ontario mask mandate

Face mask freakout captured on camera in Ontario grocery store parking lot

After nearly two solid years of living that COVID life, people in Ontario are getting increasingly fed up with society and each other.

Hopes are high as we turn a new corner in the pandemic, with capacity limits, vaccine passports and most other public health restrictions now lifted. But tensions are equally high between people on opposite, extreme ends of the political spectrum, perhaps lately more than ever.

A law mandating the use of masks or face coverings when in public indoor spaces is one of the only major restrictions still in place across Ontario, and it's looking more and more every day like masks, too, will be optional within weeks.

Some people are thrilled about the idea of ditching mandatory masks after two long years of hiding their smiles, while others contend that it's too soon to safely remove this effective precaution.

Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, asked all residents during a press conference on Thursday to "remain kind and considerate to those that decide to wear masks" once the mandate is lifted.

The stars of a mask-vs.-no mask freakout video circulating this week certainly didn't get the memo, throwing down (verbally) in the parking lot of a Loblaw's in Kingston, Ontario.

Shared on Thursday by an Instagram user called "Plandemic Ontario," the clip is short — just 24 seconds long — and comes with the caption: "Encountered this gem while shopping at Loblaws, she said I was 'not human' for refusing to put on a mask."

In the video, the man filming approaches a woman in a mask pushing a shopping cart and says "just gotta get your face on camera there..."

"Absolutely, I'm not a nazi," she replies before sticking her middle finger up to the camera and repeating the words "go f*ck yourself" seven times in a row. She was taking no guff that day.

"Are you done now?" she says as the camera person eggs her on with "Anything else, Karen?"

The woman walks over to a passerby and says that she is being accosted by the videographer, but is ignored by said passerby.

"Go f*ck yourself, go f*ck yourself," says the woman as she walks away from the guy filming and what sounds like another woman.

"Where's your humanity?" shouts the man after the woman in the mask, prompting her to shout (can you guess?) "GOOOO F*CK YOURSELF!"

It's hard to know how this altercation actually started, but it sure got spicy fast. We can likely expect more of the same in the weeks to come once mask mandates are lifted.


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