless of what side of the conversation you鈥檙e on, support this?? This is out of control, this is against everything we stand for as Canadians. We have strict laws in place to prevent this kind of treatment and behaviour towards the people of this country. This is illegal.

Also, not every person at a protest is an anti-vaxxer, not every person is a conspiracy theorist, the majority of people are good, hard working, law abiding people that are standing up for their rights. The exact same rights that everyone has, the rights that make our country a free country. Our society has developed this 鈥淭hat doesn鈥檛 work for me, so you have to change鈥� mentality and that has a lot to do with where we鈥檙e at currently. It is not one person鈥檚 responsibility to give up their rights in order to appease someone else鈥檚.

We鈥檙e all going through this together, it鈥檚 affecting everyone equally and if we want to come out of this with a world that鈥檚 even worth sticking around for we need to start being better human beings to each other. We need to have empathy and respect for one another and we鈥檒l get through this a lot easier, safer and more effectively.

I鈥檝e always been proud of living in this country, been proud of what it stood for. I honestly would have never thought that in my life I would be embarrassed, appalled and disgusted, but even more so, scared to be a Canadian.

Christopher L. Harms