‘Vaxxed or not vaxxed you are all welcome’: Hundreds of Ontario businesses defy vaccine passport rules
I just about lost my fucking mind reading this. Can we please bugger off with this “education-first approach” shit? These assholes don’t need education. They know exactly what they’re doing. And at this point, who in the actual hell is left to educate? Unless you’ve just returned from Mars or recently awoke from a years long coma, you should know the deal by now. But since we insist on continuing on with this moron mollycoddling charade as if one day it’s just going to magically fucking work, let me take care of it right now.
Here is all you really need to know as a business owner. Not doing your part to work within the system that’s trying to get us through an extremely deadly pandemic without 100% tanking the entire economy isn’t you bravely taking a stand or making a statement about freedom and privacy, it’s you being a fucking dick and prolonging our collective misery. That misery includes yours, in case the words “our collective” don’t make that obvious enough. In fact, it especially includes yours. If we all get locked down again because some idiots don’t think the rules apply to them, I’ll be fine. You won’t. And I don’t want to hear a word out of any of you about it, because we all know who’s to blame.
I know they’ll never do it because it requires the sort of backbone that simply doesn’t exist in politics, but god do I ever wish that the relevant authorities would sit down and go through that BAD directory place by place and fine everybody so hard that we could balance the budget without cutting a single service.
Hundreds of businesses have united in opposition to Ontario’s new vaccine passport rules, openly refusing to check customers’ vaccine receipts despite the threat of penalties from public health officials.
Propelled by a mixture of vaccine skepticism, business decisions and fear of government overreach, these proprietors — ranging from burger joints in Toronto to a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class in Thornhill — have formed an extensive and well-documented network of restaurants, gyms, cafes and more where clientele can enter regardless of jab status.
And while Ontario municipalities have already received hundreds of complaints regarding businesses’ enforcement of the new policy since it went into effect last Wednesday, the province says it’s taking an “education-first” approach that encourages businesses to change their policies before issuing fines.
In a Facebook group called “Ontario Businesses Against Health Pass,” which boasts more than 139,000 members, small business owners and entrepreneurs across the province have been promoting their products and decrying the Reopening Ontario Act.
“At King Jiu Jitsu, we do NOT discriminate,” wrote Gregg King, operator of a martial arts class in Thornhill, in the Facebook group. “Vaxxed or not vaxxed you are all welcome to train in a safe and friendly environment … No BS. No politics. No Drama!”
The posts receive scores of supportive messages from like-minded people. The businesses are added to an online directory, called Ontario BAD (Businesses Against Discrimination), where they can advertise their work and submit job postings to fill vacancies.
As of Tuesday, Ontario BAD listed 677 businesses across the province.
It’s simple in my opinion fine all those businesses that break the rules and be done with it.
I know you can’t catch everyone, but that’s not an excuse not to try, which is what it feels like they’re doing.