MANDATORY VACCINATION BILL VOTED DOWN

New Brunswick legislators have voted down a controversial bill that would have made vaccinations mandatory for children in the province’s schools and daycares. The minority Progressive Conservative government’s Act Respecting Proof of Immunization was defeated Thursday in a vote of 22 to 20, with four abstentions. Bill 11 would have required children in public schools and licensed daycare fa

cilities to provide proof of immunization unless they had an exemption signed by a medical professional. Non-medical exemptions are currently accepted. Education Minister Dominic Cardy, pictured, had harsh words for colleagues who abstained or voted nay, saying these members had given in to pressure from anti-vaccination lobbyists pushing “medieval conspiracy theories.”