His former university professors describe him as an extremely bright, cultured and even charming student. But when he waves his megaphone in front of schools to urge students not to be vaccinated, or when he hounds politicians live on Facebook by calling them “Nazis”, François Amalega Bitondo becomes another man.
The anti-vaccine activist, who resigned from his post as professor of mathematics at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf last February – by refusing to wear the mask – admits himself that he has “lost everything” in his fight against sanitary measures. “I am ready to go to jail for my beliefs,” he said. I prefer to be between four walls than to have my conscience imprisoned by collaborating in the lie. ”
A specialist in arithmetic geometry who began doctoral studies at the University of Montreal after emigrating from Cameroon, the 43-year-old has collected more than $ 35,000 in tickets for refusing to comply with health decrees from the start. of the pandemic. In July, he spent a night in jail after demonstrating two days in a row in a big box store in Joliette, where he filmed himself without a mask cursing employees, refusing to leave the premises without being arrested by the police. His action earned him a total of four counts of disturbing the peace and refusing to comply with promises of release.
Before the courts, where he proclaims his innocence and defends himself without a lawyer to challenge his tickets, he has only one goal: to have the national director of public health, Horacio Arruda, testify as his sole witness. . “Everything starts from Arruda. He acknowledges that there is no scientific proof that the mask protects against COVID-19 and he said that the curfew is a measure of war, but he imposed these two measures the same. He failed all along the line, ”claims François Amalega.
His reading of numbers as a driving force
Since he started making “live” videos on Facebook in January, he has quickly become one of the most influential leaders in the anti-sanitary measures movement. He is regularly surrounded by a small group of supporters, many of whom do not hide their support for conspiratorial ideas. But François Amalega prefers to reduce the debate to a strict matter of numbers. He insists that the average age of people who have died from COVID-19 in Quebec is 84 years old. « I am not denying the fact that there are people dying from COVID-19! I do not disagree. But I believe that the measures implemented by the government are unnecessary and destroy our social fabric. I want to end this, ”he said.
According to him, the government could easily create new makeshift hospitals to treat people with COVID-19. “It is not the medical staff that is lacking,” he balances, dismissing the wave of the hand that many service disruptions affect the health care system. For François Amalega, it is the government itself that is creating shortages by prohibiting unvaccinated employees from working in hospitals. Vaccination will be compulsory for healthcare workers from October 15.
Last week, while waiting for more than seven hours in front of the Joliette courthouse because he refused to put on a mask to appear at a hearing as part of his criminal trial, he made a video inviting his few. 14,000 Facebook fans flooded the 911 call center to protest against the health measures.
If the police receive 100 911 calls, they will be overwhelmed. This is how we can peacefully paralyze [le système].
François Amalega, in a Facebook video
Every year, police forces across the country lament that false calls like this drain precious resources and delay truly urgent responses.
Yvan Saint-Aubin, professor of mathematics at the University of Montreal who taught him a master’s course, can hardly understand how this “extremely intelligent and absolutely charming” student was thus “radicalized”. “I don’t remember him as a student who liked confrontation,” he says.
“He must be very convinced of his arguments, to the point where I asked myself: has he created a parallel world, or if it is simply that he analyzes the figures differently, to the point of considering that so many people who die, is not much in his eyes? asks Mr. Saint-Aubin. I can’t explain myself. ”
Other former professors and ex-colleagues who agreed to speak to Press on condition of not being named also described him as a very polite man and of great intelligence.
Demonstrations in front of schools and accusations of Nazism
François Amalega himself has no children. When asked if he considers it normal to shout his anti-vaccine argument into a megaphone at children who are not his, he replies that he has the support of several parents. “The government’s message is much more aggressive than my own message, which is softer,” he claims, while questioning the government’s legitimacy to conduct vaccination campaigns. “The government has snatched away the legitimacy of imposing the mask without scientific proof,” he says.
When it is pointed out to him that legitimately elected governments impose similar measures everywhere on the planet, he brings it back to Nazism. “Hitler also arrived democratically in place,” he argues. Earlier this summer, he also went so far as to wear yellow Stars of David on his sweater, a symbol forcibly imposed on Jews under Nazi Germany, to protest against the arrival of the vaccine passport.
In front of the high school of Montreal-North where he demonstrated Tuesday noon by broadcasting his words live on Facebook, many students were dumbfounded. “This man is filming us without our consent, saying anything. He just doesn’t realize it’s not normal, ”lamented Mouna, a 14-year-old student who wanted to report the incident to her parents.