Protesters opposed to COVID-19 protocols and vaccine mandates gathered at several B.C. hospitals on Wednesday for what was billed as a “world-wide walkout” for “health freedom.”
“Stand up for freedom now or lose everything,” reads the tagline on a poster for the event, which also advertised rallies at hospitals across the country.
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Anti-vaccine mandate protest at Kelowna hospital draws massive crowd
Hundreds of people gathered outside Vancouver General Hospital and Kelowna General Hospital, where staff and patients were subjected to the sound of honking and bullhorns. Organizers were also promoting similar protests outside the Victoria Hospital Foundation and Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops.
Health workers in the hospital look on.
Most have say they feel extremely disrespected by the protest. pic.twitter.com/BCm8og9iVg— Darrian Matassa-Fung (@darrianmf_gbl) September 1, 2021
Vancouver police urged drivers to avoid the area of 12 Avenue and Cambie Street as demonstrators made their way from the hospital to City Hall.
Police said they were monitoring the protest, and that public safety remained their priority.
In Kelowna, RCMP said it would ensure the protest would not interfere with hospital operations, and that officers would address non-compliance of health orders on a “case-by-case basis.”
The events were organized by a group calling itself “Canadian Frontline Nurses.”
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Kelowna General Hospital worker speaks out against planned vaccine-mandate protest
The group’s organizers include Kristen Nagle, an Ontario nurse who was fired following a trip to anti-lockdown events Washington, D.C., amid COVID-19 restrictions, and Dr. Stephen Malthouse, a B.C. physician who the CBC reports has been reprimanded by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
On its Facebook page, the group also clarified that it was not asking nurses to walk out of hospitals and abandon their patients.
In promotional materials for the demonstrations, the group urged people to “stand together (and) reject the tyranny of mandatory vaccines.”
Driver stuck on 12th and Cambie in the middle of protestors against governments COVID-19 measures #Vancouver #COVID19 @GlobalBC @NEWS1130 @CKNW pic.twitter.com/Plt9hnABzL
— claire allen (@imclaireallen) September 1, 2021
Vaccines are not mandatory in B.C., even for the majority of health-care workers. Staff in long-term care and assisted-living facilities — the sites of hundreds of COVID-19 deaths — will be required to be immunized by Oct. 12.
Starting Sept. 13, however, vaccines will be required for the public to access a variety of non-essential services, including dining in at restaurants or attending indoor concerts or sporting events.
B.C.’s vaccine card will not apply to grocery or retails stores, medical facilities, personal services such as barbers and nail salons, religious institutions, schools or post-secondary institutions.
While fully vaccinated people now make up more than two thirds of all British Columbians, provincial data shows they accounted for just two in 10 cases in the past week, and just over one in 10 hospitalizations over the last two weeks.