18. Sergio Molina.mp4: Video automatically transcribed by Sonix

18. Sergio Molina.mp4: this mp4 video file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Sergio Molina:
So I'm here representing Posties for Freedom. So it's basically I've been a Canada Post employee for about four or a little bit more, I guess if we count the seven months that we've been suspended. And it all began, you know, when the pandemic started right around that time, I was I was seen to to work, public transit to work. And when we started hearing about the pandemic and the original numbers was that one third of the population can be wiped out. I, I was one of the ones that was really scared. I was in the public transit thinking, hey, one third of the, of the, of the bus could be that soon. So that's where it begins. But very soon you start when you start looking at what the mainstream media was saying, you start picking up a lot of inconsistencies, a lot of things that didn't make sense. And then there's some of the things that inform me why I should not go with the with the with the facts. And it has to do with when when I first got married, my my wife got really sick and looking at different options, of course, in the history of of medical like when it comes to medical stuff, people can make their own choice. You go you get a you get a diagnostic from one doctor and then you try different doctors and give you different routes to to deal with a situation.

Sergio Molina:
That's what we did. And we went down the alternative pathway. So you start learning different things and you know, like being also a believer or Christian, you you start believing, well, God created us, our bodies are able to heal and stuff like that. So I lean more towards a holistic health and it just didn't make sense when they started pushing, pushing the VAX. And also in that within that movement, within people that are actually educated, they have science degrees and stuff like that. There's a big movement of people that are actually anti-vaxxers like full out personally. That's not who I am. But in that group of people, there's a lot of people that have that view. And to be quite honest, to be totally transparent, even to this day, I'm still on the fence about the issue. But it ten years, about ten years ago, I learned that in Canada, vaccines are not mandatory. So there's people that are that walk among us that go to school. They have perfect regular lives that never taken one VAX I never knew that. And I, I learned that you, you could do it. So that was part of the things that was informing me.

Sergio Molina:
I, I pushed back. I was very outspoken. I stood outside, I think, September of 2021, even before Mandates came to Canada Post. I saw it coming. I just thought, this is going to come. And so I stood outside of my my workplace. I meditated before doing it because I knew that they could use me and punish me for speaking up. But anyway, I did. I started I collected about close to 100 signatures, send it to our union asking them, Hey, you guys are going to protect us and you guys are going to represent us and you guys are not going to allow for us to be fired. And I did that very early on. Anyway, what, what it all came down to is that they they never protected they they didn't do anything. And there is about the numbers are difficult difficult to find. But there is I believe the workforce is around 60,000 employees. In the beginning there was about 6000 people. I don't know their status, but people that did not want to declare their medical, they had the freedom to to keep that personal. And with the pressure and people suspended, losing their ability to provide for their families, the numbers have wind down to close to like two, 2 to 3000. And I feel really strong about this issue because I'm I feel really strong about tyrannical government that controls the information that goes out not to a couple of days ago where news are talking about bill bill c, c 11.

Sergio Molina:
So there's a lot of things that concern me because I'm thinking I'm just not thinking about myself. I'm thinking also about the next generation, what's going to happen with with our kids, even when it comes to. Yeah. Just making choices for yourself. That's it's totally inconsistent that the same government that wants to tell you that, that we're in favor of people making their choice. And and when it comes to the abortion issue, which is murdering innocent babies, then they turn around and they say, no, you don't have the freedom to make a medical choice. It's just totally inconsistent. It makes no sense. And, you know, like as you can pick up, I have an accent. I'm an immigrant to this country, Canada. I, I love this country because they have welcomed me. And this this is a place known for freedom, but a message to everyone as a we're losing our freedoms. People might might not realize it. You might want to want to cover your eyes. But the reality is that we're losing our freedoms. And I'm quite concerned about the future of my kids.

Trish Wood:
Yeah. So were you a letter carrier?

Sergio Molina:
What was your. Yes, I'm a letter carrier. And yeah, it makes like we're not even close to people. You just go to the mailbox, you put your parcel couple, you know, and we work through the thick of the pandemic. When we were scared, I remember getting in the truck and like putting so much hand sanitizer, changing the gloves 20 times. How many times can you change the gloves when you're dealing with so many things coming from so many different places? I was truly I was scared, I'll be totally honest, but.

Trish Wood:
Well, lots of people were right at the beginning. Yeah. Remember, Neill, Ferguson's numbers were that basically everybody was going to die. So people were frightened. And so. So you were a letter carrier. You didn't want to get the vaccine and the union would not advocate. Is that the point you're trying to make here today that they would not advocate for you?

Sergio Molina:
We stood outside of the regional offices. We.

Trish Wood:
What reason did they give when you.

Sergio Molina:
Well, it's always they're always passing down the responsibility to someone else. Oh, I didn't make that. That's not my responsibility. So I believe it has to do with health and safety. Health and safety. The people within Health and Safety in Canada Post usually have a representative from the union and the corporation. And. And it was like they were. Talking the same thing. It's typically when this is my first job that is unionized. And from the get go, you realize that there's a lot of hostility between the corporation. The corporation says a. The union is saying. B. But when it came to to this issue, it was like. A, It was they were saying exactly the same thing. And that's when when you start realizing, hey, there's something pretty strange happening here. I can't make any strong accusations. I don't know the details, but you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that there is manipulation, there is abuse. And we saw our the workflow just get divided. The name calling, the o get get rid of these anti-vaxxers. These people are ignorant. There is always the name calling that is is is terrible. Is so sad.

Trish Wood:
Can I ask you a question? Obviously, there was some name calling within the professional ranks at Canada Post. But but what was it like for you? I'm wondering to hear the leadership in this country also kind of fomenting hostility toward unvaccinated people. I don't think we've asked anybody that. And I'd like to know your feelings.

Sergio Molina:
Oh, definitely. Trudeau has. Like every time you see his in interviews and he gets asked, he either avoids the question. He answers in a in a way that doesn't make sense. And it's very denigrating what he what he says about people that have made a medical choice.

Trish Wood:
So did you lose your job?

Sergio Molina:
At this point, we are suspended. So funny funny enough, we it was suspended, I believe starting the 20th. So Monday Canada Post said, no, no, no, not that's that's way too fast. We started getting calls and they're saying like, they're going to bring us back, but they're going to bring us they have to prepare a system to receive us because I guess we're still you know, I have taken up as a joke the lepers of the 21st century, you know, like that's how we are treated. And so they said no. So I guess they're slowly, slowly they're going to start calling people. But I'm speaking also for my coworkers, you know, like I happen to be I've been in different countries. I've had started I have started from scratch like three times in my life. I know how to do that. But when I started thinking of coworkers and other in other cities and small towns, people that have been doing this for 20, 30 years, and you get suspended, like how do you how do you relaunch your life? And until this day, there's people struggling, people that were making decent amount of money because Canopy A is a good employer in that sense. But then you go on, you have to go in for a minimum wage to do anything. And it's so sad. It was like we started about 6000 of us. We came down to about 2000, so there's at least 4000. So we're speaking also for those that got it, you know, like we reject the whole division, whatever people, whatever choice people make when it comes to medical, that's that's personal. So we support and we also know people that that took it against their will and.

Trish Wood:
We just see how many people took it against their will, do you.

Sergio Molina:
Think? Well, because in the beginning, there is at least 6000 that were not that were originally suspended. And so slowly there's there's people trying to do all kinds of things, trying to get religious exemptions. I personally, I'm a I'm very committed Bible believing Christian. And I think I had a good, good arguments to put a religious exemption. But I also felt that that was against my conscience. Like, that's my what I believe is personal. I don't have to ask my my employer to give me permission when it comes to those things. So I just refuse I refuse to give out my personal information because it's my right. I, I and I refuse to ask for an exemption. And most of the exemptions got got denied. I think they got a couple like a couple dozen people that accepted it so that they can they can virtually signal and say, oh, no, yeah, there was a way for you to to to avoid it.

Trish Wood:
So, panel.

Preston Manning:
Well, I appreciate your what you've told us. Just one question. What are the prospects of challenging the union leadership? I mean, eventually they're elected. And is there enough support for that? You want union leadership that'll stand up for these kinds of rights. I know you'd be in a minority position, but is there a prospect of challenging union leadership that won't stand up for its members?

Sergio Molina:
Well, so it's interesting because they when we started pushing back then, the union finally ended up filing a grievance. What but the union so the union leadership, they they took someone from mainstream media that is using exactly the same talking points the politicized view about the issue. And he was the one that was supposed to represent us. So what ended up happening with our grievance, it got denied. So it just it just it's like one thing after another that there's so many inconsistencies that is pointing all in the same direction, that this is all planned by by a group of people, because it doesn't make sense. Like the union cannot have picked a worst person to represent us. And of course, we lost it.

Sergio Molina:
So.

Preston Manning:
They didn't want you to win.

Sergio Molina:
They didn't want us. They don't want to win. No. Okay.

Trish Wood:
Okay. I guess my last question, quick answer. How are you doing financially? Are you still getting a paycheck or. No?

Sergio Molina:
No. It was live without pay, so we have not.

Trish Wood:
How are you coping then? You're a young guy.

Sergio Molina:
I'm. And that's why I started. Because, you know, I'm okay. I'm young. I'm able to, like, reinvent myself. And so I'm happy to be in a community in my church that that has come along and has helped me. I have. I've been working in the meantime. So so yeah, that's that's what I've done. But I'm also thinking for the people in Saskatchewan or like smaller towns is like, what do you do if you done this 20 years?

Trish Wood:
Yeah, because it's a good job and there might not be jobs like that in small towns. Right to take. Okay. Thank you so much for your your evidence here today. Very grateful to you. Thank you for your time. Okay.

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