The vice-prime minister and minister of public Safety, Geneviève Guilbault
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10 August 2020 15: 49
Updated at 16h19
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Guilbault: “Even if you’re against the mask, wear it!”
Olivier Bossé
The Sun
“Even if you’re against the mask, wear it! If you have the impression that the virus is an invention, follow you even to the rules of public health. This is what you are asked. You have the right to think and say what you want, but follow the instructions.”
The vice-prime minister and minister of public Safety is not against the demonstrations against the obligation to wear the cover-face in indoor public places and public transport, such as the one held Saturday in Montreal.
But even if they are against it, the participants must, however, comply with the instructions issued by the public Health, insists Geneviève Guilbault. That is to say, to keep a minimum spacing of two metres between each demonstrator and, in the impossibility of doing so, to wear… the mask.
“Whether for or against the guidelines, it must still comply, because the rules apply to everyone,” said Ms. Guilbault, Monday, wishing to once again make a call to the observance of the guidelines”.
In the margin of an advertisement in tourism carried out at the Centre des congrès de Québec, the minister reiterated the importance “to remember that people have the right to protest. It is in no case wants to give the impression that you can’t manifest, that we can’t express. Even those with anti-mask, even people who have all sorts of idea on the pandemic, the virus, etc, have the right to express themselves, have the right to protest”.
No penalties
Those who marched against the mask in the streets of the metropolis on Saturday, may reassure himself. The minister Guilbault has not seen anything here to convince them to impose fines for non-compliance of instructions of public health.
“We need to find a balance between repressive measures and try to deter people who would be tempted not to comply with the rules, but it is necessary to preserve at any price the right to demonstrate and the right to freedom of expression,” insists Ms. Guilbault.
“We are in the process of juggling with the possibilities that are already present in the decrees [in effect], there are already things that are given : one should stay two metres, if possible on the outside, it is advisable to wear the cover-face when this is not possible.
“For the event [Saturday], for the images that I have seen, I have not seen it all, but there are people still who wore the covers-face, there are people who were at a healthy distance. All in all, it was not meant to be an event with a disregard of the rules also posted that what you saw there was two or three weeks,” said the minister.
“Whether for or against the guidelines, it must still comply, because the rules apply to everyone ”
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The vice-prime minister and minister of public Safety, Geneviève Guilbault
Right to information c. collective well-being
Ms. Guilbault said, however, unable to assess the magnitude of the phenomenon of anti-mask for the province as a whole.
“It is a global movement, but there are under-currents of thought, some more extreme than others. Some people believe and other do not believe in the other… The fact that we hear a lot about, even if there is not a large number of people, can give an impression disproportionate to that movement”, it believes.
Without saying whether the media should or should not cover this kind of events all in all still marginal, the minister Guilbault inquired about the fragile balance “between the public’s right to information and a social responsibility not to give visibility to movements that could be in conflict with the collective well-being”.
