Hamilton’s mandatory masks rules in effect Monday. Anti-mask protesters rally anyway

Protesters rallied at Gore Park against mandatory mask rules on Sunday, despite recommendations from public health organizations to wear face coverings in places where physical distancing is not possible to stop the spread of coronavirus.

The city's new bylaw that makes it mandatory to wear masks in public indoor spaces comes into force Monday.

Children under two, people with underlying health conditions that prevent them from wearing face-coverings and those who can't don them without help are exempt.

A recent Abacus poll showed six in 10 Canadian respondents (and 70 per cent in Ontario) support mandatory mask rules that public health experts say could help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in reopening stores and restaurants.

As global COVID-19 deaths passed 600,000 Sunday, about 60 attendees at the Hamilton rally carried signs opposing vaccination, physical distancing, contact tracing, and touting the debunked theory that masks cause carbon dioxide poisoning.

Other signs at the rally suggest that mandatory masks rules are an infringement on people's freedom.

The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends wearing a non-medical mask in public to protect the people around you from COVID-19 transmission.

COVID-19 is spread by tiny droplets" that people expel when they breathe, cough, or sneeze. A mask helps prevent those droplets from being expelled into the air.

A mask protects others from catching COVID-19 in case you may be an asymptomatic carrier of the respiratory virus. Of course, masks are not 100 per cent effective in preventing exposure to the virus.

People should continue prioritizing physical distancing - staying six feet, or two metres, apart - and handwashing, while avoiding touching their eyes, nose and mouth.

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