Skip to content

Letter: Government response to COVID-19 goes too far

Editor: The following is a letter sent to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Dear Mr. Kenny: Thank you for taking the time to read my correspondence. My wife and I feel compelled to communicate our concerns.

Editor: 

The following is a letter sent to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. 

Dear Mr. Kenney:

Thank you for taking the time to read my correspondence. My wife and I feel compelled to communicate our concerns. I have no doubt these days the burden of office weighs heavy on your conscience. I am writing you to register our grave concern for our civil liberties and hope you would consider what we have to say.

We are confronted today with a great moral issue; whether we are going to stand and fight to risk illness while carrying on the business of mankind or shirk away like scared children in the dark.

Right now there is a clear and present danger, that demands for public safety will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its scope to the very limits of official control and curtailment of our liberties. This keeps me awake at night.

When our grandparents and great grandparents went to war in Europe they were fully aware they may never return, but went and risked their lives to save a way of life. Today we risk our very way of life to save the lives of those same members of society. I see little value in trying to save the lives of this segment of our nation if it destroys the productive energies, the traditions, and the very way of life they fought to preserve.

Analysis of the data from the Italian outbreak shows the following: 80 per cent of the deceased suffered from two or more chronic diseases. Less than one per cent of the deceased were otherwise healthy persons without pre-existing chronic diseases, according to information from Italian officials .

This points to a one in 10,000 mortality ratio in otherwise healthy persons. The two Italians under 40 years of age that passed away were a cancer patient and a diabetes patient with additional complications. Also worth considering is the fact that northern Italy has one of the oldest populations and worst air quality in Europe.

It is is our analysis that the media frenzy and governmental response to this event is completely disproportionate to the challenge posed by this virus. We call upon you to lift the Alberta public health emergency. Please let the business of mankind commence and trust that reason and common sense will prevail in the mitigation of this illness.

Additionally, it is our informed opinion that later generations will look at this event and judge the media hysteria and over reaching government response as a great error. The cost monetarily and socially, the threats to our constitutional democracy, and the precedents set are unique, long in their duration and maybe unrecoverable if we do not act quickly.

"A wise man once said a error doesn't become a mistake until you fail to correct it," John F. Kennedy.

Dean Balkenstein and Tiffany Teske,
Canmore

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks