Mandate debate heats up
Re TTC’s largest union urges members not to divulge vaccination status, calls mandate an ‘unjust intrusion’, Sept. 7
As a 60-year autoworker member and retired president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, I agree with Ivan Brown that the leadership of the ATU Local 113 should be focusing upon the protection of its members and the general public, not some petulant and irresponsible rationale of personal privacy and individual choice.
The ATU position opposing mandatory vaccines runs counter to the responsibility of all of us who are fighting the ravages of COVID. The ATU position also has no logical basis in fact, again running opposite to the findings and advice of science and health care providers. Please allow me on behalf of all citizens who depend upon the services of the TTC to thank all ATU members who have disregarded the 113 Leaderships position and to date have acted responsibly in receiving a double vaccination and are not ashamed to admit it.
To Ontario’s Central Labour organization, the OFL and its member unions, I respectfully urge that you without delay speak out clearly and publicly your support of mandatory vaccinations.
One of the founding principles of our union movement is our responsibility to protect each other within humankind to the best of our ability. Legitimate exceptions for reasons of health and religion notwithstanding.
Gordon Wilson, Port Rowan, Ont.
Another failure by Ford government
Re Will vaccine mandates make health-care workers and teachers quit? That might be the wrong question, Sept. 12
The article by Amy Dempsey on the decision by the Doug Ford government not to mandate vaccination of healthcare workers against COVID-19 illustrates another ill-advised decision by this provincial government in the war we are fighting against a formidable enemy.
The argument, apparently made by a spokesperson at the Ministry of Health, to not mandate such a vaccination for those coming in close contact with senior citizens and frail people is that it might cause a labour shortage. Perhaps true in some cases, but at what cost?
This decision must be reversed immediately before we see a rash of breakthrough infections and possibly disastrous results among vulnerable residents in those facilities that are not voluntarily requiring vaccinations for health-care workers.
Bill Wensley, Cobourg, Ont.
Professor should’ve been fired for refusing vaccine
Re Huron University College professor refuses to abide by school’s vaccine mandate in the name of ethics, Sept. 8
Western Huron College has made a great mistake by putting anti-vaxxer Prof. Julie Ponesse on leave.
She should have been immediately fired upon her refusal to take the vaccine, especially after her preposterous statement, in part: “I will not submit to having an experimental vaccine injected into my body.”
She and so many others are mostly the reason that Ontario has hundreds and hundreds of positive COVID-19 cases every day, with a very high percentage of those unvaccinated.
The vaccine mandate is the only way to pave the road to at least a new normal and semblance of life before we were struck with the pandemic.
Allan Waxman, Thornhill
Set of actions will allow unions to protect all
Re Unions should join push for mandatory
vaccinations, Sept. 12
You are right to call on unions to endorse mandatory vaccinations for all employees who are interacting with clients or each other.
However, it will be easier to secure union support if we make clear that those refusing vaccination should not be terminated. Firstly, efforts should be made to reassign unvaccinated workers to positions where they can maintain physical distance from others. Secondly, those who cannot be reassigned but who have a medical justification for declining vaccination should be placed on paid sick leave. Finally, those who have no medical justification should be placed on unpaid leave of absence and recalled to their positions once the pandemic is over.
This set of actions will allow unions to protect their members — vaccinated and unvaccinated — as well as the general public.
Rabbi Shalom Schachter, Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition
Exclusion of churches in vax certificate is illogical
Re ‘I don’t understand how a place of worship is any less important’: Religious leaders ask to be included in Ontario’s vaccine certificate, Sept. 2
The lack of logic in the exclusion of churches in Ontario’s vaccination certificate requirement is baffling.
My parish has a relatively small building, so you are indoors for an hour usually in a small space with lacklustre ventilation. Congregations have gotten smaller over the past 18 months, and would likely increase considerably if everyone in attendance was reassured the people next to them in the pews had been fully vaccinated.
Likewise, more of us will be inclined to dine inside restaurants if there is reassurance that the staff have all been fully vaccinated. Half-baked solutions that only require vaccination certification from customers will not bring the hesitant into restaurants.
Consistency and common sense should not be missing in these protocols if people are going to feel safe. Margaret Perrault, North Bay, Ont.
Could many anti-vaxxers just be trypanophobics?
Re Fear of needles may keep some people from
getting COVID-19 vaccine, experts say Medical experts tell us that about 10 per cent of the population suffers from trypanophobia, the excessive and irrational fear of injections. It would therefore be reasonable to assume that many of those anti-vaxxers are simply trypanophobics who are not really against the vaccine but are just morbidly afraid to get it and so have jumped on the anti-vax bandwagon to hide their fear.
Should we not have made some sort of accommodation for these people?
Perhaps if we had done something similar for these people we would have had more people vaccinated and less people pretending to be anti-vaxxers. David Lee, Hamilton
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