University Student Fights Against Vaccine Mandate and Wins | Curtis Engerdahl

Curtis Engerdahl is a student at MacEwan University in Edmonton. He is in his fourth and final year of studies there, majoring in Computer Sciences. The University continued to maintain a vaccine mandate despite Jason Kenney lifting the draconian measure. Curtis successfully fought the institution’s vaccine mandate in order to complete his final year of study and he joins us in studio to talk about that experience.

On the Actions of the School on COVID….

[At first] it wasn't something that they're going to require people to do. It didn't really look like they knew what they were talking about because every month they would keep changing things. When [Alberta’s] Minister of Advanced Education, Demetrios Nicolaides sends a letter to the university, informing them that the Kenney government is dropping the restrictions and advising them to do the same thing…McEwan University then [states] No, we're not dropping it, [students] have to be vaccinated to attend classes.

On What Drives Students to Use Their Voice…

There are two things going on. There are the critical thinking skills, but then there's the fortitude and the determination, to just go through with it…you have to have the self-discipline. If the university tells you that they're going to go drop you from your classes, that's really intimidating...the other thing too, is I used to do martial arts when I was a kid. And I think that taught me how to do self discipline and how to just persevere through things. You have to have the critical thinking skills and you have to have the self determination to go through with it, in light of all the threats and everything that they're giving you. Courage is not the absence of fear, it's actually the face of it.