Over a hundred demonstrators showed up on the steps of California’s state Capitol building in Sacramento on Monday, April 18, to support The People’s Convoy and its fight to end vaccine mandates.
Mike Landis, a lead trucker in the convoy, and other organizers told supporters that Monday’s rally was only a prelude to a larger protest planned for Tuesday when state lawmakers are scheduled to vote on proposed legislation related to vaccine mandates.
Landis told The Epoch Times preceding the Defeat the Mandates rally on April 10 in Los Angeles, where thousands of people turned out to protest the mandates, The People’s Convoy is opposed to the so-called “Tyrannical Ten” legislative bills California lawmakers have proposed.
Three of the original 10 bills—Assembly Bill (AB) 1993, Senate Bill (SB) 871, and SB 1184—have been put on hold, but Landis and other organizers have warned lawmakers could try to re-introduce them.
“Tomorrow is the big day,” Landis said at Monday’s rally, urging supporters not to back down in the face of “tyrannical government.”
The struggle for freedom is ongoing, he said.
“You have to stay diligent,” Landis said, adding that many people he spoke to during the convoy in the last week said they “had no idea about any of this and here they [lawmakers] are this week voting on this stuff.”
In an interview following the rally, Landis told The Epoch Times the convoy is about uniting Americans and standing up for liberty.
“This convoy is effectively bringing all different types of people together, not just people from one side of the political aisle or another. It’s all different people coming together because they believe in our freedoms, and they can see how unconstitutional, unethical, and immoral most of these bills that are being put out are,” he said. “I think it’s important for people to understand that they have to continue to do this well after this week or next week is over and will after the convoy leaves town, not just here, but everywhere.”
The mainstream media “is a bigger virus and what COVID ever was,” Landis said.
“They’re not doing their job diligently enough, because they’re not reporting things that really are important to the people. They’re dropping the ball on factual and truthful reporting.”
Meanwhile, earlier Monday, lead trucker Brian Brase quelled rumors that he has left The People’s Convoy.
“I haven’t quit,” he told The Epoch Times.
“This fight is never going to be over. You’ve always got to stand up. As far as being with the convoy, specifically in California, I’m not with them right now. I’m home. I had to kind of take a backseat for a little bit to work and look after my daughters,” Brase said. “I had to get back home and take care of some of my other responsibilities. I’m a big believer that it’s God, family, then country, and right now I’m on that family level. I’ve just got to take care of my family. But by no means have I quit.”
Brase said he will represent The People’s Convoy and speak at events in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on April 23 and Orange County, California, on April 30. The event in Orange County is called the Eagle Forum and will feature several other speakers.
In a video livestreamed on Facebook, titled “State Groups Fun,” Brase talked for more than 20 minutes about why he had to head home, and alluded to squabbling among some organizers.
He called for unity among national and state organizers and urged them not to lose sight of the convoy’s mission.
“It’s egos,” he said in the livestream. “Don’t let them corrupt the message or the mission.
“The People’s Convoy is more than a protest. This is a movement on a global scale—Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, United States. This is a movement now.”
Before signing off, Brase said, “Always speak the truth and always speak from the heart. Always. Don’t forget to remind our government that they work for us.”
Sheryl McKeown Harper, a California organizer, urged supporters to protest the bills, and she applauded The People’s Convoy for drawing national attention to them.
“I don’t know about you, but they lit a fire in my heart that has been out for far too long,” Harper told the crowd.
“They’re going to make our doctors treat everyone the same and require them to vaccinate us whether or not it is good for us as individuals or not,” she said. “We should get to choose, and our doctors should be able to practice medicine.”
Because both the federal and state governments are still in a declared a state of emergency, “that means they could have pulled these bills, but they can put them back on the docket whenever they want.”
‘The Tyrannical Ten’
Assembly Bills
AB 1993 Employment: Vaccination requirements would require proof of COVID-19 vaccinations for all employees and independent contractors to work in California.
AB 2098 Physicians and Surgeons: Unprofessional conduct would classify anti-COVID medical opinion as “unprofessional conduct” subject to discipline by the medical board.
AB 1797 Immunization: Registry would create an immunization tracking system giving all government agencies access to vaccination records of all people.
Senate Bills
SB 871 Public health: Immunizations would add COVID-19 injections to the list of immunizations for public and private schools regardless of FDA approval.
SB 866 Minors: Vaccine consent would lower the age of vaccination consent to 12 years old without parental consent or knowledge.
SB 920 Medical Board of California: Record requests would authorize the medical board to inspect a doctors’ office and medical records without patient consent.
SB 1464 Law Enforcement: Public health orders would require law enforcement agencies to enforce public health guidelines or lose their funding.
SB 1479 COVID-19 Testing in Schools: COVID-19 testing plans would require schools to create long-term testing plans and report test results to the California Department of Public Health.
SB 1390 Social Media Platforms: Amplification of harmful content would prohibit any person or entity from making statements the government deems untrue or misleading by any means, including on the Internet and in advertising.
SB 1184 Confidentiality of Medical Information Act: School-linked services coordinator would authorize school health personnel to disclose a child’s medical information without parental consent to a third party.
From The EpochTimes
