The battle and confusion continues for young people under the age of 18 to participate in sports and recreation in Calgary and other communities in Alberta.

The Western standard spoke to Airdrie’s attorney, Derek, Friday From outside a recreation center in southeast Calgary.

“Youth sport is supported to be forced to follow the path that is not that of vaccine passports. The province didn’t react that way and many facilities decided to challenge the province and introduce the REP, the vaccine passport, regardless of what the province recommended, ”From said.

From notified on Western standard on September 27, he had sent a stern warning letter to numerous sports and recreational facilities across Alberta.

“It is illegal for your facility to implement (the restriction exemption program) REP for youth activities,” From said in his letter.

The REP program allows businesses to choose to operate as usual if they are running a vaccine passport system or if they must adhere to health restrictions set by the province, including limiting attendance to one-third of code capacity. fire prevention. The provincial health order says businesses outside the scope, such as recreation and youth sports, cannot participate in the REP vaccine passport program.

“The province was pretty clear. What he said was that if you want to do (provincial health) order 45, the vaccine passport, and use the REP program, you can do that if you are an eligible business. But if you’re out of range, you can’t do it. And in there (Order # 45-2021), it’s self-explanatory – youth sports, physical activity, fitness and recreation are out of reach, ”From said.

“But yet, the city decided, by passing a bylaw, that it was going to force all eligible businesses to adopt REP and in doing so, what the city essentially did was tell children between the ages of 12 and 17. that they can’t play sports. or their chosen recreational activity, ”From said.

What now looks like a political war between the province’s health ordinance # 45-2021 and the city of Calgary’s new bylaw 65M2021, confusion is growing for parents and facility managers.

“A lot of facilities were enacting these things, where I think it was illegal because they not only violate the provincial ordinance, but they also violate privacy law and potentially human rights law. the person in the province. This is serious business. “

De said some of the principals have since responded and were “confused because they didn’t really explain the orders to them very clearly” and feel their “hands were forced”. He also said that many youth sports associations feel stuck in the middle because they don’t want to have to take legal responsibility for handling the private medical information of their participants and think they are “victims” in all of this. .

From is working with a group of parents who would like this situation to change. He researches the options they have and says it “could lead to legal action.”

“It could just force the court to read the orders and force the city of Calgary and force recreation facilities to comply with the law,” From said.

Double-vaccinated mother Tanya Pridge says she has chosen not to vaccinate her children at this time and is struggling to overcome these restrictions for her son who plays hockey.

“He worked really hard to be part of the team and then it all happened right after he made the team so it’s really disappointing for him. If there had been only community hockey, I would probably have made the decision to withdraw him, but he made such an effort to be part of this team that it is devastating for him to have to give up, ”a said Pridge.

Pridge says the costs add up with twice-weekly rapid tests for his son to compete with his junior AA hockey team.

Chantelle Unger has four children in different activities. She too is grappling with all of this as her unvaccinated son who is over 12 cannot enter Calgary facilities and she cannot accompany her youngest children to any of their activities due to the jab’s refusal as well. .

“So they won’t be watched and so it’s not okay for a six-year-old to come in alone,” Unger said.

“So we still have the kids going about their business to the best of our ability at this point, but it creates a lot of divisions within the team, groups of friends, groups of parents,” Unger said, adding that it was all very confusing. to everyone involved.

Unger says most of the division comes from adults.

Unger and Pridge would prefer Calgary sports facilities to be allowed to take the alternative approach to vaccine passports and go for a third-party capacity.

“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to have a third ability in an arena specifically for practice or even a game. I think the number that would be allowed would be appropriate for us to continue and the facilities to continue to allow sports to continue with all children. “

Unger says his community facility in the Indus used third party capacity rather than vaccine passports and “they didn’t have to turn anyone away.”

“So far we’ve been lucky to have taken this route with our facility and most of the time everyone is happy to do it, so I don’t understand why the city of Calgary isn’t. not, ”Unger said.

A story Western standard published on September 18 about a Cochrane facility that opted for vaccine passports, as well as a lengthy Facebook rant by country star Paul Brandt, put enough pressure on facility principals to change tone within 24 hours.

Melanie Risdon is a reporter at Wester Standard
mrisdon@westernstandardonline.com