A bedroom-eyes photo of former director of the CDC Dr. Anthony Fauci alongside the text: I WANT TO JAB YOU WITH MY NEEDLE’ is just one of the hilarious satirical Valentines cards created by Leigh Vossen, President of Students Against Mandates (S.A.M).
She says that the goal of the ‘Vax-entine’ cards is to raise awareness of the ongoing unscientific mask mandates that are still being enforced at many universities around the world.
The cards, which are available to order on the S.A.M website, feature well-known vaccine and mask pushers such as Canadian Prime Minister/Independence Day actor Justin Trudeau, World Economic Forum/Evil Super Villain Klaus Schwab and comedian/Illuminati member (no, really) Jim Carrey, among others.
Prepare to fall for freedom loving card designer and President of S.A.M, Leigh Vossen, in this GWU! exclusive Q & A.
GWU! Tell us a bit about yourself and the origins of S.A.M.
My background is in Graphic Design (I completed the Red River College program back in 2018) so I decided to create an Instagram and use my skills in branding to inform the public of the discriminatory policies that the academic institutions across the country were implementing. At the time, I felt isolated in my views apart from my family, but that soon changed as my inbox became flooded with messages from not only Canadians, but from people all over the world. I was hearing from Canadians, Americans, Europeans and Australians in particular.
Many students on Instagram expressed feelings of isolation and extreme anxiety over what was happening. Anytime I discovered they were from Winnipeg, I invited them to meet me for a coffee and eventually began inviting groups of students over to my house for potlucks to meet each other. I wanted to develop a network of students who would help me push back against the mandates as well as provide these students with a support system. It is far easier to speak out when you have people standing behind you.
GWU! What do the students of Laurier have against masks?
There are still mask mandates and social distancing policies at institutions across the country. In terms of why S.A.M is against these mandates it is for these following reasons:
Arbitrary and Unscientific Policies
The universities mandating masks have failed to provide not only sufficient data but any data at all to support their policies—even when this information is requested. Several S.A.M members attending the University of Manitoba respectfully requested the data/studies as concerned students (S.A.M was not mentioned) that the UofM used to base their policies on. The response was that other universities are mandating masks and that no further communications or explanation would be necessary. No data/studies were provided. In addition, mask mandates are no longer required under the public-health order and studies continue to be released that prove the ineffectiveness of masks in preventing transmission – most recently the Cochrane study.
Impacts on Mental Health
Forcing young people to cover their faces, socially distance themselves from their peers and be prevented from seeing the faces of others on campus has had serious repercussions on the mental health of students over the course of three years. University is a pivotal moment in a young person’s life often where people cultivate life-long friendships, meet their spouse (28% of people meet their partners in university), develop social skills, build confidence, etc. When students are prevented from interacting/socializing with other students these formative life moments and experiences are taken away from them. There is no way to measure this loss but it is profound. We have received countless messages from students expressing feelings of extreme isolation, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, depression, etc. This cannot be ignored.
Risk of COVID-19
The majority of students in university are vaccinated (whether because they chose to or because they were coerced) in addition to having had and recovered from COVID (natural antibodies!). The universities advocate for these vaccines, claiming that they are safe and effective. If the vaccines are effective and the majority of students have had the vaccine and/or natural antibodies, why are masks necessary?
Students Are Not at Risk
It has been known from relatively early on in the pandemic that young people are not at risk concerning COVID-19. The university age group is overwhelmingly comprised of healthy people with strong immune systems.
Choice
And as always, we advocate for choice. We are against mandating masks, however, should an individual wish to wear a mask they are free to do that.
GWU!: What percentage of students would you say agree that the mask mandate should be removed:
It can be difficult to gauge this especially due to censorship on our platforms (particularly Instagram). Based on conversations over our platforms and in person, I believe the attitudes towards these policies are shifting in our favor now that the initial fear surrounding Covid-19 has subsided. I would say those who support mask mandates are in the minority.
GWU! We have a heart on for these Valentine’s Day cards. Tell us more about them.
S.A.M is a non-profit run entirely by unpaid student volunteers. As such, we have had to get creative to raise money and cover our expenses. A couple of months ago, I came up with the idea of Valentine’s Day cards after joking about Dr. Fauci being nominated the “Sexiest man alive”. Over some laughs at lunch with a fellow S.A.M member the material wrote itself.
The campaign has been extremely successful despite the censorship on Instagram. Upon posting the campaign I noticed an initial major spike in followers, likes, comments, shares however after 30 minutes interaction slowed considerably and I began receiving messages that the links to the shop and our website didn’t work. Instagram blocked all links coming from our page so people had to DM us to receive a link. This of course cost us in sales, however, despite this we still earned more than expected. The campaign more than covered the costs for our rally in Waterloo (banner, printed posters, flyers, rentals, etc). The rest of the funds will be put towards future protests.
MORE SAM MEMBERS LAUGHING BEHIND THEIR MASKS
Wilfred Laurier student Kamil Bachouchi, who was recently profiled by GWU! for his creative ‘mock-compliance’ with his schools mask mandate, is also a member of S.A.M who isn’t afraid to laugh at the establishment with his mock mask compliance of wearing ridiculous but totally allowed ‘face coverings’ to his University of Laurier classes in Waterlooney Ontario, Canada.
