Shelburne protesters continue to rally against vaccine mandates

August 4, 2022 · 0 Comments

Written By James Matthews

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Shelburne truck driver Jeremy Glass believes what he calls medical coercion should have no place in Canada.

Put simply, he said people should be given a choice whether to get an increasing number of vaccinations against COVID-19.

Glass was part of a July 30 protest in front of Shelburne’s town hall. It was just the latest of a series of demonstrations.

Gaggles of people with Canadian flags and slogan-scribbled signs gathered on either side of the town’s main thoroughfare. Music blared from speakers and was counterpointed by shouts of “Freedom” bellowed at passing motorists.

Barbecues set up nearby filled the air with aromas of summer fare that was carried on the breeze.

Glass, one of the protest organizers, said he was among the truckers in the Freedom Convoy that besieged Ottawa last winter.

“I let them take my rights,” he said. “I stayed until they arrested me. They took me outside of town in the paddy wagon with a bunch of other people and dropped us off like dirty raccoons.”

He said he didn’t face criminal charges for taking part in the civil unrest.

“I decided when I came back that I was going to stand out here every Saturday,” said Glass.

That was 14 rallies ago, and it started with a handful of family and friends he talked into joining him. People he’d met and spoke with at past protests have joined the throng.

“I just keeps getting bigger,” Glass said.

He acknowledged that many of the protesters have been vaccinated. Their main gripe is not having a choice about being vaccinated against the coronavirus. Further, they have a problem with employment in some professions being contingent upon vaccination status.

And he maintains pharmaceutical companies and governments are withholding information from the masses. Glass cited strokes, Bell Palsy, and neurological ailments as being examples of what he calls vaccination injuries.

“Everybody is going to want to draw their line in the sand sometime,” he said. “Maybe you have your three or your four boosters. Maybe you’re going to draw your line at six [boosters].”

According to Glass, as many as 840,000 Canadians have lost their jobs because of vaccination mandates.

“There’s millions of Canadians that got the shot (while) not wanting to,” he said. “It is medical coercion and it isn’t informed consent. People have a right to know the side effects.”