By Brian Taylor

Dear fellow Canadians, please consider my story and see if you find anything of value. We live in a time when we have a great opportunity. An opportunity to show who we are and what we are made of as citizens of this country. Are we going to allow fear, and hatred, and discrimination to rule us? Or will we rise above it to live out the beliefs that we claim to possess?

We have been taught in our public schools that we as white people, took children from the homes of native Indians and put them in residential schools. Besides being taken from their parents and culture, many of them were treated very poorly or abused in these schools. Why did we do this? Were we afraid of them? Did we not care about or understand them and their culture? Did we think we were doing it for their own good? Many years later are we proud of these things? Or rather do we not consider that as a shameful black mark on our society? Ashamed that a modern, God fearing, advanced people would be willing to do such a thing?

Canadians often boast about being a multi-cultural society and our Charter Of Rights And Freedoms upholds the freedom of conscience and religion as well as the supremacy of God. Do you think it’s wise to educate ourselves before we pass judgment on someone? Have you ever made a quick judgment based on just what you see, only to find out you were wrong? Do you think that if we had tried to love and understand the native people, things might be better for us all today? All these questions have obvious answers.

Please now let me put this in the perspective of the current struggle we find ourselves in. There is a relatively small group of people living right among us, whose consciences and beliefs are not the same as the larger group. They are not trying to be difficult. They are not trying to hurt you. They are those that have chosen not to be vaccinated. From the very early days of the pandemic they tried to listen and discern very carefully if the things they were hearing from the government and the media matched the things they saw in real life and what they knew from experience and common sense. They also took the time to study and learn more about masks, lockdowns, and the effects of isolation on humans, especially on children. Lastly, to learn about what a true vaccine is, what it should do, and if the definition of a vaccine has changed lately?

All the answers they found led them to take the steps they did and to resist the things they were hearing from the government and the media. It just didn’t add up to them. Once again, these people do not hate you and are not trying to hurt you. They are just regular folks who see things differently. Might it be worthwhile to try and understand them before passing judgment? Might it be worth taking the time to check out the research and evidence they have of the other side of the story? Is it possible that there might be something to gain from educating ourselves further about these things? If you want to buy a car, do you only listen to the salesman who stands to make a profit off the sale? Or do you like to have an unbiased opinion before you spend your money? Would it be worth taking the time to visit a few of these people to see if they are in fact the racist, misogynists that our prime minister has called them? To try and understand them and where they are coming from and how they feel?

Now please allow me to take this letter one step further. To make it more personal and reveal something about myself. Last September, my only brother was returning from a fishing tournament near Regina. He had done well in the tournament and had won the “Angler of the year” award. My brother has a beautiful wife and four children who were so proud of him. In the middle of the night on his way home, pulling his fishing boat, an oncoming vehicle is believed to have crossed the line and caused a head on crash. Everyone was killed. My brother, his fishing partner and the other driver, all dead. I got the phone call early Sunday morning from my mother whose voice was convulsing with tears and agony to tell me that my brother was dead. It’s been very hard to understand and make sense of these events but it has caused us all to lean in closer to God.

As I write this it has been four months since the accident. We have all been affected greatly and in different ways. One of the things that has happened to me is my thoughts while I am driving have become fearful. For awhile, every time I met a vehicle on the highway I would cringe and worry that the driver may be distracted by a cell phone, falling asleep, or intoxicated and cross the line to kill my family and I. Every vehicle I met would cause these fearful thoughts to go through my mind. The other drivers on the road were out of my control and thus a danger to me. Slowly I realized that I can’t live that way. I like to go places, I like to drive my race car, I like to take my family on vacation, I like to drive to church. If I let those fears rule over me I would simply have to stay home forever to avoid the risk of being in a car wreck.

This brings me to my conclusion about what risks do we as a free people have to be willing to take in order to live and enjoy our lives? Are we content with just staying alive? Or do we want more than that? Is it worth wearing a mask and putting masks on our children’s beautiful faces against the odds that they may contract a virus that has been proven to be no danger to them? Is it worth the risk to our conscience and integrity to teach our children and ourselves that they shouldn’t be around those that have chosen not to get vaccinated? That those people are less than us? Does it help us feel better if we label them as anti-vaxxers when we talk negatively about them?

What does God say about all of this? How we treat each other? How we treat our neighbour? Friends, we can’t live this way. What will you do with your fear?

Respectfully,
Brian Taylor