City seeing high compliance despite recent anti-mask tirades

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — While a pair of recent incidents have gained notoriety, the City of Calgary said compliance with the mandatory mask bylaw has been very high to this point.

The latest video to be spread on social media shows a man going on a racist, expletive-laden rant inside a liquor store in the northeast. As the video began to get shared widely over the weekend, it generated immediate reaction and condemnation.

WATCH: Man goes on racist tirade in Calgary liquor store

 

“Please, do us all a favour and stay home if you don’t want to wear a mask and you’re a horrible, racist person,” said Ward 3 Councillor Jyoti Gondek in a video she posted to Twitter after she visited the store.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi also responded to it at City Hall on Monday afternoon.

“There’s no need for you to spread your vile, racist anger at other people. If you are opposed to the mask bylaw, if you think COVID is a hoax, write a letter to the premier, write an angry email to the mayor. I’m happy to take it, but don’t take it out on people who are just trying to do their jobs,” he said.

Fortunately, these incidents seem to be far from the norm and they only represent a small minority of the population.

While to this point the city has received about 1,000 calls to service relating to the mask bylaw, the vast majority have been about general questions around the rules of the bylaw and in other incidents inspectors have been able to provide education to businesses without requiring further action.

In the rare incidents where bylaw officers are required to go out, they can usually resolve the issue by educating a business owner or patron and no fines are issued.

That said, this video and one from last week at a Calgary fabric store are on the city’s radar and to date one court summons has been issued relating to a patron not wearing a mask.

“Any incident which is brought to our attention, whether done so by a caller or it’s brought to our attention through social media or the media, we will investigate all of those concerns. So, if you’ve seen incidents in the media recently, rest assured that the city will investigate those matters,” said Abdul Rafih, Acting Manager of Compliance Services.

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Rafih added that if a situation does escalate and there is a concern for safety, to contact 311 or the police and file a report. Owners of the liquor store have said they did file a report with police in this matter.

Timothy Caulfield, a law professor at the University of Alberta, said these incidents do seem to be getting more commonplace as frustration is seeping into the pandemic.

“We’re moving from this situation of fear to this situation of anger and frustration, and so people are starting to vent,” he said. “Another component here is the spread of misinformation, people are starting to increasingly hear stuff that is inaccurate about these preventative strategies.”

However, the fact that some people are spouting racial epithets and turning to this form of discrimination is extra concerning and indicates that people need to remember the refrain commonly said at the start of the pandemic, that we are all in this together.

“These measures are being taken in the spirit of solidarity. To compare it to the atrocities of the 20th century is infuriating and a hyperbole to the nth degree,” said Caulfield.

In calls to the city about compliance, Rafih said they are also able to deescalate some situations by relaying to a caller that someone wearing a mask may have a medical exemption and a valid reason for not having one on. Even the liquor store incident from the weekend seemed to stem from a misunderstanding, as the ranter was upset the staff member was not wearing a mask even though they were protected behind a plexiglass barrier.

Nenshi said this shows people need to take a deep breath and calm down, and it does not help to shame anyone in this situation.

“This really does need to be about kindness, compassion and empathy on all sides,” he said. “People are being very cruel towards the woman shown in the video from Fabricland, there’s no cause for that either.”

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