QUESTION PERIOD — Health
COVID-19 Pandemic--Vaccine Mandate
February 24, 2022
Senator Gold, Prime Minister Trudeau finally revoked the Emergencies Act yesterday but he should never have employed it in the first place. Once again, this Prime Minister and his government have failed Canadians. They exploited the division between vaccinated and unvaccinated Canadians for political gain. But Canadians have rejected that division, that stigmatization and those shameful political wedges.
When will this government follow our international allies and most of our Canadian provinces and remove discriminatory vaccine mandates and restrictions?
Thank you for your question. As I’ve responded to your colleague Senator Plett and I’ll repeat, the government has been monitoring and will continue to monitor the appropriateness and the necessity of whatever measures are necessary to protect Canadians’ health. It continues to follow the advice of its public health officials and there’s not much more to say except, with all respect, it is the position of the government that these vaccine mandates are not discriminatory. They are designed as a reasonable and proportionate response to a health care crisis of unprecedented nature and they are designed to affirm our individual responsibility to our neighbours, to our families and our collective responsibility to protect one another from the pandemic.
Senator Gold, I am proudly triple vaccinated and I promoted vaccination and COVID health measures widely throughout the pandemic. The vast majority of Canadians are vaccinated as well.
Now we are at a point in this pandemic where some measures that were put into place are no longer necessary. Even Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Theresa Tam, has said vaccine mandates need to be re-examined. The time for freedom is now. Why won’t this Trudeau government follow the provinces and our international allies and end federal vaccine mandates and restrictions? Is it just more of this Prime Minister’s desire for authoritarian control?
No, it is not. And that is, with all respect, a gross mischaracterization of the actions of this government throughout this whole period.
The federal government, which has already adjusted the rules on numerous occasions, is doing what it needs to do and will continue to do what it needs to do to protect Canadians. In a federal system, provinces are free to make decisions that are different. Many provinces, including your own and others, relaxed mandates far earlier than other provinces. The results speak for themselves.
The fact remains that the federal government within its areas of jurisdiction will take its responsibilities appropriately and responsibly and will continue to do so.
