Dr. Asha Shah on vaccine passports

I think that any type of system that's put into place to encourage the unvaccinated to get vaccinated is a good system. You know, people need to be motivated by different things, whether it's dining at a restaurant, or is it the ease of international travel, or is it coming to the workplace, et cetera, or going to a theater show. If anything like this would encourage those folks to get vaccinated to make their lives easier, so to speak, and to make it safer, I think it's a good step forward.

~ Dr. Asha Shah, Stamford Health Director of Infectious Diseases, "Doctor: Vaccines for kids are 'really the way forward'," Yahoo Finance, September 21, 2021

Patrick Carroll on constitutions, culture and liberty

The lesson we ought to take from this [vaccine passports in Canada] is that constitutions by themselves do not actually protect people’s rights.  They are just pieces of paper.  What really matters is the culture, and specifically, the degree to which people in society value liberty. 

Consider the fact that many totalitarian regimes also had constitutions and bills of rights (such as the Weimar Constitution in Nazi Germany).  These documents were undoubtedly held in high esteem, but they likewise proved to be powerless when the prevailing culture became tyrannical. 

So while some say that we can preserve liberty if we just get the right law, constitutional amendment, or supreme court ruling, this is a false hope. 

Liberty lives and dies by the culture.  If the culture hates liberty, no government edict can preserve it. 

Then again, if the culture loves liberty, no government edict can take it away.

~ Patrick Carroll, "Vaccine Passports Have Come to Canada. Don’t Expect the Canadian Constitution to Stop Them," FEE.org, August 30, 2021

Patrick Carroll on the gap between the vaccinated and unvaccinated in Canada

It’s hard to deny that Canada is well on its way to creating two classes of citizens, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated.  Activities that were once considered basic human rights, such as assembling in various social settings or boarding a flight, have now become “privileges” that are reserved for the vaccinated class alone. 

In many ways, these policies are eerily reminiscent of the laws that were used to target marginalized groups in the past such as women, blacks, and jews.  Of course, the oppression in those cases was often far more egregious.  But the moment we concede that some people should have more rights than others, we are operating within the same paradigm.  The differences between those historical injustices and the present-day treatment of the unvaccinated are merely differences of degree, not kind.

~ Patrick Carroll, "Vaccine Passports Have Come to Canada. Don’t Expect the Canadian Constitution to Stop Them," FEE.org, August 30, 2021

Premier François Legault announces vaccine mandate in Quebec

People who have made the effort to get their two doses must be able to live a somewhat normal life.  We will give certain privileges to those who have agreed to make the effort to get their two shots.  Some non-essential services will be available only to vaccinated people.

~ Quebec Premier François Legault, announcement on August 5, 2021

(As quoted by "Vaccine Passports Have Come to Canada. Don’t Expect the Canadian Constitution to Stop Them," FEE.org, August 30, 2021.)

Glenn Fogel on vaccine passports

We need to start rebuilding international travel. And if there’s something like a technological way to show that you are safe to travel, then I am in favor of that.  We really need international travel to come back and the only way that's going to happen is if we have more people vaccinated and governments feel it is safe to travel.

~ Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings, parent company of Booking.com, Kayak and Priceline, "Vaccine passports will revive international travel: Booking Holdings CEO," Yahoo Finance, April 7, 2021