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
BATHURST, N.B. – RCMP in New Brunswick say a weekend ground search for evidence related to the disappearance of a teenage girl in 2021 didn’t reveal any new information.
In an emailed statement, the RCMP said 20 people participated in the search for evidence in the case of Madison Roy-Boudreau of Bathurst.
The release said the search occurred in the Middle River area, just south of the girl’s hometown.
Police have said the 14-year-old’s disappearance is being treated as a homicide investigation.
The RCMP said the search “did not reveal any new information regarding the circumstances of her disappearance.”
There are no plans for another search until police receive a tip or a lead pointing to a new search area.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VICTORIA – A middle school in Victoria was forced into a lockdown after a man entered the building without permission, and police say they had to use a stun gun to make an arrest.
Victoria police say officers received multiple calls around noon on Monday of an unknown male entering Central Middle School, leading staff to set off emergency procedures that put the building under lockdown.
Police say its emergency response team arrived within minutes and found the suspect, who “appeared to be in a drug-induced state,” in the school’s library.
A statement from police says the suspect resisted arrest, and officers had to use a Taser to subdue the man.
He’s being held by police and has been assessed by emergency medical staff.
Police say the man was not armed and there were no continuing safety concerns for students and staff following the arrest.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
VANCOUVER – Former B.C. Green leader Andrew Weaver knows what it’s like to form a minority government with the NDP, but says such a deal to create the province’s next administration is less likely this time than seven years ago.
Weaver struck a power-sharing agreement that resulted in John Horgan’s NDP minority government in 2017, but said in an interview Monday there is now more animosity between the two parties.
Neither the NDP nor the B.C. Conservatives secured a majority in Saturday’s election, raising the prospect of a minority NDP government if Leader David Eby can get the support of two Green legislators.
Manual recounts in two ridings could also play an important role in the outcome, which will not be known for about a week.
Weaver, who is no longer a member of the Greens, endorsed a Conservative candidate in his home riding.
He said Eby would be in a better position to negotiate if Furstenau, who lost her seat, stepped aside as party leader.
“I think Mr. Eby would be able to have fresh discussions with fresh new faces around the table, (after) four years of political sniping … between Sonia and the NDP in the B.C. legislature,” he said.
He said Furstenau’s loss put the two elected Greens in an awkward position because parties “need the leader in the legislature.”
Furstenau could resign as leader or one of the elected Greens could step down and let her run in a byelection in their riding, he said.
“They need to resolve that issue sooner rather than later,” he said.
The Green victories went to Rob Botterell in Saanich North and the Islands and Jeremy Valeriote in West Vancouver-Sea to Sky.
Neither Botterell nor Valeriote have held seats in the legislature before, Weaver noted.
“It’s not like in 2017 when, you know, I had been in the (legislature) for four years already,” Weaver said, adding that “the learning curve is steep.”
Sanjay Jeram, chair of undergraduate studies in political science at Simon Fraser University, said he doesn’t think it’ll be an “easygoing relationship between (the NDP and Greens) this time around.”
“I don’t know if Eby and Furstenau have the same relationship — or the potential to have the same relationship — as Horgan and Weaver did,” he said. “I think their demands will be a little more strict and it’ll be a little more of a cold alliance than it was in 2017 if they do form an alliance.”
Horgan and Weaver shook hands on a confidence-and-supply agreement before attending a rugby match, where they were spotted sitting together before the deal became public knowledge.
Eby said in his election-night speech that he had already reached out to Furstenau and suggested common “progressive values” between their parties.
Furstenau said in her concession speech that her party was poised to play a “pivotal role” in the legislature.
Botterell said in an election-night interview that he was “totally supportive of Sonia” and he would “do everything I can to support her and the path forward that she chooses to take because that’s her decision.”
The Green Party of Canada issued a news release Monday, congratulating the candidates on their victories, noting Valeriote’s win is the first time that a Green MLA has been elected outside of Vancouver Island.
“Now, like all British Columbians we await the final seat count to know which party will have the best chance to form government. Let’s hope that the Green caucus has a pivotal role,” the release said, echoing Furstenau’s turn of phrase.
The final results of the election won’t be known until at least next week.
Elections BC says manual recounts will be held on Oct. 26 to 28 in two ridings where NDP candidates led B.C. Conservatives by fewer than 100 votes after the initial count ended on Sunday.
The outcomes in Surrey City Centre and Juan de Fuca-Malahat could determine who forms government.
The election’s initial results have the NDP elected or leading in 46 ridings, and the B.C. Conservatives in 45, both short of the 47 majority mark in B.C.’s 93-seat legislature.
If the Conservatives win both of the recount ridings and win all other ridings where they lead, Rustad will win with a one-seat majority.
If the NDP holds onto at least one of the ridings where there are recounts, wins the other races it leads, and strikes a deal with the Greens, they would have enough numbers to form a minority government.
But another election could also be on the cards, since the winner will have to nominate a Speaker, reducing the government’s numbers in the legislature by one vote.
Elections BC says it will also be counting about 49,000 absentee and mail-in ballots from Oct. 26 to 28.
The NDP went into the election with 55 ridings, representing a comfortable majority in what was then an 87-seat legislature.
Jeram, with Simon Fraser University, said though the counts aren’t finalized, the Conservatives were the big winners in the election.
“They weren’t really a not much of a formal party until not that long ago, and to go from two per cent of the vote to winning 45 or more seats in the B.C. provincial election is just incredible,” he said in an interview Monday.
Jeram said people had expected Eby to call an election after he took over from John Horgan in 2022, and if he had, he doesn’t think there would have been the same result.
He said the B.C. Conservative’s popularity grew as a result of the decision of the BC Liberals to rebrand as BC United and later drop out.
“Had Eby called an election before that really shook out, and maybe especially before (Pierre) Poilievre, kind of really had the wind in his sails and started to grow, I think he could have won the majority for sure.”
He said he wasn’t surprised by the results of the election, saying polls were fairly accurate.
“Ultimately, it really was a result that we saw coming for a while, since the moment that BC United withdrew and put their support behind the conservatives, I think this was the outcome that was expected.”
— With files from Darryl Greer
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
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