The Importance of Remembering
Tuesday November 22, 2022
I returned to university but found no home there (see my saga here). The university let me back in but only because Alberta dropped its mandates. They do not require masks, rapid tests or that people have the Covid shot to be on campus. Still, it could all happen again if Alberta’s rules change. The problem is that the school supports the idea of forgetting, similar to the governments.
Thankfully, Alberta’s new premier apologized for the horrible treatment of those who chose not to get the shot. Unfortunately, institutions like universities have yet to follow her example. They have given no apologies or even acknowledged what happened to people like me. The narrative is still, “We were only following orders and can’t really do anything.”
That is deeply disturbing because harm was done. I lost an education opportunity by being forced to leave, but an even bigger loss was my sense of trust in the university. That cannot be returned simply by being allowed to go back to school.
I have had trouble sharing my story at school. While some individuals are understanding towards my situation, the prominent position still supports authority in regards to the mandates. Before returning to class, I had a meeting about accommodations. During the meeting, I mentioned that I got kicked out of school last year. The response was, “You were not kicked out!” That response showed that those in charge were not open to hearing my side of the story.
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