Article submitted by Red Deer South MLA Jason Stephan

A Citizen’s Inquiry into Government COVID Policy is in the Public Interest

The National Citizens Inquiry

Many, including myself, have been calling on governments for an independent, transparent, comprehensive public inquiry into governments’ response into COVID, including, a full-cost analysis of the harms of COVID-19 restrictions on children and young adults.

Governments are not responding, so private citizens are stepping up, including Preston Manning and other community leaders forming the National Citizens Inquiry (“Inquiry”).

This Inquiry is a citizen led inquiry, not a government commissioned public inquiry. A citizen led inquiry avoids some of the inherent conflicts of interest and losses of trust cumbering governments to lead in these circumstances.

As the Inquiry is citizen, not Government, led, it relies on public support. Information about the National Citizens Inquiry can be found at: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/

Most important, the Inquiry will use its findings to make recommendations so that any future national crises are better managed, harms mitigated, and trust in public institutions upheld. Isn’t that what we all want?

The Inquiry is Justified

The website for the Inquiry reports that 3 out 4 Canadians report being harmed, not by COVID, but by governments’ COVID policies. For many the cure was worse than the disease. With this being the case, is it right to look the other way and pretend nothing happened? No.

Don’t these unprecedented government actions, incurring hundreds of billions in government debts, burdening our children for generations, compel us in the public interest to consider thoroughly and honestly what occurred? Yes.

The duty of government is to listen to the public, most of whom experienced harms from government COVID responses, with a sincere desire to learn from both successes and mistakes.

As the truth will always prevail, let’s love it and unite with it.

The Trudeau-NDP Media Fuelled Fear Machine is Not Stopping

For over two years, Trudeau, the NDP, and most of the media, using fear as a tool, sought for more restrictions, mandates and passports and lockdowns. They are not stopping.

This week the media is asking the Premier about masking children in schools. The Premier said government was not going to mandate across the board masking for children, respecting individual parent decisions to mask or not mask their children according to their own circumstances. While this was a principled response, that was not good enough for the left media, reporting “ALBERTA PREMIER SAYS NO SCHOOL MASK RULES AS VIRAL CASES RISE, JAMMING HOSPITALS”.

As a parent and having visited schools last week and this week, and seeing very few masks, I am forced to conclude that some of the left media folks are not normal Albertans and are divorced from reality. It seems as they want to live in a perpetual universe of fear, and they want to force all of us to join them.

The Inquiry is coming to Alberta

The Inquiry intends to hold seven hearings in the new year, nation wide in Canada, including one in Red Deer, for all of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is an exciting, great opportunity to get involved, serve, and participate for more accountability and transparency.

A free and open discourse of perspectives and experiences allows us to respect our differences, valuing others. It fosters more truth and less error. The more truth the better. Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. We must be vigilant to keep it that way.