Liberty Dies in Your Pocket

An introduction to permanent vaccine passports

When the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in March of 2020, I believed that the single largest threat to my and my family’s health and safety was a coronavirus. Little did I know that the true menace had yet to show its face, but had been present in the background for some time.

Don’t get me wrong — I had serious concerns with what my governments were doing. Around the time Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada’s borders were closing, and the military was being deployed to assist in the COVID-19 response generally, I shared with my dad that I didn’t trust that this strong hand would let go so easily once the crisis had passed. I felt I was a bystander in a storyline eerily similar to the plot of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, in which the conniving Chancellor Palpatine invoked unprecedented emergency powers in order to seize total control over the Galactic Republic.

“It is with great reluctance that I have agreed to this calling. I love democracy. I love the Republic. The power you give me, I will lay down when this crisis has abated.”

But of course, the crisis would never abate. Palpatine becomes the victim of a “plot by the Jedi” to strike him down and take over, which he survives and vows to squash.

“In order to ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the First Galactic Empire — for a safe and secure society.”

Still, the weeks and months of solitude without much action allowed for my nerves to steady and my concerns to relax a bit. I realized that many of the public health orders instituted by British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, were largely voluntary, despite how they were presented to the public. I’ve never been a germophobe, per say, but I’m certainly cautious and aware of best practices for avoiding getting sick in general. This led me to feel more and more confident in going outside, seeing friends, and eventually, wondering if there was a threat at all.

Unfortunately, there was. By the spring of 2021, I realized there were rampant censorship policies enforced on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube, which suggested there was more afoot than I was meant to know about.