My impression remains that people either want to forget or deny the suppression of society during the so-called ‘pandemic’. Given the mounting evidence that, at the very, very least, the undemocratic, unevidenced assault on liberty was problematic, it’s no longer straightforward to dismiss COVID critics as unhinged, anti-science conspiracy theorists. It seems preferable to pretend the nightmare was a dream and consign it to the past.
Amongst the many issues still on the table I’ll draw your attention to just two. Firstly there remain many courageous individuals, who voiced utterly legitimate concerns about the lockdowns, whose lives and careers have been shattered – see the example of the incredibly modest and inspiring Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill.
In the summer of 2020, Dr. Gill was one of the first Canadian physicians to bravely speak out publicly on social media about the catastrophic and irreparable harms of lockdowns. She quickly became the target of an orchestrated malicious online smear campaign that encouraged the public to lodge complaints to her regulatory college. In an attempt to clear her name from spurious defamation, she had launched legal proceedings against those responsible; but a pre-trial procedural ruling against her had led to a cost order of up to $1.2M in October 2022. This court procedural/motion decision and the cost order were both appealed, ultimately leading to a costs order of nearly $300K ordered in late February 2024 with just weeks to pay.
Dr. Gill was once a lone voice against lockdowns in Canada: a compassionate voice for humanity who has inspired countless people around the world to take a stand against harmful government measures. The arc of history has bent towards Dr. Gill; sadly her early warnings on lockdown harms have come to fruition. Compelled by her conscience, her courageous and ethical efforts to uphold the Hippocratic oath in supporting patient autonomy and speaking out against harmful lockdowns have come at an immense personal cost to Dr. Gill. Her supporters are using this platform to fundraise to support her legal fund, and her fight for our human rights. Please donate and share.
Secondly, are we so naive as to think there are no more emergencies in the pipeline as the ruling class creates an era of anxiety? And that it seeks to introduce evermore definitions of what it sees as unacceptable dissension from its authoritarian agenda. For example, see Michael Gove’s new definition of ‘extremism‘. HART, the independent and questioning ‘Health Advisory and Recovery Team’ point out who ought to be the first to be charged under its tenuous tenets.
In the latest egregious bout of trolling from HM Gov, it takes about 3 milliseconds of studying the new definition of extremism to realise that during the so-called ‘pandemic’, the government did precisely everything therein:
- negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others;
What, like denying them social contact, denying them the right to be with their dying relatives, forcing medical procedures on them in order to continue their job, denying them the right to earn a living, denying their rights of free movement, locking them in their homes and arresting them for sitting on a bench? That kind of thing?
- undermine, overturn or replace the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights;
What, you mean like introducing a brand new legal act (in spite of there already existing an appropriate instrument) that completely tramples parliamentary democracy, giving the sitting government the right to jackboot their way into people’s lives as outlined in point 1 above? Or like shutting down parliament entirely and cancelling elections? Or perhaps like Matt Hancock telling parliament that he had unilaterally decided to offer the pharmaceutical companies indemnity for their products.
- intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve the results in (1) or (2).
What, you mean by censoring and smearing any opposing views, demonising anyone who didn’t get with the programme and creating an environment of extremism via a media monopoly that would have been more fitting in Mao Zedong’s China.
Gove’s Ministry of Truth Reporting for Duty
AND LEST WE FORGET THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA
Thanks to Edward Curtin for taking me back to a poem I had filed away at the beginning of the New Year
It was composed by the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed in Gaza by an IDF airstrike on December 6, 2023 along with his brother, nephew, sister, and three of her children.
If I Must Die
If I must die,
you must live
to tell my story
to sell my things
to buy a piece of cloth
and some strings,
(make it white with a long tail)
so that a child, somewhere in Gaza
while looking heaven in the eye
awaiting his dad who left in a blaze —
and bid no one farewell
not even to his flesh
not even to himself —
sees the kite, my kite you made, flying up above,
and thinks for a moment an angel is there
bringing back love.
If I must die
let it bring hope,
let it be a story.
CHATTING CRITICALLY 