REGINA, Saskatchewan (LifeSiteNews) – Saskatchewan’s premier once again cited the “psychological” and economic damage caused by lockdowns when explaining why he has not imposed new restrictions during the “omicron” wave.
On Monday, Premier Scott Moe of the Saskatchewan Party once again referenced the growing body of evidence that shows lockdowns are not only ineffective at stopping the spread of COVID-19, but actually cause more harm than good. This was the second press conference in a row during which Moe decried lockdowns, a measure he once used, and told his citizens that he would not be implementing more restrictions.
“Saskatchewan’s current rate of hospitalizations and ICU admission is below the national rate, and is well below a number of provinces that have imposed much more stringent public health measures, and much more stringent lockdowns than we have here in Saskatchewan,” Moe said during the press conference.
“For instance, in the case of Quebec, the province that has likely the largest or most extreme lockdown policies in Canada: They currently have just under 40 hospitalization admissions per [one] hundred thousand people, [and] that’s nearly double the rate that we have here in Saskatchewan,” added the premier, also mentioning that Saskatchewan has a lower COVID fatality rate than Quebec by almost seven times.
Moe continued by saying that for these reasons his province will not “impose significant restrictions that cause significant harm, for no significant benefit.”
Preemptively answering the inevitable question of how he can know lockdowns are not effective, Moe stated that the evidence is “right here in Saskatchewan,” as the province has the least restrictive measures in place out of any Canadian province and yet still boasts among the lowest hospital admissions rate, ICU admissions rate, and COVID mortality rates.
“[By declining to lockdown] we’re avoiding the economic and psychological harm, and the infringement on personal freedoms that are often caused by lockdowns,” expressed the premier, adding that “COVID” is not going away but that many diseases exist and are dealt with without “locking down, taking away people’s freedoms, and without disrupting everyone’s life.”
While other provinces such as Ontario and Quebec imposed lockdowns, put harsh caps on gathering limits, and mandated the closure of businesses and schools at the onset of the so-called “omicron wave,” Saskatchewan declined to add any measures, with the only action taken being an extension of their mask mandate from the end of January to the end of February.
Despite the heavy-handed approach of many Canadian provincial governments by enacting lockdown after lockdown, the scientific and legal justifications for the measures have been widely criticized.
Late last year, The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms released a comprehensive 32-page report titled Are Lockdowns Worth Their Cost?, outlining the massive fallout that has occurred as a result of the rolling lockdowns imposed on Canadians since March of 2020.
Are Lockdowns worth their Cost? addresses more than 60 different lockdown harms with examples including the ballooning government debt; forced unemployment of millions of Canadians and the closure of thousands of Canadian small businesses; heightened rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide even among youth; record levels of substance abuse; increased domestic violence; increased child abuse and sexual exploitation; and the cancellation of thousands of surgeries, cancer screenings, and other necessary medical treatments.
On the legal front, the JCCF noted that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms requires governments to produce compelling evidence to justify their violation of Charter freedoms to move, travel, assemble, associate, and worship, and the citizens’ Charter right to bodily autonomy, which includes the right to refuse new coronavirus vaccines that have not been subjected to long-term safety testing.
“In the past 21 months, governments have produced almost no documentation to suggest that they have seriously considered lockdown harms, which is an abject failure to comply with our Constitution,” stated JCCF lawyer and president John Carpay.
LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.