Students oppose ‘forced normalcy’ of restrictions removal

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This article was published 24/02/2022 (1484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new student-founded campaign is calling on Manitoba officials to retain some public health restrictions until COVID-19 becomes endemic.

As far as Grade 12 student Drayton Kejick-Fair is concerned, “Now is not the time for forced normalcy.”

“I’m no big activist or advocate, but when the government does something that potentially puts the people around you and the people that you love in danger, you have to do something about it,” Drayton said.

The 17-year-old is organizing a protest at the Manitoba Legislative Building at noon on Saturday to make known his concerns about the imminent loosening of restrictions.

Drayton, who attends Nelson McIntyre Collegiate in Winnipeg, said a handful of student organizers want the province to expand access to rapid tests and KN95 masks and maintain mask mandates and vaccine passports.

They are necessary to protect people who are at a higher risk of severe outcomes, prevent the health-care system from being overwhelmed, and prepare for future variants of COVID-19, said the “Keep Manitoba Safe” collective.

The group, which has made a masked bison its logo, is urging current students and supporters of all ages to mobilize in-person and on social media in solidarity with their calls to action.

Earlier this month, the Stefanson government unveiled a three-pronged plan to phase out public health restrictions in Manitoba in order to establish a “new normal.”

The first step, which took place Feb. 15, allows restaurants, gyms and other businesses to operate at 100 per cent capacity with proof-of-vaccination requirements. Limits on all outdoor gatherings, as well as indoor events with vaccinated attendees, and self-isolation for close contacts of positive cases were removed.

The next change will permit proof-of-vaccination mandates in public venues to be lifted as of March 1. Finally, on March 15, mask requirements and all remaining orders are slated to disappear.

Drayton called the move to lift all restrictions premature and “confusing for Manitobans.”

Doctors were quick to critique the province’s plan after it was made public, saying the sweeping changes are tied to dates that do not correlate to health-care capacity.

“There’s nothing magical about March 15,” said Dr. Philippe Lagacé-Wiens, a University of Manitoba professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases expert, in an interview with the Free Press earlier this month.

It remains unclear whether any mandates or restrictions will remain intact in classrooms.

“Measures will follow the advice of public health and we expect updated information shortly,” a provincial spokesperson wrote in an email Wednesday.

Drayton said Keep Manitoba Safe, which has been organizing via @KeepMBSafe on Twitter and Instagram, has connected with MB Students for COVID Safety — a group with a similar purpose.

The latter campaign organized student walkouts across the province in protest of the limited COVID-19 measures that were in classrooms upon the return of in-person learning after the winter break amid the Omicron wave. More recently, organizers planned protests outside MLA offices last week in opposition to the province loosening restrictions in schools.

“I feel in the middle ground, between safe and unsafe (at school),” said Drayton, who wears a KN95 mask in class, but noted many of his peers do not have access to them and could not obtain them for free at liquor stores because they are underage.

“We’re past the peak of the Omicron wave but it’s still unnerving, knowing there could still be a case of COVID-19 showing up in my classroom or in the lunchroom where I eat.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie