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Group hosts networking rally against vaccine mandates

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Windsor, Ont. -

A group of unvaccinated and vaccinated members of the community joined together calling for freedom of choice.

More than 100 people came out to Windsor’s riverfront to support the group Windsor-Essex Citizens & Businesses Against Discrimination on Saturday.

“I call upon everyone here to collectively stand behind us, we stand behind you, we stand together to protect these rights,” Matt Hallewick, Windsor co-lead representing doctors, nurses and frontline workers, said.

He says the group is standing up to preserve and protect their rights.

“The freedom of choice is not there and we are trying to network together to find resources to help the mandates that are coming across the board,” member Rachelle Bondy said.

Throughout the pandemic Windsor’s riverfront has been the site of numerous protests against vaccine mandates. On Saturday, it was the gathering spot for a first of its kind networking rally in the region.

“We had vaccine and unvaxxed present today to just support one another,” Krystle Bernauer told CTV News. “That’s truly what this is about isn’t about the medical procedure at all it is about freedom of choice for consent.”

The group says their message stretches beyond their opposition to Ontario’s vaccine mandates.

“Vaccination is just the issue of the day, but there will be many more to follow and these rights won’t be there to protect us if we don’t stand up and protect our rights now,” Hallewick said.

Windsor-Essex Citizens & Businesses Against Discrimination says they are working to pursue legal representation for medical staff, and it will likely be in place in the very near future.

“We cannot absorb even the loss of a hundred nurses,” Hallewick said.

“We’ve never been in a situation that we’ve had to put a job at risk in order to put food on the table because we didn’t agree with someone else’s medical choices,” said Bernauer. 

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