Kenney lashes out at protesters targeting Alberta’s top doctor
Cool it, yahoos.
That’s the message from Alberta Premier Jason Kenney to protesters across the country decrying COVID-19 restrictions and attacking public health officials.
After a virtual meeting Wednesday with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs, Kenney said the behaviour of some demonstrators is “outrageous.”
“This is the irony. In Alberta, I have welcomed a debate about how best to respond to the threat of this pandemic,” he said, noting Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, “herself has said repeatedly there is no one way through COVID.”
However, Kenney expressed furor toward the 750 protesters at the Alberta legislature in Edmonton on Monday deriding Hinshsaw and chanting “lock her up.”
“I understand the deep frustration that many people have with public health measures and they are free to use their Charter-protected freedom of speech to speak their minds,” the Albertan said.
“But to come out by the hundreds to stand in front of the legislature and to call for a respected public servant to be arrested is disgusting. Outrageous. It’s un-Canadian, shame to those responsible.”
Kenney added “if there’s anything good that comes out of it … (it) is all they do is a disservice to their own cause with statements like that — just like those clowns who went up to the Enoch reserve the other day and trespassed on sovereign First Nations territory.”
That was a reference to the aftermath of a separate protest Sunday at GraceLife Church, near Edmonton, which health officials closed for violating COVID-19 restrictions.
About 150 demonstrators upset with that decision then trespassed on Enoch Cree Nation land across the road from the church
“One of them was arrested for shouting racial epithets at a First Nations women. They vandalized Chief Billy Morin’s vehicle,” Kenney fumed.
“This kind of conduct is totally unacceptable and I call on those responsible to stop that.”
The Saskatchewan premier echoed Kenney’s concern about “divisive” protesters personally attacking health officials.
“There’s no place for … comments about people that are doing their level best to come forward with the best advice to keep people safe in our communities,” Moe said, referring to rallies outside the home of Saskatchewan’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Saqib Shahab.
“There’s no place for us as Canadians treating anyone in the manner that we are seeing in certain areas across this nation.”