Alberta’s new premier, Danielle Smith, says people who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine are the “most discriminated against group [elle] witnessed in [sa] life “. Words that made a strong reaction and forced him to explain himself.
“We have to stop trying to bully a particular group because they made a different choice,” she said on Tuesday, the day she officially took office, when she met the press for the first time. “We are not going to create a segregated society,” insisted the leader of the United Conservative Party. To “stop this unacceptable discrimination,” she plans to amend Alberta’s human rights law.
Prime Minister Danielle Smith was responding to a reporter who asked her why she considered the choice of vaccination to be an issue equivalent to issues of racial discrimination or sexual and gender minorities covered by the law.
Jason Kenney’s successor clarified her remarks on Wednesday. In a press release posted on Twittershe stresses that she did not want to “trivialize the discrimination experienced by minorities […] or create a false sense of equivalence” between racialized minorities and unvaccinated people.
Alberta NDP MP Janis Irwin, who openly identifies as a lesbian, noted on social media that Ms.me Smith did not contain “the words ‘I’m sorry'”. The New Democratic Party of Alberta demands an apology from the premier.
“Laughable” words
Danielle Smith’s release resonated across the country.
In the neighboring province, the premier of British Columbia, John Horgan, described as “laughable” the comments of Mr.me Smith during an interview Wednesday on C-FAX radio in Victoria. “We are living in difficult times, and that the new Prime Minister [d’Alberta] focuses on a part of the population who has chosen not to be vaccinated when there are other challenges, it seems to me to lack vision. »
Several Internet users were surprised that Danielle Smith places the non-vaccinated at the top of the list of people who suffer discrimination.
“Someone can tell him about missing and murdered aboriginal women, residential schools, systemic racism, genocide. This is what discrimination looks like,” tweeted the Dr Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician and professor at the University of Toronto.
So…Danielle Smith thinks unvaccinated people are the most discriminated against group she’s ever seen.
Someone please tell her about: Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women. Residential Schools. Systemic racism. Genocide.
This is what discrimination actually looks like.
— Naheed Dosani (@NaheedD) October 12, 2022
The protection of unvaccinated persons by the Alberta Human Rights Act is one of the key promises of Danielle Smith’s election campaign.
The former journalist and leader of the right-wing Wildrose party, who also wants to introduce an “Alberta sovereignty act”, is a harsh critic of the health measures taken during the pandemic. In a promotional video posted on Twitter during the United Conservative Party leadership race, Mme Smith promises that “if Ottawa attacks again [la] Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” his government will not enforce federal policies.
According to the latest Canadian government data from September, Alberta is the province with the fewest people who have received at least three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. As of Oct. 10, 39.7% of Albertans have received three doses, the province says.