Walmart's Plexiglass Cages

Treats people with 'dignity, compassion and respect' only until government says do something else.

Screen capture from Walmart Canada’s website. Highlighting by me. Click image to see original.

The same week the Freedom Convoy was making its way across Canada, unvaccinated individuals in Quebec were barred from entering big box stores such as Walmart and Costco. One quarter of our nation’s population resides in that province, and a significant percentage purchase their groceries at these two chains.

A True North news story at the time told us a special exemption had been carved out for individuals requiring medication:

Unvaccinated people who wish to access those pharmacies must be accompanied by a store employee, who will ensure they make no other purchases.

So either you were denied entry altogether because you couldn’t/wouldn’t produce the appropriate paperwork - or you were ritually humiliated. First you were required to wait until someone was available to escort you. Then you were monitored to ensure you deposited only approved items into your shopping basket. Later that day, the Walmart employee is asked: What did you do at work today, honey? Not much, just prevented paying customers from buying cartons of milk and loaves of bread.

Let us keep in mind that people declined the vaccines for medical reasons, as well as for religious and philosophical ones. Let us keep in mind that amongst those the Quebec government said should be demeaned in this manner were elderly individuals, racial and religious minorities, pregnant women, and children as young as 13.

Exclusion and ritual humiliation. Mandated by politicians. Carried out by corporations. That last point is important. Walmart is a huge, international conglomerate. It can well can afford lawyers and lobbyists. Therefore, it had choices.

It could have denounced these measures as immoral. It could have held press conferences, published open letters, purchased full-page newspaper advertisements, and expressed concern on social media. It could have apologized effusively to its customers, making it clear it was unwillingly complying with unjust government edicts.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, it behaved as though everything was A-OK, perfectly fine, totally normal. In fact, Walmart went to the trouble of constructing creepy, plexiglass, Checkpoint Charlie cages for staff to stand inside while they examined vaccination documents and government-issued ID.

Here’s what the English version of the signs posted on the exterior of those cages said:

Click to see this on Twitter

We “will ensure that all customers 13 & up are properly vaccinated.” In other words, Walmart had an official position on these vaccines - despite the complete lack of long term safety data. This multinational corporation condoned the repeated jabbing of teenaged boys. Even though males of that age were

1. at statistically zero risk of dying from COVID,

2. at elevated risk of developing heart inflammation, and

3. more likely to be harmed with every additional dose they received.

The lesson here is simple. Huge corporations were no help whatsoever. When politicians were targeting, humiliating, and discriminating against an identifiable minority of the population, big business exibited no moral fibre. Rather than contesting the tyranny, it joined the bandwagon. Rather than sympathizing with the victimized, it shut them out in the cold.

All that verbiage on Walmart Canada’s website about inclusion is meaningless blather. Walmart Canada doesn’t have core values it defends no matter what, through thick or thin. It treats everyone with “dignity, compassion and respect” only until the government tells it to do something else.

Quebec’s big box store policy went into effect Janaury 24th. The Freedom Convoy began arriving in Ottawa January 28th. On February 15th the truckers were still there, the Emergencies Act had just been declared, and the Quebec government was course correcting.

The health minister announced that, beginning the next day, proof of vaccination would no longer be required to enter big box stores, liquor stores, or cannabis shops. Quebec’s pandemic metrics had improved, he said. Non, the change of tune was entirely unconnected to what CBC obliquely described as “recent anti-vaccine mandate protests.”

But Jörg Hermann Fritz, a McGill University immunology professor, wasn’t buying it. In his view, the government had made “absolutely the wrong decision.” It had given in to “populism.”

Walmart’s plexiglass cages lasted 23 days. Before the trucks drove over them.

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hat tip to CatGirlKulak for reminding us about those cages