The New Westminster Times – BC Covid Mandates Spark Class Action Litigation

You might have heard last week that the B.C. government, four years after the start of COVID-19, declared an end to its public health emergency and vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. Your reaction to the news, depending on your perspective, might have ranged from, “Good, it’s outrageous how long that took,” to, “What a reckless decision, I can’t believe they’re putting our health at risk like that.” Or maybe it was a shrug. COVID? Is that still a thing?

Last Friday’s announcement by B.C.’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, and Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, seems to bookend one of the most divisive periods in B.C.’s history, as seen by the range of public reaction to it. But is it really over? The division, that is.

You might think that a social calamity like COVID-19 would not create such bitter division. Natural disasters, wars, and plagues are times when leaders typically unite their people to confront a great challenge or defeat a common enemy. It seemed like this would be the case early on in B.C. too, as people celebrated frontline workers from the safety of their balconies and porches, and respectfully obeyed social and economic restrictions imposed by the government.

As time wore on, however, it would become apparent that the seeds of this division were sown by the B.C. government’s own response to COVID-19. Two-week lockdowns to “flatten the curve” that stretched on for months; six-feet “social distancing”, isolation and family/friend “bubbles”; arbitrary distinctions between “essential and non-essential” work; travel zones and restrictions within the province, small and independent business closures while big box stores remained full of shoppers; masks don’t help, then masks actually save lives and must be worn everywhere; early effective treatments for COVID-19 must be discouraged; we must get used to the “new normal”; we’re all excited and can’t wait for the vaccines so we can return to normal, and so on.

The rapid battery of COVID-19 policies implemented by the B.C. government was accompanied by a steady barrage of media that seemed to heighten the fear and anxiety of the public. Daily “case counts”, dire statistical modelling projections, stories of hospitals and the public healthcare system potentially being overrun, as well as the murky origins of the virus and uncertain prospects for those afflicted with the new disease had a profound impact on the minds of many British Columbians.

The psychological effect of all this became so overwhelming for some that it led to a powerful form of groupthink, or mass formation in the words of Belgian clinical psychologist, Mattias Desmet, as described in his 2022 book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism. Free-floating anxiety and a sense of helplessness in a population lead people to surrender their individuality and seek security and belonging in a larger group guided by an authoritative voice. This voice directs their anxiety to a particular object and provides strategies to deal with it. It also directs the group’s hostility and rage outward to those not within the group’s embrace. No amount of rational discourse from outside the group can dissuade its adherents from their purpose, until the mass formation wanes, releasing individuals to think for themselves.

The soft, dulcet intonations of Dr. Henry to “be kind, be calm, be safe,” and earnest entreaties of Health Minister Dix to “do the right thing” conveyed by passive, if not complicit, news media, provided the authoritative voice for many British Columbians to accept the B.C. government’s prescriptions for COVID-19. Those who questioned the measures delivered daily on live TV, or who had the temerity to seek a second opinion, were swiftly condemned as dangerous threats or “anti-science.” What’s more, they were deserving of societal punishment.

By the time COVID-19 vaccine passports and mandates were introduced in the fall of 2021, it was known that the vaccines did not prevent infection or transmission of the virus. But the public had been primed and assured that these measures were necessary to end the pandemic so we could all return to normal. Minority concerns about medical privacy, bodily autonomy, and informed consent, let alone the efficacy and safety of the new shots, were waived away. If people didn’t comply, they could face the consequences.

Groups like BCPS Employees for Freedom (BCPSEF) and United Health Care Workers of BC (UHCWBC) were founded at this time to stand in defence of the basic values that make us a free and democratic society. Thousands of experienced professionals in B.C.’s public service and healthcare system quit as result of the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, retiring early or seeking employment elsewhere. Thousands more remained and were subjected to forced leave without pay, medical coercion and/or workplace punishment for non-compliance. Those terminated were fired with “just cause” for “misconduct”, denied severance pay, and prevented from receiving Employment Insurance, to send a strong signal to others that resistance was futile. Never before in B.C. have mass terminations been carried out with such prejudice. B.C. labour unions, traditional supporters of the NDP government, abandoned their members to vindictive punishment by public sector employers.

BCPSEF and UHCWBC recognize that accountability and deterrence are required to ensure this never happens again. The mandates were unnecessary, overbroad, arbitrary and grossly disproportionate. No British Columbian deserves to have their employment contract or collective agreement violated with impunity through the unilateral imposition of new terms and conditions absent negotiation or consideration, or to be punished and denied compensation for standing up for their medical privacy and bodily autonomy.

That is why we are supporting class action litigation initiated by our members to hold the B.C. government accountable. We expect the government to delay and fight this action every step of the way, as their total power over employment and workers in B.C. is one they surely intend to use in the future, unless they are stopped. The likelihood that they use this power again, however, depends on their ability to maintain their grip on the public mind and British Columbians’ susceptibility to induced panic, fear, and division.

As Desmet describes it, all mass formations follow trajectories that lead to their collapse. What hastens their demise is the existence of a small group of people who persistently speak the truth, disturbing the hypnotic effect of the voice that induces the masses into groupthink. Eventually, individuals within the group awaken to reckon with what has happened.

BCPSEF and UHCWBC are groups with such a mission. We are B.C. public servants and healthcare workers, both current and former, who care about this province and its people. While there is still significant division on this subject, British Columbians have already shown encouraging signs that they are seeking accountability for what happened during COVID-19. You can hasten this process by supporting our members’ legal action to hold the B.C. government accountable and prevent the anti-worker and anti-democratic excesses of the COVID era from happening again.

Visit bcpsforfreedom.com and unitedtogether.ca for more information and to donate.

Philip Davidson is President of the BCPS Employees for Freedom Society.