Update - 1st March 2022:
As of this morning, Edmonton is the ONLY city in Alberta with a mask mandate.
Yep, that's right, the only one.
Unlike every other city that had already repealed their mandates, or aligned their mandates with the Province, Edmonton chose to be stubborn and cling on to their control for even longer.
There is some good news though.
Originally, Council wanted to keep their mandate in place indefinitely, relying on case numbers and such to determine if it would be safe to repeal at some point in the future.
But they've started to face significant public pressure, and have announced that they'll be debating the mandate again next Monday, including discussing a potential repeal.
The City must listen to the expert medical and scientific advice from the Province and repeal their mask mandate, not substitute their own personal opinions for medical science.
No one is suggesting banning Edmontonians from wearing a mask if they would like to continue doing so, but all of the scientific evidence shows that it's long past time to remove the City's mask mandate.
If you agree, please sign our petition to End Edmonton's Mask Mandate.
Update - 15th February 2022:
Despite the provincial mandate to wear masks ending at the end of this month, Edmonton Council is considering keeping the City's mask mandate in place.
(If you're thinking you've heard this before, it's because it's exactly what Council did when the Province last repealed their mask mandate last year!)
The Province's mask mandate is set to expire on March 1st, and it's time that Edmonton's did too.
Unfortunately, Mayor Sohi doesn't see it that way.
He wants the masks to stay.
But, every other City in the Province is repealing their mandates, leaving Edmonton the odd one out.
Yes, even Calgary voted yesterday (by 13-2, in fact) to repeal their mask mandate on March 1st as well.
Help us send a message to Council.
No one is suggesting banning Edmontonians from wearing a mask if they would like to continue doing so, but it's time to remove the mask mandate.
It's time to move on.
If you agree, please sign our petition to End Edmonton's Mask Mandate.
Update - 30th August 2021:
I literally cannot believe we're discussing this again, but...
Edmonton Council have just voted 9-2 to reinstate a mask mandate for Edmonton again!
The mandate covers not just City facilities, but restaurants, grocery stores, recreation centres, retail, etc - right back where we were in spring, despite now having very high vaccination rates.
Voting yes to reinstating the mask mandate were:
- Don Iveson
- Andrew Knack
- Bev Esslinger
- Aaron Paquette
- Scott McKeen
- Tony Caterina
- Tim Cartmell
- Michael Walters
- Mo Banga
Voting no to reinstating the mask mandate were:
Councillors Ben Henderson and Sarah Hamilton were absent.
*
We warned in spring, that once the restrictions were removed, there was always a risk that the politicians would bring them back.
In spring, we got more than 3,000 signatures to remove the mask mandate.
This time, let's get more than 10,000 signatures to End Edmonton's Mask Mandate.
Update:
You won't believe this.
Despite City experts recommending repealing Edmonton's mask mandate, and despite a majority of Council voting to repeal the mask mandate, one Councillor was able to force the mask mandate to stay in force until at least July 5th, on a technicality!
That's right, Council voted 7-6 to repeal the mask mandate with Councillors Banga, Cartmell, Caterina, Dziadyk, Esslinger, Hamilton, and Nickel voting in favour, and Mayor Iveson and Councillors Henderson, Knack, McKeen, Paquette, and Walters voting against.
But, thanks to a technicality, the mask mandate won't actually be immediately repealed.
That's because, according to Council rules, Council actually has to vote on something three times in order for it to take place and while normally all three votes would happen immediately after each other, anyone councillor can object to holding multiple votes on the same issue on the same day.
Councillor Pacquette did just that, and to be fair he is entitled to do so under the rules, but that means that the final vote on whether to remove the City's mask mandate will now most likely not happen until July 5th - after the removal of the provincial rule.
In short, not only does that mean the mask mandate will continue for at least another five days, but also that the activists who are denying the medical science now have time to lobby one Councillor to change their vote and prevent the repeal of the mandate entirely.
We can't let that happen, so we need to keep up the pressure on our Councillors.
End Edmonton's Mask Mandate
Despite the provincial mandate to wear masks ending at the end of this month, Edmonton Council is considering keeping the City's mask mandate in place.
The City's mask mandate is currently due to expire on December 31st, and Mayor Iveson and several Councillors have expressed opposition to removing the mandate any earlier.
In fact, recently, when the Edmonton City Manager outlined the City's reopening plan for the coming months, it included continued mask usage and physical distancing.
To be clear, the advice being provided by the actual experts in epidemiology and infectious diseases in the provincial health departments is that it is now safe to remove mask requirements in Alberta at the end of June.
Yet, the City's plan explicitly and deliberately ignores this expert medical and scientific advice from the province and substitutes instead, the politicians' own personal opinions.
That is unacceptable.
Governments have massive powers to impinge on citizens' freedoms, but to do so they must be able to provide evidence that any intervention is justified.
That is simply not the case anymore.
The vulnerable have received both doses, most Edmontonians have received a first dose (a higher percentage than the Alberta average, in fact), and cases and hospitalizations have plummeted.
The local state of emergency in Edmonton and the provincial state of emergency in Alberta aren't even in effect anymore!
The simple truth is that there is a certain type of politician and government employee who has enjoyed the additional powers they have had during this pandemic, and they aren't ready to give up that power yet.
No one is suggesting banning Edmontonians from wearing a mask if they would like to continue doing so, but all of the scientific evidence shows that it's time to remove the mask mandate.
If you agree, please sign our petition to End Edmonton's Mask Mandate.
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The health risk to any individual continually wearing a mask is far greater than the ability of the mask preventing the spread of any virus.