Sask. premier says health restrictions on 'rights and freedoms' ending soon
CBC
The last of the province's restrictions implemented to suppress the spread of COVID-19 will be gone "very soon," according to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe.
"COVID is not ending, but government restrictions on your rights and freedoms … will be ending," Moe said in a video posted on social media Wednesday evening.
In a statement on Saturday, Moe supported the convoy of trucks from across Canada that recently arrived in Ottawa to call for an end to vaccine mandates. That call has been echoed by others asking for an elimination of all public health restrictions. In his statement,
Moe claimed vaccination did not reduce transmission. A host of doctors have disputed that claim.
Moe said it's time to end restrictions and that his actions are being influenced by messaging that he and his MLAs have been hearing from "most of their constituents."
He said while COVID-19 has not ended, people understand it better.
"They understand the risk and they are prepared to live with that risk more than they are prepared to live with the ongoing government intrusion into their lives," Moe said.
"This perpetual state of crisis is having a harmful impact on everyone."
Premier Moe's statement comes after a convoy drove cross-Canada calling for the end of mandates.
The demonstrations in Ottawa have gone on for nearly one week, with no obvious end in sight. Some insist the national vaccine mandate for truckers must be cancelled, others such as the organizers behind a Wednesday news release want general COVID-19 restrictions lifted.
In his video statement, Moe said again that vaccination isn't reducing transmission of the virus, claiming that "both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are getting it … at virtually the same rate."
Experts have refuted that claim.
"Vaccines do decrease the transmission of the virus, do decrease the ability to actually acquire the virus in the first place," Dr. Hassan Masri told CBC ealier this week.
About 15 per cent of the population has not received a dose of the vaccine, according to data compiled by CBC.
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