The idea put forward by Prime Minister François Legault to impose a financial penalty on unvaccinated people in Quebec is making headlines in the media in English Canada, but also around the world.
the Globe and Mail, the National Post and CBC take up, notably in the front page, the Quebec government’s proposal in articles, but also in editorials that criticize it and qualify it as “punitive and unnecessary”, or even as “discriminatory” and “subject to constitutional challenge”.
Major international media are also announcing Quebec’s intention to introduce a tax for the unvaccinated. French newspaper Release indicates on its Internet page that the “French-speaking province of Canada” justifies this decision because people who are not vaccinated represent a “financial burden for all Quebecers”. The world briefly returns to the measure, citing the words of François Legault, according to whom they come to “clog” hospitals.
The Guardian emphasizes for his part that the Prime Minister indicated that the 10% of the unvaccinated population puts pressure on the 90% of those who are. The British newspaper also returns to the fact that the province will ask for vaccine proof next week to enter the SAQ and SQDC. A Montreal doctor who was interviewed there mentioned “that things are bad in terms of hospitalizations”.
The BBC notes that places that impose financial penalties on those who refuse vaccination are rare. She provides the example of Greece, which will ask people over 60 who still haven’t received their fix to pay a monthly penalty later in January. The case of Singapore is also mentioned. In this country, patients with COVID-19 who are not vaccinated have to pay their medical expenses out of pocket, it is indicated.
In the American press, the Washington post devotes an article to the initiative envisaged by Quebec, recalling that the Prime Minister will give more details in the coming weeks.
NPR and ABC News for their part publish an Associated Press dispatch which summarizes the intentions of the province.
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