Regina yoga studio requiring proof of full vaccination for in-person classes

While some people are seeing a new COVID-19 vaccination policy at a Regina yoga studio as a stretch, Colin Hall says the positive responses have vastly outweighed the negatives.

Bodhi Tree, a yoga studio co-owned by Hall, posted to Facebook that it is requiring anyone wanting to participate in an in-person class to provide proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID.

That led to a flurry of responses online.

“My manager went through and did a little bit of math and what he found was 533 positive reactions (and) 33 negative. I would get 33 people giving me a negative reaction over a selfie,” Hall said. “To get 33 negative reactions on social media is actually not that big of a deal …

“The people who are angry are extremely loud. By far, far and away, the majority of people are not just happy but super supportive and encouraging. People have dropped off cards at my house. I’m getting unsolicited emails from people saying, ‘If you need help, let me know.’ ”

But Hall does admit some of the negative comments have left a mark.

“I have a number of people who I thought were friends now throwing hate at us online. That hurts. People that we have given free classes to when they were down and out and we supported them and helped them here and we thought of them as part of our community so we helped them and now they are trying organize people to have protests against us,” Hall said.

“That does not feel good at all, so that part does stink.”

The Bodhi Tree will begin to once again offer in-studio classes next Monday — a day after the province is set to remove all COVID-related restrictions.

Hall said people have had to remain vigilant for so long and that’s why he wanted to implement this policy.

“That makes it very difficult to relax. That makes it very difficult to let go and enjoy yoga practice so the idea of going back in person but still having people with that sense of uncertainty and looking over their shoulder, to me I thought we should just stay online then,” Hall said.

“This gives us the best of both worlds: We can be in person and we can also just be completely relaxed because we know we’re safe.”

Hall said he’s looking at how places in the U.S. and other countries are doing things when it comes to implementing something like this. He admits it is hard to police because Saskatchewan isn’t giving out documents that show when someone has been fully vaccinated.

Hall said that as of now, the best thing people have are the cards issued by the Saskatchewan Health Authority when someone goes for their shot, so he’s asking people to send a photo of the card ahead of the class.

He admitted there is a lot of grey area when it comes to privacy around the subject.

“The legislation that governs privacy of documents as it relates to small business, we can’t share information with people, we know that. We don’t plan on sharing information so as long as it is consensual, it is similar to someone coming into a gym and filling out a health form,” Hall said.

He said people who oppose these type of health regulations seem to step up what they are willing to do to get attention.

“Would somebody try to lie to get into a yoga class? I’m not sure what they hope to accomplish. I hope you had a good yoga class and I hope you didn’t infect us,” Hall said. “It would be, as the kids say, a very strange flex to do.”

He admits it’s frustrating that businesses have to be put in a position like this rather than the provincial government keeping some sort of restrictions in place.

“I’ve been put in this position over and over again where it has been left up to me. Do we keep our store open even though numbers in Regina are out of control? We decide to close it. We had a mask mandate before there was a mask mandate,” Hall said.

“It seems to me the government very often waits until the situation is out of control and then steps in and I’m not OK with that as a business owner. I’d rather be proactive and potentially go, ‘The way we implemented that was wrong. I’m going to make some changes,’ I’m comfortable with that.

“I’m not waving any flags. I’m not trying to win. I’m just trying to have a safe place for people to do yoga.”