This week, the OCLA invited Mr. Keith Egli, the Chair of the Ottawa Board of Health (OBH) and a City of Ottawa Councillor, to publicly debate Ottawa’s mandatory face mask by-law. The mandatory mask law was recommended by Ottawa Public Health, which is governed by the OBH.
The goal of the proposed debate was to help the public understand the City’s position on the mandatory mask policy and its basis. The OCLA invited Mr. Egli to participate in the debate along with the health expert of his choice.
Mr. Egli declined the OCLA’s invitation and indicated that no one else from Ottawa Public Health would participate in the debate. The email correspondence between OCLA and Mr. Egli can be read here.
The OCLA made its invitation to Mr. Egli following a request by Carleton University professor Darryl T. Davies. In the statement below, Prof. Davies describes his efforts to obtain credible scientific evidence about the need for mandatory face masks:
Since the City of Ottawa passed a bylaw requiring residents to wear face masks I have been writing to Keith Egli who is my councillor in Ward 9, Knoxdale-Merivale in Nepean. I have repeatedly asked Mr. Egli to provide me with credible scientific evidence that the wearing of masks prevents people from transmitting and contracting the COVID-19 virus. Despite sending emails to him asking for such evidence Egli has ignored my emails and failed to provide me with a shred of scientific evidence to support the passage of such a bylaw.
I provided Mr. Egli with a copy of the research paper by Dr. Denis Rancourt that clearly shows that the wearing of face masks are not effective at protecting people from either transmitting or contracting the COVID-19 virus. In his response to my emails, Egli has stated in his emails that he does not agree with Dr. Rancourt’s conclusions. Despite repeated requests from me Egli has provided no empirical evidence to support his position.
As Keith Egli is the Chairperson of the Board of Health for the City of Ottawa, I contacted the office of the Ontario Civil Liberties Association and asked if they would be willing to facilitate a debate on the effectiveness of mask wearing between Mr. Egli and Dr. Denis Rancourt. The OCLA agreed and sent an email letter to Keith Egli requesting his participation in the debate and he immediately declined the invitation.
Facemasks and lockdowns have extremely serious economic and health problems for people in this City and residents have a right to know what scientific basis is being used by the City of Ottawa to impose such restrictive measures on the freedoms of citizens. The fact that Keith Egli declined the invitation from the OCLA to participate in such a public debate illustrates that the City of Ottawa has no scientific evidence to support the draconian measures that it has imposed on the citizens of our community.
Given the deleterious impact of these decisions, citizens in Ottawa should have had the right to be consulted in advance before such measures were ever implemented. The residents of Ottawa did not elect people on City council to enact measures that would destroy their lives. The residents have a right to know why these measures have been imposed and to hear the scientific evidence upon which they are based.
The fact that no consultation ever took place and the person who is the Chairperson of the Board of Health has refused to provide such information in a debate with Dr Denis Rancourt is unacceptable and it shows a reckless and irresponsible regard for the health, freedoms and well-being of thousands of people in this City who have been so adversely affected by these laws. Before such measures were introduced citizens should have participated in a city-wide referendum on the issue. No one who voted in the last municipal election voted for representatives that would destroy their lives and muzzle their civil liberties.
Darryl T Davies
