“Perfectly sound” crumbles on further inspection. First the protest is time sensitive. Consider all the relaxations that are happening with restrictions not only in Canada but globally. Canada has some of the most strict Covid laws in the world. Next the omicron virus is less dangerous, 90% of Canadians are vaccinated, and we have treatments for Covid patients in hospital. Your reasoning implies we should still be getting one loaf of bread today even though the war has ended.

Look into how long Britain was on rations after WWII...

From Wikipedia article on rationing in UK:

> In the late 1940s, the Conservative Party utilised and encouraged growing public anger at rationing, scarcity, controls, austerity and government bureaucracy to rally middle-class supporters and build a political comeback that won the 1951 general election.

Enemy within vs enemy outside. If it was found that china was behind covid all along, you can bet that all hesitation would evaporate.

The necessity for a lot of these restrictions were because of waste and underfunding of the healthcare system for decades. The significance of these protests will now change the calculus for future budgets and what sort of restrictions the public will accept in the future.

Ironic that the same people protesting those restrictions were by and large the same people who voted for leaders on platforms of reducing budgets by slashing healthcare.

"get vaccinated" is to "one loaf of bread" as "honk for freedom" is to "the bolshevik revolution"

people get war fatigue all the same.

Further an authoritarian regime is perfectly sound as long as they're perfectly behaved. You shouldn't protest against that, agreed?

A lot of countries already have mandatory vaccinations for children since decades, a practice that helped immensely to stop and often eradicate other dangerous diseases, and nobody thought of protesting against them. The difference here is that protests against Covid vaccinations were created and amplified on social media by entities with vested political interests, and painting those measures as authoritarian is also among the techniques used to obtain the above. What's next, removing car license plates because they violate our privacy?

a lot of countries also don't have mandates. in regions where ebola is endemic, the vaccine isn't mandated, though perhaps it should be.

in the USA the flu vaccine is not mandated either, not even in hospitals.

further covid is not apples to apples with measles and smallpox. covid mutates. the vaccines don't achieve herd immunity. those diseases target the young while covid targets the old and infirm.

covid does not affect everyone equally.

zero-tolerance and one-size-fits-all was a mistake.