Moe and Meili denounce racism at `Freedom Rally'
A rally in Regina protesting against COVID-19 restrictions attracted bipartisan condemnation after a speaker made xenophobic comments about chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab.
NDP Leader Ryan Meili shared a video of a speech from Saturday's rally to his Twitter account, calling it “disgusting, idiotic and dangerous.”
“It's blatantly racist, which is always wrong, always unacceptable,” he said. “It's even more infuriating to hear directed against Dr. Shahab, who's working so hard to keep all Sask people safe.”
Ruddi Bruce, a Youtube personality with few subscribers, told a crowd of a few hundred on the steps of Saskatchewan Legislative Building that he had trouble remembering the names of “foreigners” while criticizing Dr. Shahab, whose name he purported to stumble over.
Bruce also directed a profanity-laced rant at the media, telling reporters on site to get out of the so-called “Saskatchewan Freedom Rally.”
“We're the news now,” he yelled. Meili asked Premier Scott Moe to join him in “making it clear there's no room for this dangerous misinformation, racism and stupidity in our province.” Moe issued a statement on Sunday.
“Yesterday, one of the speakers at a rally in Regina made comments that were beneath contempt, including racist comments about Dr. Shahab,” Moe posted to his social media accounts.
His statement came with a video statement from former health minister Jim Reiter, who worked closely with Shahab and celebrated his contributions to the province.
“I believe that Minister Reiter's statement reflected the views and thanks of the vast majority of Saskatchewan people, including me,” Moe wrote.
The rally, which followed a vehicle convoy from Saskatoon to Regina, came the same day Saskatchewan reported its highest ever daily death toll among people infected with COVID-19 at 11 lost lives. The overwhelming majority of protesters were unmasked and stood in close quarters to listen to speeches rife with misinformation about the pandemic.
Many carried signs with phrases like “masks kill” and “unmask the scamdemic,” despite widely held views by the scientific and medical communities that masks can curb the spread of the coronavirus.
With roughly 300 people on site, the rally was about 10 times the 30-person limit on public gatherings set out in the public health order. Regina police fined two event organizers $2,800 each “for contravention of Public Health Orders relating to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to a police release issued Saturday evening. The organizers were a Saskatoon man and Deer Valley woman.
Mark Friesen, a rally organizer from Saskatoon, posted a video of officers handing him a ticket. He soon posted a link to a fundraising website billed as a “legal defence fund.” It raised $2,769 in the 13 hours following the demonstration, in addition to roughly $1,000 already in the fund for a previous campaign.
Friesen told the Leader-post on Sunday that the ticket won't dissuade him. He said a further rally in Saskatoon is already in the offing.
“I plan on fighting these tickets and defending myself and obviously exercising my rights under the constitution,” Friesen said.
The ticket bears a court date for March in Regina. He said he'll take his challenge as far as he can, and hopes prosecutors follow through to give him his day in court.
“What I'd like to do is force the government to finally defend their position and provide us the evidence required under the Charter to bring about these measures limiting our Charter rights,” he charged.
Constitutional scholar John Whyte has stated that the public health restrictions would likely survive a Charter challenge, since the government can impose limits “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.” Friesen believes that would fail, though his arguments relied on questioning the reliability of COVID-19 testing.
The Lancet, a leading medical journal, called the PCR tests Friesen criticized “the gold standard for detecting COVID-19.”
Asked about Bruce's comments against Shahab, Friesen said he regrets them and they “don't reflect the views of the majority of the people that were there.”
But Bruce's speech prompted audible hoots of apparent support at the rally. Friesen suggested that reflects a minority view. “Are there others that do agree with what Ruddi said? I'm sure there are,” he said. “It's pretty few and far between.”
He said organizers are responsible for “vetting the speakers better,” though he noted his movement is dedicated to freedom, including free speech.
“While we don't agree with what this gentleman said, or how he said it, and the swearing — I mean, it made me cringe, I didn't like it at all — it still is freedom of speech,” he said. “People need a platform.”
Shahab, originally from Pakistan, came to Canada to give his
children a better life in what he called “the land of milk and honey.” He became Saskatchewan's deputy chief medical health officer in 2009 and its top doctor in 2012.
His name has become well known to Saskatchewan people as he serves as the public face of the province's efforts to contain COVID-19.
Friesen's fundraiser wasn't the only attempt to raise money off the event. Former People's Party of Canada candidate Trevor Wowk set up a fundraiser he said was intended to cover the tickets, offering to provide tax receipts through the Regina— Qu'appelle PPC Association.
His efforts had raised $10 as of Sunday at noon.
Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine, a University of Saskatchewan professor in community health and epidemiology, said he finds these types of rallies “very, very frustrating.”
He supports people's rights to free speech, but says these rights must come with the responsibility to keep other people safe, particularly in the midst of a pandemic.
“This is not the time to be sort of congregating in large numbers of people,” Muhajarine said. “This is a perfect recipe for multiple outbreaks happening, and I think it is highly, highly irresponsible.”
Barbara Cape, president of SEIU-WEST, which represents many health care and long-term care workers in Saskatchewan, is angered by events like Saturday's rally.
“It absolutely denies what my members are going through every single day,” she said, noting some members are currently fighting severe outbreaks in long-term care facilities and watching as residents with COVID-19 pass away.
I plan on fighting these tickets and defending myself and obviously exercising my rights under the constitution.