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Antisemitism, racism, misogyny, unfounded character assassinations and disturbing threats of physical violence and even death.
Those are just some of the daily hate-filled messages sent to Canadian front-line health-care workers, public health advocates, academics and experts speaking out on the benefit of COVID-19 vaccines and against misinformation.
One health-care worker told CBC News under condition of anonymity that they received a suspicious package at their place of work that led to an evacuation.
Another discussed the debilitating mental health issues they developed as a direct result of the volume and intensity of personal attacks and the dozens of baseless professional complaints made against them.
When protesters stormed Canadian hospitals this summer to berate health-care workers and oppose vaccine mandates and other public health restrictions, widespread condemnation from politicians and the public was swift.
But a disturbing rise in aggressive online harassment of health-care workers across Canada has been largely met with inaction, prompting calls for governments, regulators and social media companies to do more to protect those on the front lines.
“We often like to think that we’re not like our neighbours to the south,” said Dr. Naheed Dosani, a physician and health-justice advocate in Toronto. “But this pandemic has shown that there’s a lot of hate in this country.”
People march during a protest against COVID-19 vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations for health-care workers on Sept. 1 in Vancouver. The protest began outside Vancouver General Hospital, and police estimated as many as 5,000 people were in the crowd. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Online attacks ‘take their toll’
Those who choose to speak up in the media, online or in public forums say they are being specifically targeted by anti-vaxxers and other online attackers in order to threaten, intimidate and ultimately silence them.
Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth, a family physician in Ottawa, wrote in the Globe and Mail this week about how she received an antisemitic death threat through a formal complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario — showing the brazenness of the attackers.
“It’s a death threat — and if we don’t talk about it, then it becomes this hidden thing that I have to deal with myself,” she said. “I am not the problem because I’m speaking out. The problem is that somebody out there thinks that it is something that they can get away with.”
Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth says she and her colleagues in Ottawa feel ‘under attack’ and unprotected, even though they’ve worked hard to protect the community by promoting public health guidance and administering COVID-19 vaccines. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Kaplan-Myrth says she and her colleagues feel “under attack” and unprotected, even though they’ve worked hard to protect those in the community they serve by promoting public health guidance and administering COVID-19 vaccines.
“I work a 12-hour day, and then at the end of the day I have to wait for my husband to come pick me up,” she said. “Because it’s no longer safe for me to walk home on my own.”
Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, says he’s faced credible death threats investigated by the police, constant antisemitism and orchestrated attacks on social media and online.
“Those things take their toll and can make it harder to provide care the way that we want to because our minds are under so much tension and pressure,” he said.
“We are the people who provide care for people when they’re at their sickest, when they’re at their most vulnerable, and we need to have something in the tank to be able to provide that care in a safe and effective way…. You have to care for the caregiver.”
Warner says that outside of the hospital, outspoken health-care workers and experts who vocally advocate for public health and vaccinations in the media and online face “constant” attacks about the way they look, their ethnic background and their religion.
Toronto physician Dr. Michael Warner says he’s faced credible death threats investigated by the police, constant antisemitism and orchestrated attacks on social media and online. (Kas Roussy/CBC)
“Imagine having an emboldened mob of people yelling and screaming at you every day, constantly, when from your perspective you’re really just trying to do good. You’re actually trying to provide the advice that is going to protect people from dying,” he said.
“It does weigh heavily on me, I look over my shoulder all the time. I’m pretty nervous to take my mask off in public when I’m outside on the street for fear that someone might recognize me who wants to do me harm.”
‘Someone’s going to get hurt’
Those directly affected by the online abuse feel more must be done by different levels of government, law enforcement agencies, regulatory bodies or directly from social media companies to put a stop to the relentless attacks they face online before they get worse.
“The attacks are widespread and they’re escalating,” said Dr. Mary Fernando, a family physician in Ottawa.
“We know that threats can turn into violence, and there has to be a way to stop them from feeling they can do it with impunity — someone’s going to get hurt.”
Dr. David Naylor, who led the federal inquiry into Canada’s national response to the 2003 SARS epidemic and now co-chairs the federal government’s COVID-19 immunity task force, says the attacks go far beyond heated exchanges or criticism of expert policy advice.
“What’s happening instead is that a health professional or advocate takes a public position supporting vaccines or other public health measures and ends up subjected to crass personal attacks and abuse by the lunatic fringe,” he said.
“It’s targeted, vicious and sometimes laced with bigotry. The social media platforms need to police this phenomenon more aggressively, and any explicit threats should be traced to their sources and the perpetrators prosecuted.”
WATCH | Canadian doctors speak out about online abuse and racism:
Canadian doctors open up about online trolls and racism
4 months ago
Why 2 BIPOC physicians share their experience with hate and racism on social media during the pandemic 3:20
Toronto physician Dosani says policy decisions by provincial governments — such as lifting mask mandates, not mandating vaccines for health-care workers and setting a date on the end of vaccine passports — have fuelled online hate.
“When our governments make policy choices that don’t stand with the science and health workers, they leave us vulnerable with no cover, with targets on our backs,” he said.
“It’s like the Wild, Wild West out here — we are on our own. And it’s an honour to serve and to advocate for the health of Canadians, but it should not come at the cost of our mental health and our safety.”
Dr. Naheed Dosani, a physician and health-justice advocate in Toronto, says policy decisions by provincial governments — such as lifting mask mandates, not mandating vaccines for health-care workers and setting a date on the end of vaccine passports — have fuelled online hate. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
National network proposed to track online hate
Ottawa physician Kaplan-Myrth says online threats need to be taken much more seriously by law enforcement, and the federal government should create new legislation, given that the threats fall under the Criminal Code.
But she says provinces also need to step up to ensure additional layers of protection — like they did with protesters outside hospitals.
“I’m asking for the help of anybody who can ensure that the people who are threatening us are charged and that we are kept safe, and that the public message is: Stay away from our doctors and nurses who are doing the work that we asked them to do,” she said.
“Protect us, step up and say that our well-being matters, because even in the face of all of this, even while the death threats are coming in, I’m still going to keep immunizing patients.”
Fernando says concrete solutions need to come from a national legal perspective, because the physician and surgeon colleges and other regulatory bodies can only do so much.
“What can the college do? The college is largely there to ensure that the public is protected. That is their job,” she said. “I do believe I’m coming to the point of believing that we need laws. We need something that protects us.”
WATCH | Medical groups condemn harassment of health-care workers:
Medical community condemns harassment of health-care workers at protests
2 months ago
The medical community is condemning the recent harassment of health-care workers during protests across the country. Medical groups say there’s been an increase in ‘bullying, attacks and violence’ directed at health-care workers as hospitals are targeted by demonstrators protesting mandatory vaccines and vaccine passport programs. 2:04
The Canadian Medical Association and the Ontario Medical Association released a joint statement in the summer saying the harassment of health-care workers who have “worked tirelessly for months on end” is “wrong and unacceptable.” A spokesperson for the CMA said the group will have more to say on the issue in the coming weeks.
Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious diseases physician and associate professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, says the creation of a national network to report and track online hate could also go a long way in deterring bad actors.
“I really think that that could make a difference for some of these people,” she said. “Because just knowing that they’re being watched would take away that sense of invulnerability that keyboard warriors apparently have.”
Sabina Vohra-Miller, a pharmacologist and science communicator, says she has received increasingly ‘violent’ messages because of her volunteer public health advocacy. (Submitted by Sabina Vohra-Miller )
Sabina Vohra-Miller, a pharmacologist and science communicator who co-founded Unambiguous Science and the South Asian Health Network, says she has received increasingly “violent” messages because of her volunteer public health advocacy.
“We need to be talking about this so that something can be done,” she said, adding that friends and family encouraged her to speak out about a death threat she recently received.
“Because it’s really escalating, and many of us are concerned about the information that is in the public about us — in terms of where we live, where we work, what we do, information on our families, our children — and so it ends up being quite worrisome.”
Vohra-Miller says the biggest fear she has is that someone will actually act on the threats against her, which have at times made her wonder whether the advocacy work she’s doing is worth continuing, given that it comes at such a “high personal cost.”
“All of the work that we do is basically unpaid volunteer work, and so is it still worth it if you’re putting your life at risk? Or you’re putting your family’s lives at risk?” she said.
“It makes you stop and wonder whether any of this is worth it.”
Outside of sports and a “Cold front coming down from Canada,” American news media only report on Canadian events that they believe are, or will be, influential to the US. Therefore, when Justin Trudeau’s announcement, having finally read the room, that Canada will be reducing the number of permanent residents admitted by more than 20 percent and temporary residents like skilled workers and college students will be cut by more than half made news south of the border, I knew the American media felt Trudeau’s about-face on immigration was newsworthy because many Americans would relate to Trudeau realizing Canada was accepting more immigrants than it could manage and are hoping their next POTUS will follow Trudeau’s playbook.
Canada, with lots of space and lacking convenient geographical ways for illegal immigrants to enter the country, though still many do, has a global reputation for being incredibly accepting of immigrants. On the surface, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver appear to be multicultural havens. However, as the saying goes, “Too much of a good thing is never good,” resulting in a sharp rise in anti-immigrant sentiment, which you can almost taste in the air. A growing number of Canadians, regardless of their political affiliation, are blaming recent immigrants for causing the housing affordability crises, inflation, rise in crime and unemployment/stagnant wages.
Throughout history, populations have engulfed themselves in a tribal frenzy, a psychological state where people identify strongly with their own group, often leading to a ‘us versus them’ mentality. This has led to quick shifts from complacency to panic and finger-pointing at groups outside their tribe, a phenomenon that is not unique to any particular culture or time period.
My take on why the American news media found Trudeau’s blatantly obvious attempt to save his political career, balancing appeasement between the pitchfork crowd, who want a halt to immigration until Canada gets its house in order, and immigrant voters, who traditionally vote Liberal, newsworthy; the American news media, as do I, believe immigration fatigue is why Kamala Harris is going to lose on November 5th.
Because they frequently get the outcome wrong, I don’t take polls seriously. According to polls in 2014, Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives and Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals were in a dead heat in Ontario, yet Wynne won with more than twice as many seats. In the 2018 Quebec election, most polls had the Coalition Avenir Québec with a 1-to-5-point lead over the governing Liberals. The result: The Coalition Avenir Québec enjoyed a landslide victory, winning 74 of 125 seats. Then there’s how the 2016 US election polls showing Donald Trump didn’t have a chance of winning against Hillary Clinton were ridiculously way off, highlighting the importance of the election day poll and, applicable in this election as it was in 2016, not to discount ‘shy Trump supporters;’ voters who support Trump but are hesitant to express their views publicly due to social or political pressure.
My distrust in polls aside, polls indicate Harris is leading by a few points. One would think that Trump’s many over-the-top shenanigans, which would be entertaining were he not the POTUS or again seeking the Oval Office, would have him far down in the polls. Trump is toe-to-toe with Harris in the polls because his approach to the economy—middle-class Americans are nostalgic for the relatively strong economic performance during Trump’s first three years in office—and immigration, which Americans are hyper-focused on right now, appeals to many Americans. In his quest to win votes, Trump is doing what anyone seeking political office needs to do: telling the people what they want to hear, strategically using populism—populism that serves your best interests is good populism—to evoke emotional responses. Harris isn’t doing herself any favours, nor moving voters, by going the “But, but… the orange man is bad!” route, while Trump cultivates support from “weird” marginal voting groups.
To Harris’s credit, things could have fallen apart when Biden abruptly stepped aside. Instead, Harris quickly clinched the nomination and had a strong first few weeks, erasing the deficit Biden had given her. The Democratic convention was a success, as was her acceptance speech. Her performance at the September 10th debate with Donald Trump was first-rate.
Harris’ Achilles heel is she’s now making promises she could have made and implemented while VP, making immigration and the economy Harris’ liabilities, especially since she’s been sitting next to Biden, watching the US turn into the circus it has become. These liabilities, basically her only liabilities, negate her stance on abortion, democracy, healthcare, a long-winning issue for Democrats, and Trump’s character. All Harris has offered voters is “feel-good vibes” over substance. In contrast, Trump offers the tangible political tornado (read: steamroll the problems Americans are facing) many Americans seek. With Trump, there’s no doubt that change, admittedly in a messy fashion, will happen. If enough Americans believe the changes he’ll implement will benefit them and their country…
The case against Harris on immigration, at a time when there’s a huge global backlash to immigration, even as the American news media are pointing out, in famously immigrant-friendly Canada, is relatively straightforward: During the first three years of the Biden-Harris administration, illegal Southern border crossings increased significantly.
The words illegal immigration, to put it mildly, irks most Americans. On the legal immigration front, according to Forbes, most billion-dollar startups were founded by immigrants. Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, to name three, have immigrants as CEOs. Immigrants, with tech skills and an entrepreneurial thirst, have kept America leading the world. I like to think that Americans and Canadians understand the best immigration policy is to strategically let enough of these immigrants in who’ll increase GDP and tax base and not rely on social programs. In other words, Americans and Canadians, and arguably citizens of European countries, expect their governments to be more strategic about immigration.
The days of the words on a bronze plaque mounted inside the Statue of Liberty pedestal’s lower level, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” are no longer tolerated. Americans only want immigrants who’ll benefit America.
Does Trump demagogue the immigration issue with xenophobic and racist tropes, many of which are outright lies, such as claiming Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets? Absolutely. However, such unhinged talk signals to Americans who are worried about the steady influx of illegal immigrants into their country that Trump can handle immigration so that it’s beneficial to the country as opposed to being an issue of economic stress.
In many ways, if polls are to be believed, Harris is paying the price for Biden and her lax policies early in their term. Yes, stimulus spending quickly rebuilt the job market, but at the cost of higher inflation. Loosen border policies at a time when anti-immigrant sentiment was increasing was a gross miscalculation, much like Trudeau’s immigration quota increase, and Biden indulging himself in running for re-election should never have happened.
If Trump wins, Democrats will proclaim that everyone is sexist, racist and misogynous, not to mention a likely White Supremacist, and for good measure, they’ll beat the “voter suppression” button. If Harris wins, Trump supporters will repeat voter fraud—since July, Elon Musk has tweeted on Twitter at least 22 times about voters being “imported” from abroad—being widespread.
Regardless of who wins tomorrow, Americans need to cool down; and give the divisive rhetoric a long overdue break. The right to an opinion belongs to everyone. Someone whose opinion differs from yours is not by default sexist, racist, a fascist or anything else; they simply disagree with you. Americans adopting the respectful mindset to agree to disagree would be the best thing they could do for the United States of America.
CALGARY – Sam Edney and Jesse Lumsden sat on a bench on Parliament Hill during an athlete celebration after the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Having just represented Canada in their sliding sports — Lumsden in bobsled and Edney in luge — the two men pondered their futures together.
“There was actually one moment about, are we going to keep going? Talking about, what are each of us going to do? What’s the next four years look like?” Edney recalled a decade later.
“I do remember talking about that now. That was a big moment,” Lumsden said.
As the two men were sounding boards for each other as athletes, they are again as high-performance directors of their respective sliding sports.
Edney, an Olympic relay silver medallist in 2018 and the first Canadian man to win a World Cup gold medal, became Luge Canada’s HPD upon his retirement the following year.
Lumsden, a world and World Cup bobsled champion who raced his third Olympic Games in 2018, leaned on his sliding compatriot when he returned from five years of working in the financial sector to become HPD at Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton in July.
“The first person I called when BCS reached out to me about the role that I’m in now is Sam,” Lumsden said recently at Calgary’s WinSport, where they spent much of their competitive careers and now have offices.
“It’s been four months. I was squatting in the luge offices for the first two months beside him.
“We had all these ideas about we’re going to have weekly coffees and workouts Tuesday and Thursday and in the four months now, we’ve had two coffees and zero workouts.”
Canada has won at least one sliding-sport Olympic medal in each of the last five Winter Games, but Edney and Lumsden face a challenge as team leaders that they didn’t as athletes.
WinSport’s sliding track, built for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary and where Edney and Lumsden did hundreds of runs as athletes, has been closed since 2019 needing a $25-million renovation.
There is no sign that will happen. WinSport took the $10 million the provincial government offered for the sliding track and put the money toward a renovation of the Frank King Lodge used by recreational skiers and snowboarders.
Canada’s only other sliding track in the resort town of Whistler, B.C., has a fraction of Calgary’s population from which to recruit and develop athletes.
“The comparison is if you took half the ice rinks away in the country, hockey and figure skating would be disarray,” Edney said.
“It just changes the dynamic of the sports completely, in terms of we’re now scrambling to find ways to bring people to a location that’s not as easy to get to, or to live out of, or to train out of full time.
“We’re realizing how good we had it when Calgary’s (track) was here. It’s not going to be the end of us, but it’s definitely made it more difficult.”
Lumsden, a former CFL running back as well as an Olympian, returned to a national sport organization still recovering from internal upheaval that included the athlete-led ouster of the former president and CEO after the 2022 Winter Olympics, and Olympic champion pilot Kaillie Humphries suing the organization for her release to compete for the U.S. in 2019.
“NSOs like Luge Canada and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, they’re startups,” Lumsden said. “You have to think like a startup, operate like a startup, job stack, do more with less, especially in the current environment.
“I felt it was the right time for me to take my sporting experience and the skill set that I learned at Neo Financial and working with some of the most talented people in Canada and try to inject that into an NSO that is in a state of distress right now, and try to work with the great staff we have and the athletes we have to start to turn this thing around.”
Edney, 40, and Lumsden, 42, take comfort in each other holding the same roles in their sports.
“It goes both ways. I couldn’t have been more excited about who they hired,” Edney said. “When Jesse was coming in, I knew that we were going to be able to collaborate and work together and get things happening for our sports.”
Added Lumsden: “We’ve been friends for a long time, so I knew how he was going to do in his role and before taking the role, having the conversation with him, I felt a lot of comfort.
“I asked ‘are you going to be around for a long time?’ He said ‘yeah, I’m not going anywhere.’ I said ‘OK, good.'”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.
The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.
The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.
Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.
Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.
The final is scheduled for Saturday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.
