Item

Keeping Alberta Rat Free

Title (Dublin Core)

Keeping Alberta Rat Free

Description (Dublin Core)

Alberta has been historically known for two things, number one being the oil and gas industry, the second being Alberta’s lack of rats. Alberta historically prides itself on being a ‘rat free’ province through extermination campaigns throughout the whole province in order to maintain the mantle; and to protect Alberta’s agricultural sectors. Because of this legacy, Albertan pandemic skeptics on my home town’s Facebook page posted this meme in reference to people reporting large gatherings, and businesses which violate quarantine restrictions. Underneath this photo, many people who thought alike had a good chuckle and patted themselves on the back for keeping Alberta ‘rat free.’ However, these pandemic skeptics forget that Alberta became ‘rat free’ by people reporting sightings of rats, using the local 310-RATS hotline which alerted exterminators to the presence of rats throughout the province. This item matters to me in that it is how pandemic skeptics impose falsified history, and possibly Albertan nationalism to justify their own behaviour as somehow patriotic. I know I’m reading into this too deeply, but I find it somewhat funny how ignorant these people are to the true reality of our ‘rat free’ title, that we achieved it by reporting sightings of rats which posed a danger to our entire province; just how these people are posing a threat to the health of our entire province by opening businesses and getting together in large groups. This is mainly supposed to serve as a window into the Albertan experience of the Pandemic, with specific interest to the anti-masker’s opinions and thoughts on social media. I want to similarly point out, that I wasn’t the only person who noticed that Alberta was made ‘rat free’ by ratting on rats in this photo’s comment section.

Date (Dublin Core)

January 29, 2021

Creator (Dublin Core)

Padraic Cohen

Contributor (Dublin Core)

Padraic Cohen

Event Identifier (Dublin Core)

HST580

Partner (Dublin Core)

Arizona State University

Type (Dublin Core)

meme
text

Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)

English Humor
English Social Distance
English Pandemic Skeptics

Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)

history
antimasker
anti-mask
Canada
Alberta

Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)

rats
meme
Alberta
Canada
antimasker
history

Collection (Dublin Core)

Humor

Linked Data (Dublin Core)

HST 580 Professional Experience/Archives course

Date Submitted (Dublin Core)

01/29/2021

Date Modified (Dublin Core)

01/31/2021
03/03/2021
05/03/2022
08/02/2022
09/15/2024

Date Created (Dublin Core)

01/29/2021

Item sets

Covid 19
Arizona State University

This item was submitted on January 30, 2021 by Padraic Cohen using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://www.covid-19archive.org/s/archive

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