Mandatory vs Voluntary, Force vs Choice

A version of this article first appeared in our free newsletter, to subscribe click here.

Considering the situation in Canada now, this article from only a few weeks ago looks prophetic. This is not a good thing.

There is something we need to talk about.

There are moves in several countries, Canada included, to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory. In Canada, as in many other parts of the world, the civil rights of people who choose not to be vaccinated have already been limited and/or partially suspended.

I think it is important to examine what mandating vaccinations actually means.

When a government mandates something it is not voluntary. When a government makes something non voluntary the government will enforce compliance or else the mandate is meaningless. Enforcement of compliance will mean fines or punitive financial and social penalties for the non compliant. If you refuse to pay the fines you will be taken to court and if you fail to abide by an order of the court you will end up serving a custodial sentence. If you choose to assert your rights and resist the imposition of the order of the court, violence up to the point of fatal violence may be used against you.

When a government mandates anything they bring a gun into the room. The government inroduces the threat of violence and actual violence into the conversation. Most of the time this is fine as we all agree on societal mandates – we have mandatory speed limits, mandatory airworthiness regulations. Many things are mandated for the common good. In each of these cases the government ultimately wields the right to a monopoly of ‘legal’ violence against the non compliant.

We also have human rights that are granted for the common good. These ‘guarantee’ the liberty (within limits) of the individual and act as a check on the power of governments.

Has there ever been a society where the government has exercised excessive power over its citizens that has not resulted in despotic oppression? If you can think of one please let me know.

So what are the COVID-19 vaccines? First of all they are not an inoculation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation) none of the COVID 19 vaccines prevent recipients from contracting or spreading the disease.

COVID-19 vaccines do not grant life long protection, they do not grant medium term protection. They offer some protection in the short term (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02183-8/fulltext).

The vaccines prevent some of the worst effects of COVID-19 for those most at risk for a limited time, possibly 6-9 months.

The COVID 19 vaccines perform the same function as a seasonal flu shot. They offer a temporary boost to save lives, especially for the most vulnerable people. For people without comorbidities vaccines do not create a significantly reduced risk of death as the risk of death is already very low.

To be clear: I think the vaccines are good and they have likely saved many lives. I think everyone who wants one should be able to get one and as many boosters as they want without charge. I am happy for the government to fund this with my tax money.

Let’s be clear on another aspect: The vaccines are also a high profit enterprise which benefits the owners and shareholders of private corporations.

(Side note: We have been in discussions with some of the world’s leading experts on open source for a new aircraft program. In those discussions we have covered the subject of the COVID-19 vaccines. There is concern the vaccines have not been made open source and that they are being exploited for profit, especially, as the development was largely paid for with public money – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-billion-dollar-covid-vaccines-basic-government-funded-science-laid-the-groundwork/. The government has taken your money given it to private corporations to develop a product, allowed them to keep the rights and profits for that product, absolved them of all liability and now want to make it mandatory that we all take the for profit, experimental, liability free, non-inoculation, temporary, partial therapeutic – paid for with your money again)

And, sadly, vaccinated people present as great a risk to anyone as unvaccinated people do. The vaccine does not stop the spread or even reduce the risk of contracting the virus to any significant degree – at least not to the degree necessary to stop the astonishingly swift spread of new variants. The vaccines have not contributed to herd immunity to any measurable extent. You may think vaccines help reduce the spread. They do not and the data is absolutely unequivocal on this.

Legal Position

The legal position on your rights are crystal clear

Informed Consent (Article 21 on Health)

1. Informed consent is an aspect of the right to health

 CESCR General Comment No. 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health (art. 12 ICESCR) states: 

8.  …  The right to health contains both freedoms and entitlements.  The freedoms include the right to control one’s health and body, including sexual and reproductive freedom, and the right to be free from interference, such as the right to be free from torture, non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation.  

 Thus, health is not a public good to be pursued independent of the will of each individual, but requires respect for the will of the individual person with respect to his or her own well-being.   This is reinforced by the requirement that health services be culturally acceptable to individuals and communities; see paragraph 12(c) of the General Comment.  

Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

Article 6 – Consent

1. Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice.

The legal position on internationally agreed human rights is very clear. We all have the right to choose the medical treatment that we allow for ourselves, we have the right to refuse any treatment and we have the right to stop any treatment at any time for any reason. These international human rights are ratified by almost every country and are repeated in almost all national laws.

Note that non-consensual medical treatment is treated the same as torture and experimentation. This is the level of abhorrence inferred by our mutually agreed international legal code on mandatory medical treatments.

Summary

I am a supporter of human rights and voluntary, non-coercive relationships in society. I try to lead by example by making freely available as much of my private work as possible. If you use our spreadsheets or our textbook you are a part of that relationship and that community. These activities are entirely by choice, it is without cost to the user and brings everybody involved a measure of benefit. If it does not bring you benefit then you can choose not to use the material available.

The government is threatening punitive measures up to and including lethal force if a citizen chooses to assert their human rights not to take a for-profit experimental medicine. 

We have to speak with clarity so there can be no misunderstanding. 

Even if the vaccination was fully approved and an effective inoculation this proposal is illegal. Any mandates for the vaccines violates our human rights and creates profits for large corporations. These are a fascist policies devised by fascists and supported by fascists.

If you support mandatory COVID vaccinations you are diametrically opposed to the philosophy and spirit of what I do. After examination of the full range of scientific and legal literature, if you still support mandatory COVID vaccination, you are anti human rights and you are a fascist.

If you are a fascist I ask you to unsubscribe from this newsletter immediately and stop using the materials available on our website. I cannot stop you using the free materials from our website or force you to unsubscribe – that is not how we operate, but if you do continue to subscribe to the newsletter or use our materials, every time you use our free tools, read our free textbook or receive the newsletter you can do it with a sense of personal shame.

If you know me personally or professionally and my expression of my position on this issue makes you uncomfortable or embarrassed, good. If you lack moral clarity regarding this issue or if you are not aware of internationally accepted standards for bioethics or universal human rights you have some research and some serious thinking to do.

At some point you have to draw a line in the sand and you have to pick a side. I have made it clear where my line is and I have picked a side.

Your turn.

2 responses to “Mandatory vs Voluntary, Force vs Choice”

  1. EXCELLENT! You have raised the bar for all Canadians – and should receive acclaim internationally for dispelling the perception all Canadians are pushovers. [I guess you have – I’m in the USA…]
    I enjoy the work you have done – now all the more! We are going there together.

    • I am primarily British – the culture is different. Much more non conformist. There are great Canadians but there are too many willing to go along to get along.
      Thanks for the message – we will keep on trucking!

Comment On This Post

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Mandatory vs Voluntary, Force vs Choice

A version of this article first appeared in our free newsletter, to subscribe click here.

Considering the situation in Canada now, this article from only a few weeks ago looks prophetic. This is not a good thing.

There is something we need to talk about.

There are moves in several countries, Canada included, to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory. In Canada, as in many other parts of the world, the civil rights of people who choose not to be vaccinated have already been limited and/or partially suspended.

I think it is important to examine what mandating vaccinations actually means.

When a government mandates something it is not voluntary. When a government makes something non voluntary the government will enforce compliance or else the mandate is meaningless. Enforcement of compliance will mean fines or punitive financial and social penalties for the non compliant. If you refuse to pay the fines you will be taken to court and if you fail to abide by an order of the court you will end up serving a custodial sentence. If you choose to assert your rights and resist the imposition of the order of the court, violence up to the point of fatal violence may be used against you.

When a government mandates anything they bring a gun into the room. The government inroduces the threat of violence and actual violence into the conversation. Most of the time this is fine as we all agree on societal mandates – we have mandatory speed limits, mandatory airworthiness regulations. Many things are mandated for the common good. In each of these cases the government ultimately wields the right to a monopoly of ‘legal’ violence against the non compliant.

We also have human rights that are granted for the common good. These ‘guarantee’ the liberty (within limits) of the individual and act as a check on the power of governments.

Has there ever been a society where the government has exercised excessive power over its citizens that has not resulted in despotic oppression? If you can think of one please let me know.

So what are the COVID-19 vaccines? First of all they are not an inoculation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inoculation) none of the COVID 19 vaccines prevent recipients from contracting or spreading the disease.

COVID-19 vaccines do not grant life long protection, they do not grant medium term protection. They offer some protection in the short term (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02183-8/fulltext).

The vaccines prevent some of the worst effects of COVID-19 for those most at risk for a limited time, possibly 6-9 months.

The COVID 19 vaccines perform the same function as a seasonal flu shot. They offer a temporary boost to save lives, especially for the most vulnerable people. For people without comorbidities vaccines do not create a significantly reduced risk of death as the risk of death is already very low.

To be clear: I think the vaccines are good and they have likely saved many lives. I think everyone who wants one should be able to get one and as many boosters as they want without charge. I am happy for the government to fund this with my tax money.

Let’s be clear on another aspect: The vaccines are also a high profit enterprise which benefits the owners and shareholders of private corporations.

(Side note: We have been in discussions with some of the world’s leading experts on open source for a new aircraft program. In those discussions we have covered the subject of the COVID-19 vaccines. There is concern the vaccines have not been made open source and that they are being exploited for profit, especially, as the development was largely paid for with public money – https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/for-billion-dollar-covid-vaccines-basic-government-funded-science-laid-the-groundwork/. The government has taken your money given it to private corporations to develop a product, allowed them to keep the rights and profits for that product, absolved them of all liability and now want to make it mandatory that we all take the for profit, experimental, liability free, non-inoculation, temporary, partial therapeutic – paid for with your money again)

And, sadly, vaccinated people present as great a risk to anyone as unvaccinated people do. The vaccine does not stop the spread or even reduce the risk of contracting the virus to any significant degree – at least not to the degree necessary to stop the astonishingly swift spread of new variants. The vaccines have not contributed to herd immunity to any measurable extent. You may think vaccines help reduce the spread. They do not and the data is absolutely unequivocal on this.

Legal Position

The legal position on your rights are crystal clear

Informed Consent (Article 21 on Health)

1. Informed consent is an aspect of the right to health

 CESCR General Comment No. 14: The right to the highest attainable standard of health (art. 12 ICESCR) states: 

8.  …  The right to health contains both freedoms and entitlements.  The freedoms include the right to control one’s health and body, including sexual and reproductive freedom, and the right to be free from interference, such as the right to be free from torture, non-consensual medical treatment and experimentation.  

 Thus, health is not a public good to be pursued independent of the will of each individual, but requires respect for the will of the individual person with respect to his or her own well-being.   This is reinforced by the requirement that health services be culturally acceptable to individuals and communities; see paragraph 12(c) of the General Comment.  

Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights

Article 6 – Consent

1. Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice.

The legal position on internationally agreed human rights is very clear. We all have the right to choose the medical treatment that we allow for ourselves, we have the right to refuse any treatment and we have the right to stop any treatment at any time for any reason. These international human rights are ratified by almost every country and are repeated in almost all national laws.

Note that non-consensual medical treatment is treated the same as torture and experimentation. This is the level of abhorrence inferred by our mutually agreed international legal code on mandatory medical treatments.

Summary

I am a supporter of human rights and voluntary, non-coercive relationships in society. I try to lead by example by making freely available as much of my private work as possible. If you use our spreadsheets or our textbook you are a part of that relationship and that community. These activities are entirely by choice, it is without cost to the user and brings everybody involved a measure of benefit. If it does not bring you benefit then you can choose not to use the material available.

The government is threatening punitive measures up to and including lethal force if a citizen chooses to assert their human rights not to take a for-profit experimental medicine. 

We have to speak with clarity so there can be no misunderstanding. 

Even if the vaccination was fully approved and an effective inoculation this proposal is illegal. Any mandates for the vaccines violates our human rights and creates profits for large corporations. These are a fascist policies devised by fascists and supported by fascists.

If you support mandatory COVID vaccinations you are diametrically opposed to the philosophy and spirit of what I do. After examination of the full range of scientific and legal literature, if you still support mandatory COVID vaccination, you are anti human rights and you are a fascist.

If you are a fascist I ask you to unsubscribe from this newsletter immediately and stop using the materials available on our website. I cannot stop you using the free materials from our website or force you to unsubscribe – that is not how we operate, but if you do continue to subscribe to the newsletter or use our materials, every time you use our free tools, read our free textbook or receive the newsletter you can do it with a sense of personal shame.

If you know me personally or professionally and my expression of my position on this issue makes you uncomfortable or embarrassed, good. If you lack moral clarity regarding this issue or if you are not aware of internationally accepted standards for bioethics or universal human rights you have some research and some serious thinking to do.

At some point you have to draw a line in the sand and you have to pick a side. I have made it clear where my line is and I have picked a side.

Your turn.

2 responses to “Mandatory vs Voluntary, Force vs Choice”

  1. EXCELLENT! You have raised the bar for all Canadians – and should receive acclaim internationally for dispelling the perception all Canadians are pushovers. [I guess you have – I’m in the USA…]
    I enjoy the work you have done – now all the more! We are going there together.

    • I am primarily British – the culture is different. Much more non conformist. There are great Canadians but there are too many willing to go along to get along.
      Thanks for the message – we will keep on trucking!

Comment On This Post

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *