The traitor

A passionate Twitter thread yesterday started when the wife of a federal worker sobbed about the coming termination of her husband. “We will never be vaccinated,” she wrote. “This is so unfair. They are Nazis.”

Hundreds responded. Most referenced freedom. God and Jesus, too. Several posted pictures of Crusade knights, the dudes who freely chose death over submission to infidels. I gave the iPad to Dorothy and told her to read a few dozen. That was a mistake.

This morning another anti-Garth email arrived. A daily occurrence lately. This one was signed – by Andy. From Langley, it appears.

I’m glad they stole your flag from you, even for the wrong reasons, needless to say. The way you’ve become pro big pharma and anti-freedom to choose, you no longer get zero sympathy from me.

You sir I now consider a traitor.  Perhaps you ought to read the Nuremberg Code and see its relevance here.  The mandatory vaccines violate fundamental human rights – and remarkably, you’re a goddamn cheerleader! I only wish I lived in your neighborhood so I could spit these things in your face!

On the Internet, everyone’s a knight.

A common image on anti-vax social media. Source: Twitter

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Yesterday was a big one for Covid. The feds formalized their vaccine mandate for all public service employees, RCMP, border service offices and other agencies. The post office and the military are following. NS did the same. BC, too. Edmonton teachers have to be vaxed. MPPs in Ontario. Everybody, soon, who flies in Canada. Long-term care workers in most places, too. Quebec’s health care workers need to be inoculated to continue working. The banks have a vaccine mandate for all employees as do, increasingly, all major corporations. And while almost 80% of Canadians are fully dosed, millions are not. Nor any of the children. Unknown yet is whether schools will have a mandate and, if so, how ant-vax parents will respond. And, as you know, vaccine passports are becoming standard across the country. No QR code? No service.

The economic and financial implications of this are profound. Now the media is bristling with stories about looming terminations. This pathetic (and apparently fascist) blog told you this would be coming months ago – and that anti-vax employees would lose their battle.

That’s now being confirmed by employment lawyers across the country. Here’s a key statement from one: “We’re going to see the biggest wave of terminations we’ve seen since the pandemic started. It will be significant.”

Indeed. And the deluge will be starting with the federal government in mid-November. As workers are sent home without pay, then dismissed, for non-compliance with the vax mandate many will pay eager lawyers and try suing. What a waste that will be. Employment standards obligate employers to provide safe workplaces, or be responsible for consequences. When dealing with a virus that debilitates and kills, there’s no choice. Some personal rights and freedoms are overcome by the common good. This is not the Wild West. It’s not anarchy. It ain’t the Crusades.

Having said this, termination usually brings a settlement of some kind, especially for employees of large organizations. Getting vaccinated wasn’t in anyone’s employment contract before 2021, so there’s a case for wrongful dismissal. The costs will be consequential for employers, as they will be for ‘pro-choice’ employees who chose unemployment. The anti-jabbers should not look for much sympathy from the courts, where every judge will be fully dosed. In a public health emergency, all the rules change.

For investors, vaccine mandates are something Mr. Market likes. A lot. Lately financial assets have been rattled by Delta, the 4th Wave, inflation and CB tapering. Bond yields continue to spike, posing competition to equities. But a national vax rate of 80%, then 90% along with workplaces humming and productivity restored will help the reopening trade continue. Less than a third of the world’s population has seen any vaccine yet, so North America – especially Canada – is in a sweet spot to benefit from the global GDP expansion which will come over the next two years.

The jab is good for the economy and prosperity. Tonic for the markets. Essential for the health care sector. It makes all of us safer. It takes courage, selflessness and faith. We save a bunch of families from burying their loved ones, too.

Jesus would like that. Go do it, Andy.

About the picture: “Here’s a picture of our dour looking Basset named Randall,” writes FA from Victoria. “He’s 13 years old but still wakes us up each morning for his walk to the dog park and gives us
crooked tooth grins during treat time. This guy brings all kinds of joy to our lives and I think we do the same for him. He’s one of those gentle, affable creatures, like some humans (not me) that have no idea how much joy they bring to the world. But, I guess that sums up our relationships with dogs in general and why they are so prominent in our lives. Especially in our present era.”