No, Bonnie Henry, the pandemic was never a time of “kindness”

By Lindsay Shepherd

A new documentary about BC provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry premiered in Victoria on Thursday evening as part of the Victoria Film Festival.

The film’s title?

“Our Time to be Kind.”

I gagged upon hearing the news.

British Columbians will know that Henry’s signature phrase from 2020-2022 was “Be Kind, Be Calm, Be Safe.” That’s also what she titled her book. In the film, she is seen with a tote bag with the same phrase printed on it.

How can Henry purport that her brand is about “kindness,” when it was under her pandemic public health orders that the unvaccinated were banned from working out at the gym, attending university, visiting a museum, and dining at a restaurant with friends and family?

Actually, in B.C., healthcare workers without the COVID vaccine are still barred from returning to work, despite the understaffed and strained healthcare system.

And I haven’t forgotten about the 12-year old boy with severe autism who was denied entry to an Indigo bookstore in Burnaby because he wasn’t able to put on a mask. A Paralympic swimmer born without hands, thus unable to affix a mask, was also turned away from the bookstore chain’s Vancouver location. How kind!

According to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, those who questioned masks were “irresponsible idiots” with “narcissistic, self-indulgent ways.”

I remember attending my first anti-lockdown protest in the spring of 2020 with a massive parade of others who were concerned about the effects of school closures on children, as well as how peoples’ mental health will be affected if they lose their jobs and are denied human connection.

Onlookers spat that we were “f***ing stupid.” It was all so… kind.

Anyhow, I bought a ticket to see the new documentary film, “Our Time to Be Kind,” because I like to see these things for myself.