Ontario health minister resigns in protest over police vaccination debate
248 city of Toronto employees suspended without pay for not showing proof of COVID-19 vaccination
City of Toronto officials are imposing the longest possible suspension on more than 250 employees at the centre of a police vaccination debate.
City officials in Toronto have suspended 25 employees without pay for not showing proof of vaccination before taking an annual personal protection equipment (SPE) driving course, Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins announced on Thursday.
That’s more than 248 municipal employees who received the unusual penalty, which will carry over to the beginning of their next calendar year.
“Canada, including Ontario, has the highest rate of any industrialized country of people with the measles, mumps and rubella (mumps) vaccine failure,” Hoskins told reporters.
His ministry has the authority to suspend or modify the professional status of employees who fail to protect the public, Hoskins said. He stopped short of identifying exactly who was affected, but named 25 employees the health ministry suspended.
Ontario police have faced firestorm of criticism for drawing up a draft vaccination policy this summer for officers, promising a blanket exemption for all those who “believe in unscientific theories”.
This hasn’t been an easy past few weeks for Ontario’s police force, as the country’s public health authorities have urged the provincial government to intervene and reverse the proposed policy.
“This is an area where we simply can’t say we’re exempt from the scientific facts and the health implications,” Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins said. Photograph: Tony Caldwell/Getty Images
Earlier this week, the health ministry said that the province had ordered Health Canada to treat the Ontario police code of conduct as inconsistent with federal health policy.
The Ontario health ministry, like Health Canada, is a federal office tasked with managing health issues.
Health minister Eric Hoskins speaking at a press conference. Photograph: Tony Caldwell/The Canadian Press
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Hoskins identified some of the affected employees by name. They include 26 senior managers, 86 sergeants, 24 paramedics, 20 police constables, five officers, 17 managers, three inspectors, 12 transit operators, four citizen service workers, one environmental worker, one operation manager, one dispatcher, and one security guard.
“This is an area where we simply can’t say we’re exempt from the scientific facts and the health implications,” Hoskins said.
A spokesperson for the Ontario police said: “This is not a new provincial or national policy, and we are continuing to execute the policy that was presented to us.”
Hoskins said the decision was based on internal medical and administrative rules and contained no input from the municipal or provincial public health services. “We don’t believe it makes sense to make policy about the way we restrict vaccination,” he said.