Montreal hospital protest attracts low attendance; Mayor Plante condemns anti-vax 'bullying'
A vaccine protest outside a major Montreal hospital on Monday -- one of a series of hospital protests across Canada -- appeared to fizzle, at least compared to what was announced by its organizers, with low attendance.
About a dozen protesters arrived at the Glen Hospital on Decarie Blvd. around 2 p.m. to show opposition to Quebec's new vaccine ultimatum, which will force unvaccinated health-care workers into unpaid leave.
However, the action still drew strong words from Montreal's mayor, Valérie Plante, who condemned them along with the protesters who targeted a local high school last week and said she was seeking legal tools to stop all such protests at public institutions.
"I mean, it’s their right to protest, but when it’s about going to school [to] bully kids, that’s a no," Plante said.
"When it’s about going to a hospital [to] bully nurses and all the employees and doctors, that is a no."
ROSES FOR 'SYMPATHY' WITH THE UNVACCINATED
The protesters at the hospital on Monday, mostly women, carried roses. They said the flowers were meant to symbolize their sympathy for health-care workers who are choosing not to get the vaccine.
Though some of the protesters wore scrubs, one woman told CTV that she wasn't actually a nurse herself, but had an administrative job at a hospital.
When asked why she attended the protest, she said she was in favour of free choice and didn't think it was fair to force health-care workers to get vaccines or lose their jobs.
When asked about the importance of protecting patients from infection, she answered that they can just as easily "get sick at the grocery store."
The organizing group, which calls itself Canadian Frontline Nurses, warned Canadians this weekend that protests would take place Monday afternoon at hospitals in all 10 provinces. In Montreal, the Glen was designated.
Politicians and hospital administrators across the country were nervous, with barricades erected outside some of the targeted hospitals.
PLANTE: 'WE WILL USE THE LEGAL TOOLS WE HAVE'
In Toronto and Ottawa, protests that started with a couple of dozen protesters have grown over the course of the afternoon.
However, at least in Montreal, the crowds that were imagined didn't materialize. More than an hour into the protest, nearly as many journalists were there as protesters.
The protesters stayed on the sidewalk of Décarie, just off hospital property, and didn't interfere with patients' coming and going.
Still, at a 2:30 press conference, Mayor Plante said she has no tolerance for this kind of protest, especially considering a more contentious one last week, when adult protesters arrived at a high school that was doing vaccinations and tangled with teachers who were trying to keep them away from students.
A girl at that school died last week, and the protesters also claimed she died from vaccine side effects, though her cause of death hasn't been released.
Plante said she wants the province and the city to all try to stop anti-vaccine protests at public buildings.
At hospitals, "those people are working to save our lives, so my message to [the protesters] today is that for the City of Montreal, it’s not acceptable," she said.
"And if they try to trouble any activities within a municipal building, where we’re doing vaccination, for example, we will use the legal tools we have to stop it."
She invited the ministers of health and education to look respectively at how they can do the same at their own properties, "to protect our kids and our population."
--With files from CTV's Matt Grillo
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING NEWS Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Residents of northern Alberta First Nation told to shelter in place
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Metro Vancouver mayors call for serial killer Robert Pickton to be denied parole
A dozen mayors from around Metro Vancouver say federal Attorney General and Justice Minister Arif Virani should deny parole for notorious B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton, and reassess the parole and sentencing system for 'prolific offenders and mass murderers.'