National Post (National Edition)
City councillor `needs to issue formal apology'
Vaccine tweet sparks religious controversy
As if Canada's rollout of COVID-19 vaccine wasn't bumpy enough, a prominent Toronto-area politician has added an element of religious controversy to the faltering process.
Carolyn Parrish, a city councillor in Mississauga, tweeted that some of her constituents wouldn't attend a pop-up vaccination clinic at a Hindu temple “for religious reasons.”
Parrish said Thursday she just meant that getting to the site would mean a long walk for Muslims fasting during Ramadan, or a taxing bicycle ride for elderly Sikhs.
But at least one Hindu leader is demanding an apology from the former Liberal MP for what he called an “offensive” comment.
The clinic was set up in a neighbourhood that is among the hardest hit in Canada by the pandemic, part of a plan to bring vaccines to those most at risk of infection.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Christine Elliott, his health minister, visited the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in north Toronto earlier this week to highlight the initiative.
The venue was not unique. Many churches, mosques and other houses of worship have been transformed into vaccine clinics across Canada. They include historically Black churches in Nova Scotia being used to engage citizens believed to be at increased risk of severe illness if they contract the virus.
Organizers of the Toronto pop-up asked that residents of neighbouring Mississauga's Malton area — part of Peel region — attend the clinic at the mandir.
Parrish complained on Twitter Wednesday that there was no way to reach the temple from Malton by public transit, yet the clinic was using some of Peel's limited vaccine supply.
“It's an institution which many Malton residents will not attend for religious reasons,” she added, inserting a thumbs-down emoji at the end of her post.
The tweet was later deleted and replaced by one that left out the religion issue. In another post, Parrish said she appreciated the temple's donation of its space.
But to Pandit Suraj Persad, a Hindu chaplain both to the Toronto Police Service and University of Toronto, it's not enough that she simply took down her earlier tweet. Politicians should be encouraging religious tolerance, he said.
“She needs to issue a formal apology. Then the community will consider forgiving her,” said Persad.
“That statement itself is very offensive to most people … It was highly, highly insensitive.”
Parrish said the tweet was awkwardly expressed, then deleted, but she never meant that people of Sikh or Muslim background in her ward would not set foot inside a Hindu temple.
Getting to the site, though, would mean a one-kilometre walk from the closest bus stop, she said.
“Muslims are fasting. Many have no cars,” said the councillor. “Even if not fasting, older or frail persons will have great difficulty … 18-plus-year olds often use bicycles to get around in Malton. And that would be a long ride in rain. Very old Sikh gentlemen are seen peddling around Malton all the time because they or their families don't have cars.”
Meanwhile, she said, all of the 60,000 appointments at the site, which is in Ford's nephew's city-council ward, were booked by the time the premier visited, leaving her constituents largely out of luck.
Malton and the part of Toronto where the mandir is located are among several hot spots for COVID-19 infection, neighbourhoods where many residents must work outside the home.
Persad said South Asian and Caribbean people in those areas have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. The province consulted him on how to best reach them for immunization, and he was supportive of using religious facilities.
Parrish was a member of Parliament from 1993 to 2006, most of that time as a Liberal, before then-prime minister Paul Martin removed her from caucus after she'd made a series of inflammatory remarks about U.S. president George W. Bush and her own party.
Parrish served on Mississauga's city council from 2006 to 2010, retired briefly, then was elected again in 2014.