Rallies against virus measures
NURSES WHO ATTENDED ANTI-COVID PROTEST IN D.C. HELPING ORGANIZE EVENTS
Cross-country protests rejecting vaccine passports and COVID-19 public health measures are planned for Monday, a series of demonstrations by a group that features among its organizers two Ontario nurses who travelled to Washington on the day of the infamous Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol building.
The protests, scheduled for cities from Victoria to St. John’s and organized by a group calling itself Canadian Frontline Nurses, echo those that have rippled across Canada in recent weeks in response to government announcements that they would initiate some variety of vaccine passport system, which would limit the access unvaccinated Canadians have to public spaces.
Kristen Nagle and Sarah Choujounian, two of the organizers for the group, have both long been active in the protests against public-health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic and were present at a rally in Washington on Jan. 6, the same day that pro-donald Trump agitators stormed the Capitol building.
In November 2020, Nagle was charged for organizing rallies in violation of Ontario’s public health measures. She was, according to news reports at the time, put on paid leave from her job at the London Health Sciences Centre for actions “not aligned” with her employer’s values. An investigation into her conduct wrapped up by mid-january 2021, and she was fired.
“Kristen is passionate about children’s health and empowering families to trust their bodies and immune systems, to support and not suppress symptoms and to live a more natural life in harmony with the Earth with full body sovereignty,” says her bio on the group’s website.
Choujounian was the founder of Nurses Against Lockdowns, which has since merged with Canadian Frontline Nurses. She has, according to her bio on the group’s website, been fired from both her nursing jobs in Ontario.
Both women travelled to Washington last January for a rally organized by Global Frontline Nurses, an organization that claims there is no evidence that social distancing is helpful in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and that “lockdowns do not work,” both positions widely disputed by public-health experts.
In Washington, Choujounian said she was fired from her nursing job for posting online about her beliefs about lockdowns, and said restrictions on visiting nursing homes are "crimes against humanity.”
Choujounian and Nagle are also both under investigation by the College of Nurses of Ontario for their conduct. The college did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
The Post reached out to Canadian Frontline Nurses for comment on Sunday, but the organization did not respond by press time.
There have been protests around the country relating to vaccine passports in recent weeks, reinvigorating a movement that had, previously, held rallies across the country condemning mask mandates and lockdown measures taken in many provinces to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Last week, the Canadian Nursing Association issued a strongly worded statement condemning the protests, saying they “have stunned and saddened exhausted health-care workers.”
“The reckless views of a handful of discredited people who identify as nurses have aligned in some cases with angry crowds who are putting public health and safety at risk,” said a statement. “Their outlandish assertions about science would be laughable were they not so dangerous.”
On Sunday, Toronto Mayor John Tory also came out against the protests, saying on Twitter “We all have a right to protest but abusing that right in order to harass people outside a hospital and spread misinformation about vaccines in the middle of the pandemic is unacceptable and beyond the pale.”
News reports from across the country detail verbal and physical abuse from protesters during the last major round of protests, including reports that ambulances and patients struggled to get through thousands of demonstrators to get into hospitals.
On Sunday, Alberta Health Services said it is planning for the “increased” presence of protective services and police around the hospital when the protests occur Monday in order to “support staff and patients at the Royal Alexandra Hospital to feel safe when entering or leaving the hospital tomorrow.”
Monday’s protest, according to a Canadian Frontline Nurses Facebook post, are “more of a silent vigil where health-care professionals and the general public are welcome to show their support for those against medical tyranny.”
The protests have escalated to the extent that the presidents of the Ontario Medical Association and the Canadian Medical Association penned a joint statement earlier this month saying the protests are “precluding access to much needed health care settings and demoralizing health-care workers.”