Demonstrations planned outside Canadian hospitals on Monday; two in Alberta

Hospitals across the country are preparing for a day of protest on Monday with demonstrations against pandemic protocols expected to hamper access to healthcare facilities, including two in Alberta.

The group Canadian Frontline Nurses is planning what it calls a silent protest against mandates in all 10 provinces, targeting two hospitals in Alberta.

The protests are taking place outside Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre and Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.

After vaccine passports were announced in several provinces, similar protests held across the country blocked access to ambulances and other medical services.

That prompted the Ontario and Canadian medical associations to release a joint statement calling the demonstrations “wrong and unacceptable.”

“The health-care workers who have worked tirelessly for months on end are being bullied and harassed for doing their jobs. This is wrong and unacceptable – full stop,” read a portion of the statement.

The Ontario Hospital Association called the demonstrations “truly disheartening,” noting the irony that should any of these protesters get sick or seriously ill from COVID, “it will be hospitals and frontline workers that they turn to for care, perhaps even to save their life.”

Hospitals are not the place for anti-vaccination protests. pic.twitter.com/ymeYiustTH

— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) September 11, 2021

Toronto ICU physician Dr. Michael Warner says while people are entitled to make their voices heard, his hope is that the authorities will not tolerate any form of harassment.

“If you have something to say, tell your elected officials, go to the legislature. Use whatever other means are necessary to make your voice heard. But leave the hospital alone, leave the patients alone, and let the healthcare workers continue to do their work unencumbered,” he says in a tweet.