Protecting the majority

Re: Threats we can't ignore, Jesse Kline, Oct. 2

Jesse Kline is right that Canadians have demonstrated enough tolerance for fringe thinkers already by letting those without scientific knowledge set the agenda for our social security during this pandemic. Clearly it's time for majority rule by society to stop appeasing these public minority menaces and to confront them with political will, medical knowledge and legal authority to cease and desist their public mischief that is and will prolong this pandemic.

We live in society because it serves and protects our person. However our social contract that empowers civil society is based on reciprocal duties and rights. Consequently those unwilling to abide by the rule of law established void society's obligations to serve and protect them. The old adage “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man's nose begins” displays our social contract's compelling reciprocal imperatives. Accordingly, dissenters are free to resist the reach of society trying to inject a solution to the pandemic into their arm but that arm can't reside within the bounds of our society. It's curious how most of us understand that smokers can't legally smoke because their second-hand smoke harms others but some are incapable of comprehending the similar social reasoning justifying the outlawing of persons from exhaling in public without a mask because it potentially may infect others.

The facts are freedom of expression does not bestow more rights on nonconformists as their conspiracy fictions insist. That's why a Canadian's right to self-defence when threatened by an anti-vaxxer is legally justified. When vaccines that provide herd immunity arrive, those unwilling to vaccinate must justify their exemption or accept exile. Anti-social acts have social consequences.

Tony D'Andrea, Toronto