Jenna Cocullo, Local Journalism Initiative
Approximately three dozen people peacefully protested the COVID-19 lockdown throughout the municipality on Saturday.
Alice Lake, organizer of the event, said that most COVID-19 cases in Ontario came from long-term care facilities, and, therefore, the remaining positive cases, outside the facility “do not justify the extreme measures against civil rights and freedoms.”
The protesters, who gathered outside the Civic Centre in Chatham, were also criticizing Chatham-Kent’s medical officer of health, Dr. David Colby’s, decision to override part of the provincial government’s Stage 2 reopening strategy. Colby is keeping splash pads closed as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, saying he will reopen them once playground access is reinstated by the provincial government.
“People are in fear here that they are in danger. They were taught to be afraid of healthy people,” Lake said, noting that she believes some of the COVID-19 numbers are “made up.”
Lake also said she feels the lockdown is having a negative affect on people’s mental health especially children who cannot go to playgrounds or engage in sporting events.
At a press briefing last week, Colby said he believes “all people are entitled to express their opinions and people are entitled to their own opinions, but not to their own facts.”
“I think anyone who believes that COVID-19 is some type of fabrication to exert some type of control over society really places a greater emphasis on their own opinion than the available facts,” he said. “And for me to comment any further would give this more time than it deserves.”
