Why Did I Go To Canberra? February 2022

 A massive protest rally took place at Canberra on the 12th February 2022.
The day before the rally I was talking to a neighbor over the fence, and he asked me what I was doing on the weekend. When I told him I was going to Canberra to attend the protest, he laughed and asked, “What on earth for?” 

Fair question, and one that I struggled to form a coherent answer to. In my own mind, I knew why, but expressing why proved difficult. So, in this page of scribble, I will attempt to work out exactly why.

You know that sinking feeling that you get in your gut, a feeling of dread, fear and anxiety? You might get it when a highway patrol car flashes and turns to follow you to a stop. Or when you accidentally send an email to the wrong recipient. Or maybe when you get home and your wife has “that look” in her eye - you’ve done something wrong. You know the feeling.

Two years ago, I got that feeling when a news broadcast announced that, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, a state government (Victoria, I think) announced that it would declare a state of emergency. This emergency would allow decisions to be made without having to be approved by parliament. The reasoning was the initiative would shorten the time it took to implement the necessary health orders. Other state governments followed suit. I knew in my gut that this was going to end badly. 

The suspension of democracy was the first and, in my estimation, the second most grave mistake taken by our governments across the Commonwealth. Democracy works by having ideas challenged. One person has an idea, other people help develop that idea, and then that idea is challenged by an opposing set of people. The idea is thrashed out until a good and sensible (hopefully) compromise is reached. Putting total authoritarian power over the lives of the population into the hands of one person is a dire and unforgivable mistake. But that’s not the worst mistake that was made. Giving similar powers to unelected bureaucrats who, unlike politicians, have no accountability and do not answer to the people that their decisions and directives effect, is nothing short of reprehensible. 

I’m happy to be corrected, but to the best of my knowledge, there has been no society that has survived for long, and where the people of that society prosper, under such conditions. 

Then came lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, curfews, mandated closures of businesses, rules about who you can see, when you can see them, in what circumstances, where you can go, and whose company you can keep. Manifestly outrageous draconian measures that we just accepted. 

We were told it was for the greater good, so we went along with it, naively thinking that our governments had the best intentions and were working to ‘keep us safe’. 

Personally, I hated the idea. 

Turns out, however, there’s a portion of the public that likes - even rejoices - in living under such conditions. Apparently, some people prefer order over freedom, instruction over liberty, regardless of how tyrannical that order is, or how aggressively the instructions are enforced. And none of these barbaric policies would have been possible under a democratic system in a free society. Not only did our governments let us down, but we were let down by political oppositions and especially by our media, who all toed the line, and played to the narrative that was conjured up by the likes of the World Health Organisation, and backside-covering lying bureaucrats such as Dr Anthony Fauci. 

Then, after the lockdowns, they trumpeted that they would return our freedom!*

*Conditions apply. 

Some freedom! We could go to the shops, as long as we told the government that we were there via QR codes and paper sign-ins. We were allowed to go to the pub, as long as we didn’t stand up while drinking, sing or shout, and of course QR in and tell the government we were there. We couldn’t travel interstate. We still can’t visit hospitals.  And they wondered why we didn’t drag out the maypole!?

Then we were told that the vaccine was the answer. “When we hit 80%, we’ll open back up and life will return to normal”. Then the goalposts were moved  to 85%. Then it was 85% double vaxed. Then it was 90% double vaxed. And on and on. Why? 

It wasn’t long before our authorities went full mental. 

People arrested for thought crimes, for posting anti-government material on Facebook. Tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets fired at protesters who simply just wanted to go back to work to provide for their family. People of all ages, including the elderly (weren’t we meant to be protecting the elderly?), knocked to the ground, punched, kicked, kneed. The Police became an iron-fisted arm of government, oppressing the very people who they are sworn to serve.

I see it like this: Countless times, every day, we make decisions for ourselves in the name of safety. It’s automatic and sometimes we decide without really thinking about it. We make decisions that keep us alive, while achieving goals at the same time. 

For example, it’s dangerous to drive a car - but we need to get to work, or the shops, or pick up the kids, or attend social events. Risk V Reward. Your mind does a thousand calculations, and you decide that the enjoyment of having a beer with a friend is worth the risk. 

Then came the vaccinations. A miracle of modern technology, (and a miracle of democratic capitalist free markets - but that’s another story) the vaccines were developed, tested and released in around a year. Like everyone else, I thought “Great! This is our way out”. We were told that the vaccine was “100% effective in stopping transmission, highly effective in stopping contraction of Covid, and will stop you from being ill.” 

The vaccine was slow to reach Australian shores in big numbers, and personally I was living and working in a country area, mainly outdoors. So I didn’t worry about the vaccine not being readily available in my area, so that there was more available for the vulnerable, and our city cousins who were getting hit hardest from the disease, and by government policies.

As time went on, I made a few observations about the vaccine. There didn’t seem to be any reduction in cases or hospitalisations outside of infection ‘waves’. This was an anecdotal observation, of course, and I found factual information hard to find. So I reached out to a friend, a retired medical professional who had a few specialities including surgery. He helped me find the data I was looking for, and also helped me understand the data conclusions. He also supplied me with copies of scientific medical publications relating to Covid. I had two suspicions confirmed to me. 

Firstly, I’m not smart enough to be a doctor of medicine. 

And secondly, what the media and politicians were telling us was not the whole truth. It may have been the best information at the start of the pandemic, but as the effects of the disease changed, and information and data around the disease’s seriousness changed, their narrative didn’t. I smelled a rat.

Information from these resources provided to me also indicated that death was rare in the under 70s age bracket if the patient had no comorbidities. When you think about comorbidities, it’s easy to assume they are serious conditions such as cancer, bronchial disease, chronic organ disease, heart disease, etc. But what I was reading also indicated more common and less serious conditions such as obesity, diabetes, asthma and low physical fitness. When vaccines became available for all, I did a risk-reward calculation.  

Result: I would decline the vaccination. Other than saying “I do” way back in 1991, it’s the best decision I have made.

As time went on and covid statistics became easier to find through various government websites, they displayed what many of us had already suspected. That being, the vaccines were not effective in eliminating (or even limiting) the contraction of, or the spreading of, Covid-19. Doubts have also surfaced recently from countries such as Israel on whether they assist in any great way against severe illness, although I can’t find any factual data supporting this hypothesis. 

Late in 2021, the evil of totalitarian and drunk-on-power health bureaucrats tore into our social fabric once again, with the announcement that Covid vaccinations would be mandatory. Well, not by law. It’d actually be illegal to perform a medical procedure upon a person without their consent. You can’t be dragged before the courts and thrown in jail for not being vaccinated. But, if you aren’t vaccinated, we were told, you won’t be able to go to the pub, or a concert, or a live show. You won’t be allowed into registered clubs. You can't visit sick or dying relatives in hospital. You can’t support your wife and attend the birth of your own child. And these rules were accepted by the majority of people. 

I have never heard of such evil, dead hearted, cold bastardry being enforced upon a free society. That is, of course, until we learned about the new rule stating that sections of the public would not be allowed to work, to contribute and to provide for themselves, their family and their community. These were the actions of an iron fist, designed to frighten these non-compliant people into submission. 

I don’t think this policy had the desired effect that the government had hoped for. I know that I didn’t change my mind. And neither did thousands of other people. Personally, I doubled my resolve to remain unjabbed. And resolved to help facilitate change, and make sure this abominable situation will never occur again.

So that is why I went to the Canberra protest. I don’t want to live under such oppressive measures. If we don’t push back now, I fear that things could get a lot worse before they get better. My kids and their kids deserve to live in the nation of Australia as it was in my youth, even as it was up until two years ago. 

That is why I will die in this ditch. 

No government has the right to an individual’s body. A person’s body is sacred. It is theirs alone. And the separation of, and removal of freedoms, removal of liberty, and the deliberate victimisation of a minority body of people, is unjustified, unprecedented in this country, and abhorrent.