Conservative leader Erin O’Toole said Thursday that we should accommodate those who do not want to be vaccinated, rather than confronting them, for example by offering them rapid screening tests.
During the election campaign, Mr. O’Toole opposed the mandatory vaccination of Canadians. At a press conference in Ottawa on Thursday, he accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of fueling vaccine reluctance in the country by directly attacking those who have not received the vaccine.
Trudeau said again on Wednesday that Canadians were angry that surgeries were being canceled because hospital beds were occupied by unvaccinated people.
The Conservative leader refuses to criticize people who are not vaccinated: he believes that “reasonable accommodations” should be offered to those who work in the trucking industry, in order to avoid service interruptions.
Experts are warning in several countries that the highly contagious Omicron variant threatens to overwhelm hospitals.
In Quebec, the government decided on Thursday to tighten the screws on the unvaccinated: as of January 18, you will have to show a valid vaccination passport to shop at the Société des alcools (SAQ) or the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC ).
In Ontario, the Minister of Health, Christine Elliot, made it clear again Thursday that 73% of the 319 patients in intensive care in hospitals in the province are not fully immunized or have an unknown vaccination status. This data is specified every day in the Ontario balance sheet.
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