CBC has taken it upon themselves to promote the coming Calgary Pride festival while simultaneously scaring Albertans over increasing COVID-19 cases.
Every day, CBC posts an article entitled “Everything you need to know about COVID-19 in Alberta on [insert date here]”, followed by dozens of complimentary articles highlighting the grave nature of COVID-19.
Shoehorned into these complimentary articles will often be a call from this or that politician on how Alberta must, absolutely must, do better and implement a vaccine passport with Godspeed or face imminent collapse.
A simple google search of “hospitals overburdened Alberta” will return thousands of articles, many from the CBC, about how the healthcare system is going to crash any day now — despite these articles having been published consistently for close to two years and no such crash occurring.
These articles usually target the unvaccinated as knowing or unknowing culprits of this genocide in the making. But what about the CBC itself?
It is evident that the CBC takes its duty to inform the vulnerable public about their impending doom for not following government restrictions very, very seriously. So, it is quite perplexing that the CBC would promote a Pride Festival right before the deadly “fourth wave” of COVID-19 hits us, without a single condemnation of the organizers of this event, who — based on the CBC’s opinion regarding COVID’s deadliness — may very well kill thousands of people. Weird.
While the article does mention some modest safety precautions taken by the organizers and city towards the bottom, it is mainly one giant advertisement of everything people can experience while risking their lives in the open air. They even take time to point out relevant historical factoids, harkening back to a tradition that one must celebrate each year in perpetuity.
As well as hosting the Pride parade, the city will be allowing many non-essential businesses to operate at full capacity — beyond full capacity, actually, since it is a parade after all — and has commissioned the erection of several huge murals and installations across the city. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether the creators of said art pieces were fully masked for the duration of their efforts.
According to Whitney Issik, Associate Minister of Status of Women, “The Calgary Pride Festival is about honouring the courageous 2SLGBTQIA+ Calgarians and their allies who have fought for rights and freedoms so we can celebrate in a province where all are free to be themselves and love who they choose.
“The festival is a symbol of that freedom and, most importantly, it is a symbol of resiliency. Since the late 1980s, Calgary Pride has advocated for and celebrated the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Throughout the years, they have kept the community connected and supported.
“Freedom is a principle that guides all of us in our Alberta identity and it is what makes our province a safe place for all to live and love freely.”
So far, the CBC has yet to call any experts to comment on the dangers of crowds. Indeed, it is beginning to look like their overly charitable approach will mirror what they allotted Black Lives Matter protesters last year.
Either way, the treatment that the CBC gives different situations during COVD-19 is clear: if it is a small business owner trying to feed their family, they are to receive abysmal coverage — indifferent coverage at best; and if it is a literal citywide protest or parade for a political cause, well, then, we really cannot be confident how bad it is going to be until after the event.
