LETTER – B.C. should rescind COVID firings in healthcare system
I used to have a lot of respect for Premier John Horgan and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, but it has rapidly disintegrated with Horgan’s handling of certain COVID-19 vaccination mandates and recently with his juvenile scorn for convoy protestors who were planning on arriving in Victoria.
Horgan seemed to have learned nothing from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s misguided and counterproductive taunting of convoy protestors, which only served to produce more anger and determination on their part and a drop in Trudeau’s support from voters across Canada.
I have faithfully adhered to all of Henry’s public health protocols, including receiving three vaccinations, but the shamefully stupid firing of at least 2,452 employees (895 in Interior Health) due to non-compliance with the provincial health officer’s order on mandatory vaccinations has turned me against Henry’s work and against this NDP government.
How many lives of good and intelligent and vitally important workers have they destroyed with this closed-minded and arrogant insistence on holding the line on mandatory vaccinations when it was long ago established that this over-weighted dependence on vaccinations is no longer considered solid science?
And how much damage has been done to our hospitals, many of which are at crisis levels on staffing?
In a recent article in the Globe and Mail, it was reported that top Vancouver Coastal Health officials in February advised UBC that vaccine mandates “could do more harm than good” and that “there is now no material difference in likelihood that a UBC student or staff member who is vaccinated or unvaccinated may be infected and potentially infectious to others.”
In a Feb. 16 letter from Vancouver Coastal Health chief medical health officer Patricia Daly to UBC president Santa Ono, Daly urged the university to drop its plan to deregister students who have refused to declare their COVID-19 vaccination status.
This was before the firings, so how could government proceed with the harmful firing of health workers in light of this clearly known information? It is unconscionable, almost criminal in my view. If anyone is to be fired, it would rightfully be Henry.
The legacies of Horgan and Henry as good leaders are at risk and I suggest that if these unnecessary and harmful firings are not immediately reversed, this will come to be seen as a very dark and tragic chapter in British Columbia history.
This is the kind of thing the convoy protestors are up in arms about.
The premier has it within his grasp to do the right thing for health-care workers and the health-care system, while at the same time removing a sore point for many thousands of decent people harbouring quite justifiable anger over the unnecessary and harmful vaccine mandate protocols that have been so ruthlessly imposed.
JOHN McNAMER
Kamloops
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I agree with your very important letter and observations. Our governments at the local, provincial and federal levels are using the pandemic as cover to create a two-tiered society that discriminates against people who are unwilling to risk their health for vaccines that neither prevent Covid-19 nor halt its transmission. Canada is now the only country using mandates to prevent about 7 million citizens and residents from boarding trains and planes to travel within and out of the country. The City of Kamloops, the BC and federal governments will not hire qualified people who are unvaccinated. Many across the country have been fired or placed on unpaid leave without access to EI. The governments are creating chaos in families across the country, and they and the mainstream media are stoking division in our society based on personal medical decisions. Is this the only time in history where people who didn’t take an ineffective pharmaceutical with know health risks are being persecuted and blamed for the drug’s failure? We all need to stand up against this divisive agenda and intimidation. Why are governments purging healthcare, the military, the RCMP and government of anyone with the courage to stand up against coercion? Why do we have a minister of health and public health officer in this province who are damaging public health by firing workers that we desperately need? Why is our federal government so captivated with pushing digital ID and security apparatus such as the Known Traveler Digital Identity? Why is the federal government pushing a censorship agenda to control social media? It’s no mystery to me why people across the country are gathering to wave flags and honk horns in courageous efforts to wake up the population. Our governments have used fear and our trust in public health against us, and we need to reclaim equal rights for everyone in this country or we will not have a healthy society.
First to address the ‘stupid’ firings of almost 2500 Interior Health employees due to non compliance with Vaccine mandates. I’d like you to place yourself in the position of a patient receiving post surgical care or any other serious care. When they understand that their Care Giver (nurse, doctor or the kitchen staff distributing thrice daily meals) are not or might not be vaccinated many of us are seriously panicked. Yes, I was one of the lucky ones last year (2021) to get long needed surgery. I was quite dependent on staff for everything for almost three days. A friend had been in RIH a year earlier (2020 when Covid first took down the country) for cancer treatment. She rushed her own discharge when masks were not worn by most Care Staff (Profession als who should have known better). My personal experience a year later than my friend’s, was quite different as all staff were at least masked. I assumed that all were also vaccinated …. it seems I was wrong. I believed it a responsibility of ALL health care workers to adhere to Vaxx and mask mandates. It being a condition of employment ought to be carried out in all segments of public service., i.e. restaurants. I believed they were all Vaxx’d but, it seems they may not be. I have phoned a couple of restaurants who say they are not “allowed” to request this: something about Human Rights? So, it’s OK they ask for my vaccination status (I must show my certificate + ID yet I cant ask the same info of them. One restaurant manager, a young lady, said while they can’t ask the employee vax status, she engages prospective employees in conversation which reveals the info she wants. The EMPLOYER has power and responsibility to the PUBLIC to ensure the best efforts are made. Yes the vaccinations are not perfect but rest assured that Dr Bonnie Henry is better qualified than anyone you cite. Her qualifications leave little doubt of her Scientific and Professional competence. You sir sound to be a Convoy advocate so I’ll leave it at that.