There is a report on the media that a passenger boarding one of the boats of BC Ferries leaving the mainlands for the islands have been prevented from taking the ride because she did not wear a mask. The passenger apparently had a medical exemption in a letter from a doctor.
This issue has been a matter of concern for me, although I do not personally know the passenger involved.
Subsequently, it has come to my notice that the passenger in question has been banned indefinitely from BC Ferries. I understand she lives in Vancouver Island, and that using BC Ferries is about the only economical means she has to travel to the rest of Canada due to the near monopoly BC Ferries has on public transport linking the western islands to the mainland.
I am keenly aware of the fact that Canada has not conducted any in-house, independent, transparent and verifiable assessment of the threat posed by sars-cov2 virus and the reported disease named covid19 that this virus is claimed to cause. I am aware that Canada has not conducted any assessment of the claim that this viral infection and resultant disease is so serious and rapidly spreading as to be declared a pandemic. I am also aware that Canada has not independently verified usefulness of any of the restrictions imposed on society, from from lockdowns of many small businesses declared “non essential”, or socially distancing and prevention of human to human hugging or contact, to wearing of masks or placing people in effective house arrest for travelling.
I am further aware that these restrictions are severely damaging Canadian economy, wealth, psychology and social fabric, and subjecting the people to an awful grip of terror of an invisible virus, that, to the best of my observation, kills no more than whatever average annual deaths have been in the past. In effect, the Canadian society, its wealth and sovereignty of the people are being put to the sword, based on nothing more than third party hearsay.
My own effort to get the Canadian parliament to demand an in-house and transparent investigation of the covid situation and to verify if restrictive measures imposed on the public are necessary or effective, have failed due to non-support from each and every member of parliament, all of who seems to find some excuse such as they are too busy with their own constituents or that they cannot address my petition since they are cabinet ministers and are not allowed to respond to such requests even from their own constituents. I believe I have cause to suspect foul play amounting to possible treason in destroying Canada for ulterior motives that are not clear enough other than the fact that ordinary folks are to get poorer and very rich persons to get even more richer.
Question is – should BC Ferries be allowed to impose mandatory masks even when masks have not been made mandatory by law and when there is no proof anywhere that masks prevent passage of viruses, not to mention if it is at all medically safe to prevent movement of virus and other micro-organisms that our bodies are full of and whose actual function in us is still not well enough understood by current level of science.
To me, these are important enough issues that greatly disturb me since the implications are national and can be catastrophic to the well being and future of a nation.
Thus, I did send off a hurried email to BNC Ferries, which I am reposting here, after correcting some typo.
Mask or no mask on BC Ferries?
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To: BC Ferries Group Travel service
group.travel@bcferries.com
Dated: Friday, November 6, 2020
Hello BC Ferries,
I am a private citizen of Canada that have been planning group travels in western Canada that originally involved some travel on BC Ferries. However, a recent development prompts me to seek clarification from you regarding possible changes in your policy about masks and medical exemptions.
I have seen news that a passenger recently was escorted off one of your Ferries for not wearing a mask although she had a letter from a doctor exempting her from having to wear it.Further, I am now hearing that the passenger, who I do not at all know personally, has been banned by BC Ferries for one year.
My two questions to you regarding BC Ferries internal policies are:
1) if BC Ferries will reject passengers without a mask, irrespective of medical exemption
2) if BC Ferries has actually banned a mask-declining passenger for one year.
I did call the customer service just now asking about the above two, and was told that it is true the passenger was escorted off the ferry, but regarding banning for a period of time, the customer service said they cannot tell me the answer due to privacy issues, and that I should check with Delta Police. I do not know how Delta Police can provide an authentic information on policy decisions taken by BC Ferries, although I intend to check with Delta Police on this.
I hope BC Ferries is not trying tap dance around this hot potato.
Appreciate if you will answer me directly, or connect me with the right person within BC Ferries administrative body that can provide an official answer, or help me connect with the passenger in question so I can get better information from the passenger directly.
Our decision to use your services in future depends on clarifications on these issues, preferably without any obfuscation and ambiguity.
Lastly, I request you to provide me with the contact details of your CEO so he or she can directly be contacted for official response on this important matter.
For your information, I consider this subject and this correspondence to be of public interest, since BC Ferries, to my understanding, is involved with pulblic service providing a near monopolistic transport service in connecting the mainland with the west coast islands of Canada.
Therefore, correspondence such as this one from me, and details of any response received, or not received from your office, may be shared with the public. I am not looking for any secret correspondence.
Thanking you
Tony Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada, 604-6497535Tony.mitra@gmail.com