Being “kind and respectful of individual choice” sounds like a good idea.

On September 14, 2021, Cochrane Now reported that The Town of Cochrane had no immediate plans to make vaccination mandatory for town staff. The Town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Mike Derricott, told Cochrane Now that the staff were required to anonymously disclose their vaccination status and that the data collection underway would be used to “evaluate and make the best decisions possible”.  Apparently, the survey asked questions to determine how many were vaccinated, how many would get vaccinated, how many would consider being vaccinated, or how many did not intend to be vaccinated. Even though anonymous, the survey still impinged on peoples’ personal right not to divulge their private medical information. Unfortunately, Cochrane Now did not follow-up with its investigative reporting to determine the outcome of that process.

I happened to discover the outcome of that process through checking on the Town’s job postings reported at the Town’s Human Resources page at the Town’s website. My interest in doing so was prompted by my observation (as reported in my December 7, 2021 blog post, “Thoughts With Respect to the 2022-2024 Town of Cochrane Budget”) that from “reviewing the draft budget presented to Council…my overall impression was that the primary objective of the budget was to increase the size of the Town’s bureaucracy”. I was curious as to how that staff increase would unfold over time. Upon reviewing some of the job postings from earlier in the year, I discovered to my disappointment that those job postings concluded with the following paragraph:
“The Town of Cochrane adheres to guidelines set by the Province of Alberta in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Interview logistics and working arrangements for successful candidates may evolve throughout the recruitment process. As of September 27, 2021, the Town of Cochrane requires proof of vaccination or negative testing for candidates and employees. More details will be provided to shortlisted and successful candidates.”

Noteworthy the statement that, “As of September 27, 2021, the Town of Cochrane requires proof of vaccination or negative testing for candidates and employees”!  And the very same statement was posted at the Town’s Human Resources page at the Town’s website. Clearly, based on the survey of the staffs’ vaccination status, the Town’s CAO Mike Derricott had decided to impose such a ‘vaccine’ mandate to be employed by the Town. Again, it is unfortunate that Cochrane Now did not follow-up with its investigative reporting such that this policy introduced by the Town’s CAO on September 27, 2021, would have become public knowledge.

Later, in February, the final paragraph in the job postings was modified to:
“The Town of Cochrane adheres to guidelines set by the Province of Alberta in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Interview logistics and working arrangements for successful candidates may evolve throughout the recruitment process. The Town of Cochrane requires proof of vaccination for employees.  More details will be provided to shortlisted and successful candidates”. The statement, “The Town of Cochrane requires proof of vaccination for employees”, still made it clear that current employees as well as new hires were required to show proof of vaccination. By this time, one presumes that this policy had already been applied to existing employees.

In that Cochrane Now article from September 14, 2021, it was reported that “The Town of Cochrane has no immediate plans to make vaccination mandatory for town staff.” As I have mentioned before, there is some ambiguity as to what is meant by “the Town of Cochrane”.  Generally, especially when one is referring to an action taken by the Town, it is presumed to mean the elected officials or Town Council. However, I have come to the impression that the Town Administration and Town CAO see themselves as primarily running the Town. Thus, in this case, the Town’s CAO, Mike Derricott, made the decision to impose a vaccine mandate for Town employees. While the Town’s Mayor, Jeff Genung, likely was aware of this policy as learned from a discussion with him on February 28, 2022, it was not passed by our elected Town Council.

In early February a request to appear before Town Council on this matter, as a delegation, was denied by the CAO. This reminds me of my struggle to appear as a delegation before Town Council with respect to the Covid restrictions, in which case were it up to the unelected Administration and CAO acting as gatekeepers, I would not have been able to appear before my elected Council members on June 14, 2021, to make my presentation, “Getting Down to the Facts on COVID-19”.

Frustrated by the time passing and no clear indication as to when the Town was prepared to drop the requirement for new hires to show proof of vaccination, Cochrane resident Deborah Murphy arranged for a meeting with Town Mayor Jeff Genung to discuss the matter on Monday, February 28. Deborah invited me to join her in the meeting with the mayor that took place for about an hour in his office at the Ranche House.

At the start of the meeting, the mayor was informed that we wanted to talk about ‘vaccine’ mandate issues. He was then asked if he was aware that current employees of the Town as well as new hires were required to show proof of vaccination, to which he replied that he was. (Interesting that he was aware and, therefore, seemingly acquiesced to such a policy being introduced by the CAO.) He responded that the statement in the job postings ‘was going to change’, as he had talked to the CAO on the Friday before about it, but, disappointingly, he offered no specific timeframe for such a change. He was told, in response, that a promise that ‘it’s going to change’ was not good enough and that the discriminatory practices needed to come to an end immediately.

When the mayor was asked if the ‘vaccines’, really gene therapy, are ‘safe and effective’, he answered that he did not know. Not knowing if the ‘vaccines’ are safe, and yet the Town opened up the Ranche House as a ‘vaccination’ center, and the mayor promoted the idea that people get vaccinated, as per the video that appeared on his Facebook page on March 17, 2021, celebrating a Cochrane senior, his friend and neighbour, coming out of the Ranche House after receiving the Covid ‘vaccine’.

He was asked if he was familiar with VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System that was established in the U.S. in 1990 to accept reports of adverse events after vaccination. The mayor was handed a chart (below) showing the number of reported yearly deaths due to vaccines over a period of 30 years.

It was pointed out that while the red bar showing deaths reported since the introduction of Covid ‘vaccines’ represented approximately 14,000 deaths around August 2021, the actual number as of February 22, 2022, was approximately 24,000 deaths. As they say, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. There are more reported deaths for this ‘vaccine’ than the accumulated deaths over the previous 30 years. As of February 22, 2022, 23,990 deaths have been reported to VAERS for COVID-19 ‘vaccines’, compared to a total of 8,673 for the preceding 30 years for all other vaccines — more than 83 times the annual average! How can one look at such a chart and conclude that these rushed-out experimental Covid ‘vaccines’ are safe?

When asked if he agrees with the current understanding that the ‘vaccines’ don’t protect you from getting Covid and don’t protect you from spreading it, again he replied that he did not know and was not expected to know as he was not a scientist. Interestingly, the reason given by the mayor in July 2020 for the Town introducing a mask bylaw, before the province did so, was that our neighbours to the east, Calgary, had done so.

The hypocrisy of the Town was pointed out with it saying, on one hand, that it is all about equity & inclusion, and then, on the other hand, discriminating against someone unwilling to share their private medical information. Discriminating based on whether one is willing to divulge one’s private medical information flies in the face of all that virtuous talk of promoting inclusive practices.

It was drawn to the mayor’s attention that the unwarranted and unjustified discriminatory practices introduced by the Town’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), are a violation of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Nuremberg Code. Having noted that there was a photo of the Queen up on the wall in the council chambers, the mayor was handed a copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with a suggestion that the Charter be posted as well on the council chambers wall to declare that this is a Town that faithfully stands on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 7 of the Charter states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof”, where ‘security of person’ is one’s right to bodily autonomy. Brian Peckford, the sole surviving architect of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, has declared that the various Covid restrictions and vaccine mandates are a gross violation of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the highest law of the land, and, accordingly, what the Town was doing with its ‘vaccine’ mandate was illegal. Surprisingly, the mayor was not aware of Brian Peckford, former premier of Newfoundland, the sole surviving architect of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It was suggested that the mayor seek out the many interviews that Mr. Peckford has given on the matter.

The mayor acknowledged that the decision to require proof of vaccination for Town employees was basically the decision of the CAO, Mike Derricott, without input from the elected Town Council.

The mayor was handed a copy of the February 17, 2022, press release issued by Mackenzie County and asked if he was familiar with the position taken by Mackenzie County, to which he answered that he was. It was pointed out that we would love to have our Town Council emulate Mackenzie County Council and “not tolerate mandatory vaccination or other discriminatory requirements”, thereby demonstrating it will uphold our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and not tolerate any violation of such as is the case for the policy introduced by the Town’s CAO, Mike Derricott.

Finally, the mayor was pressed again to provide a clear timetable for removing the proof of vaccination requirement, when he was asked what he was taking away from our presence and the concerns that were expressed. We then heard a satisfactory answer when he said, ‘you want to see the mandated vaccine policy in place for the job postings removed’, and added the key qualifier, ‘immediately’.

With that commitment from the mayor, we then expected that it would be a relatively simple matter of the Town removing the last paragraph in the job postings, namely, “The Town of Cochrane adheres to guidelines set by the Province of Alberta in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  Interview logistics and working arrangements for successful candidates may evolve throughout the recruitment process. The Town of Cochrane requires proof of vaccination for employees.  More details will be provided to shortlisted and successful candidates”.

It was subsequently noted that instead of removing that entire paragraph, disappointingly, a remnant of that paragraph was left in place for the job postings that were modified the afternoon of March 1, 2022, namely, “The Town of Cochrane adheres to guidelines set by the Province of Alberta in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Interview logistics and working arrangements for successful candidates may evolve throughout the recruitment process”. There was concern that such a remnant was open to interpretation, as the last sentence, “Interview logistics and working arrangements for successful candidates may evolve throughout the recruitment process”, appeared to leave it open to tell the shortlisted and successful candidates in private what they were unwilling to say in public related to proof of vaccination.

Accordingly, I sent a note to the mayor seeking assurance that the Town in its hiring practices through the recruitment process would not require successful candidates to show proof of vaccination to be employed by the Town. On March 2, 2022, the mayor replied, “As of yesterday, March 1st, all current or future job postings will have no reference to vaccines. Further, I can assure you that there is no requirement for proof of vaccination to be employed by the Town of Cochrane”. Unfortunately, this change is of no benefit to those frustrated Town employees who may have been coerced to be ‘vaccinated’ in order to remain employed. We are not aware of any staff being put on leave without pay for refusing.

Hopefully, this is the end of the story. Nonetheless, having someone acting in such an inappropriate, unjust manner heading up the Administration of our Town is unacceptable and a blight on our Town.  Mr. Mike Derricott took up the position of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) of our Town on January 4, 2021 and within the space of a year he navigated an increase in the size of the Administration and, as documented here, implemented a discriminatory practice at odds with good science and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That is of concern.