Charest says leaders must listen to health experts on lifting federal COVID mandates

OTTAWA

Jean Charest says when it comes to lifting federal COVID-19 mandates, leaders should listen to health experts and not replace that advice with their own judgment.

Federal Conservatives and their supporters have long been calling for the removal of vaccine mandates for domestic air travellers, public servants and those working in federally regulated industries.

Tory MPs say rapid testing should be allowed for those who choose to be unvaccinated. They have dismissed the mandates, announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before last summer’s federal election, as driving division in the country and threatening people’s livelihoods.

Recently, Conservatives have pointed to provinces’ choices to drop their vaccine-passport rules along with remaining health restrictions, following the Omicron-driven wave of the pandemic when infections soared.

Charest, however, said decisions about the federal mandates that remain in place should be made according to the advice of health professionals.

“That’s why they’re there,” the Conservative leadership candidate said in a wide-ranging interview on Thursday with The Canadian Press.

“We shouldn’t try to substitute our judgment to it. There is always an element of political judgment.”

Charest tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.

He said he believes Canadians are lacking guidance on what to expect in the months ahead and they deserve to know more so they can plan their lives.

Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, said Friday that the federal mandates were under review.

Unlike Charest, most other Conservative leadership contenders stand definitively against COVID-19 mandates and are campaigning on that position.

One in particular is Pierre Poilievre, the first entrant into the race. The Ottawa-area MP positioned himself as the candidate promising to restore freedoms to Canadians.

He also embraced a convoy of protesters who rolled into Ottawa in late January demanding an end to vaccine mandates and refused to leave for three weeks, prompting local leaders, police and Trudeau to call the situation a crisis.