Corduroy Restaurant owner, patrons react to B.C. dropping vaccine passport

• By Ezra Levant

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“Booze is Back!!” reads the website of Kitsilano, British Columbia’s Corduroy Restaurant.

On April 8, at one minute past midnight, the last Canadian province to segregate citizens based on their COVID-19 vaccination status dropped its vaccine passport system.

The removal of restrictions not only allows all British Columbians to be free to do normal things like work out at a gym, enjoy a concert and attend their child's dance performance, it also means that entrepreneurs like Rebecca Matthews, the co-owner of Corduroy, no longer have to choose between discriminating against their customers based on their medical choices or losing a significant stream of revenue by not serving alcohol.

“A part of me feels like flipping the bird at the system because we should have been able to do this the whole time anyways,” said Matthews when I asked her how she feels about being given state permission to operate normally.

Matthews says Corduroy is still excited they can fully operate without such worries and stress and can begin to “claw back at the massive debt” that they have incurred over the last two years.

Corduroy had its doors closed by the state twice during their battle to stand for medical freedom and bodily autonomy.

The first time was after Corduroy chose not to comply with the province's ban on indoor dining. Through your generous donations at FightTheFines.com, Rebel News partnered with The Democracy Fund, a registered Canadian charity, to provide Matthews with a Victoria-based litigator, Bruce Hallsor, to help the restaurant navigate how best to get their doors reopened.

The second time Corduroy was shut down by the state came after Matthews did her best to try to find a legal loophole to remain open without checking customers' vaccine statuses, but the city disagreed.

Matthews eventually found another way to reopen without taking part in provincially-ordered segregation, this time by not serving alcohol. We caught up with Matthews, and people walking by her restaurant, about their feelings now that restaurants are once again open to all.

I also checked in with another freedom-fighting entrepreneur, Brian Mark from Kelowna’s Iron Energy Gym, to see how their business is doing now that proof of vaccination has been dropped. Iron Energy Gym were forced by court order to close their doors in February after refusing to discriminate against unvaccinated patrons.

Mark says that while they know their battle for freedom is not over, they are “happy to be able to come up for a breath of air,” and for now “are grateful to be open.”

If like Mark you believe that the battle for medical freedom is not over, and if you also appreciate that Rebel News has informed the public in-depth about the sacrifices businesses like Corduroy Restaurant and Iron Energy Gym have made to stand by their convictions, please go to WereSuingTrudeau.com to learn how you can donate to cover our legal costs to keep our independent journalism free from excessive government control.