The Vax Divide: ‘You could practically propose going after the unvaccinated with pitchforks and torches and you’d get support for that’
If you are an adult Canadian who has not received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, you are barred from virtually all forms of government employment. By federal mandate, hundreds of unvaccinated police officers, health-care workers, bus drivers and firefighters were placed onto unpaid leave just before Christmas and are explicitly barred from collecting Employment Insurance.
You have been shut out from whole realms of civil society. You can’t board a commercial flight or a passenger train. In most provinces, you’re not allowed inside restaurants, gyms, movie theatres or swimming pools. In Quebec, you just got banned from government liquor stores.
And through it all, you’ve attracted a level of public scorn that in normal times would typically be reserved only for terrorists and violent criminals. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called you a “racist” and “misogynist” in a September TV interview. Quebec Premier François Legault called you a “burden” on the health system deserving of punishment . National op-eds are calling for you to be turned away at the hospital’s front doors if you get sick.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, one the most unexpected consequences is how quickly Canada became comfortable with the idea of marginalizing millions of people over the issue of whether to accept a government recommended health treatment. As increasingly strict measures threaten to entrench a new unvaccinated underclass, critics are warning that we didn’t even bother to learn who those unvaccinated are.
I worry the ethical approach we have to health care may never fully recover from this
bioethicist Kerry Bowman
“I worry the ethical approach we have to health care may never fully recover from this,” said Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto. “Turning against this cohort when we don’t know who they are or how they think, I think it’s awful.”
Punishing the unvaccinated is one of the most popular political issues in the country right now, according to polls.
A Maru Public Opinion poll this week found that 60 per cent of Canadians favoured a punitive tax on the unvaccinated. In November, just as the first unvaccinated Canadians began to lose their jobs, an Angus Reid Institute poll found that 70 per cent of the country was glad to see them go.
It’s also true that unvaccinated Canadians are indeed one of the key factors driving the country’s current crisis of overstretched hospitals and delayed surgeries. “The health-care system would not be overwhelmed or at the brink of being overwhelmed if we had a fully vaccinated population,” Peter Juni, the head of Ontario’s science table, told CTV last week.
In Ontario, of the 372 COVID-19 patients in intensive care as of Friday, 45 per cent are unvaccinated .
This week, after Quebec announced that it would be levying a health care “contribution” on its unvaccinated, some frontline doctors urged the public to have more sympathy for the average Quebecer winding up on a ventilator without having gotten the shot.
Two physicians told La Presse this week that their unvaccinated COVID-19 patients included people who were isolated, who lived without internet, who suffered from severe mental illness and occasionally lacked the ability to speak either English or French.
“What scares me is when I read that we shouldn’t treat these people … it stigmatizes people who are already severely disadvantaged,” said Montreal-area physician Marie-Michelle Bellon.
Canada is currently one of the most vaccinated countries on earth . Of Canadians 12 and older, an incredible 90.57 per cent are either partially or fully vaccinated. It’s that remaining 10 per cent — a group comprising roughly 3.7 million people — that comprise Canada’s ranks of the unvaccinated.
Sajjad Fazel, a Toronto-based public health researcher, told the National Post that the unvaccinated are roughly composed of two main groups. The first is the vaccine hesitant; those who may not be aware of the science or might have good “historical” reasons to be distrustful of the health system. The second group is the much louder and more stubborn demographic of “anti-vaxxers” who “deliberately disregard the science.”
Said Fazel, “policies need to ensure that we do not unnecessarily punish those who are vaccine-hesitant.”
It’s anti-vaxxers who have come to dominate the Canadian image of the unvaccinated, particularly after a spate of autumn protests in which anti-vaccination campaigners blocked access at hospitals across the country. It’s this group that Trudeau was referencing when he told a Quebec talk show in September that Canada should decide “do we tolerate these people? ”
But the limited data on Canada’s 3.7 million unvaccinated points to a group that is disproportionately composed of Canadians who are low income, recent immigrants and ethnic minorities. A July survey by the Black Opportunity Fund, for instance, found a 20-point gap in vaccination rates between black Canadians and the public at large.
“What worries me in the short term is we’re getting the green light from our political leaders to make some very harsh judgements about people even if we don’t have all the facts,” said Bowman.
Similarly demographic patterns are emerging in the United States. Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau concluded that the average unvaccinated American had a higher-than-average likelihood of being non-white, poor and disabled. Many seemed to be foregoing the vaccine for the simple reason that they had “difficulty seeing, hearing, remembering or walking or climbing stairs.”
Like virtually anyone working in health care, Bowman is a vocal proponent of the benefits of immunization. But he said that the Canadian health system has long been premised on the notion of providing care that is unconditional to a patient’s personal situation, be they obese, homeless or an addict.
“There’s no bottom to that once we start making those judgements about people,” he said.
After the announcement of Quebec’s tax on the unvaccinated, McGill University biomedical ethicist Phoebe Friesen told Reuters that it would make just as much sense to start levying a tax on obese people.
“If you want to be consistent and logical, you should charge all sorts of people for their hospitalization if it’s based on behaviour that they’re ‘responsible’ for,” she said.
Maxwell Smith, a bioethics professor at the University of Western Ontario, isn’t as taken with the “slippery slope” argument when it comes to Canada levying extraordinary measures targeting the unvaccinated.
“Even those who support the use of measures like mandatory masking, vaccination mandates, and vaccine passports consider them regrettable,” he told the National Post by email.
Smith noted that Canada remains in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic that has already killed 30,000 people. Remove the threat of an “acute public health crisis” and “I can’t imagine similar measures would find support,” he said.
If events from the rest of the COVID-stricken world are any indication, however, Canada is likely not done penalizing its unvaccinated.
Greece has already imposed monthly fines of the equivalent of US$113 on citizens over 60 who refuse the vaccine. French President Emmanuel Macron enthusiastically announced plans to completely segregate the unvaccinated from any form of public leisure. “The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off, and we’ll carry on doing this — to the end,” he said . In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte began 2022 by threatening unvaccinated Filipinos with arrest .
In Quebec, meanwhile, lawmakers would argue that their uncompromising approach is already yielding fruit. Just hours after announcing a tax on the unvaccinated, Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé announced that vaccine appointments had surged in response . He said that same thing after the province’s earlier move of closing liquor stores to the unvaccinated.
Said Bowman, “You could practically propose going after the unvaccinated with pitchforks and torches and you’d get support for that.”
Eligible Canadians 5 and over who are unvaccinated (zero doses): 12%
Eligible Canadians 5 and older in each province and territory who are unvaccinated:
Alberta: 15.8%
Saskatchewan: 14.1%
Manitoba: 12.6%
Ontario: 12.5%
B.C.: 11.6%
Nunavut: 11.6%
Quebec: 10.2%
New Brunswick: 9.7%
Yukon: 9%
Nova Scotia: 8.4%
Prince Edward Island: 7.2%
Northwest Territories: 5.6%
Newfoundland and Labrador: 2.5%
Males who are unvaccinated (as of Jan. 8): 18.3% (of total population)
Females who are unvaccinated (as of Jan. 8): 16% (of total population)
Proportion of unvaccinated by eligible age group:
5-11: 60.5%
12-17: 13%
18-29: 14.3%
30-39: 12.2%
40-49: 10%
50-59: 11%
60-69: 4.3%
70-79: .05%
80-89: 0%
Sources: Covid-19 Tracker Canada ; Public Health Agency of Canada
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
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AP college football: and
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
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AP NFL:
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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