Anti-vax rally outside HSC

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This article was published 31/08/2021 (1115 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A couple hundred protesters lined the sidewalks Wednesday outside the Health Sciences Centre, rallying against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and passports, amongst other pandemic-related issues.

Passing vehicles honked their horns, and protesters shouted continuously, filling the air with a chaotic din. Ambulances pushed through the congested traffic with their lights on.

Across the street, one disabilities worker (who didn’t want her name used) was furious with the rally organizers’ choice of location: “That’s the children’s hospital right there.”

The protesters outside the building’s windows were shouting lines such as “No masks for kids; set our children free.”

“I support them expressing their opinion, but take it to the (legislature building.) There are sick kids in there and people who’ve waited months and months to get into appointments,” the disabilities worker said.

Protesters occupied Sherbrook Street until about 1:30 p.m. when police blocked off the street; at which point, they moved to Notre Dame Avenue.

They waved signs with a variety of slogans, including: “No forced vaccines” and “We are all essential.”

One held a sign that read: “Love over fear.”

A woman with a megaphone shouted at passing cars.

“The government is killing us with a vaccine program. It’s a genocide,” she said.

Of all COVID-19 vaccine doses administered thus far, 0.007 per cent have resulted in serious adverse events, according to Health Canada.

The organizers call themselves Canadian Frontline Nurses. Its website lists four nurses or former nurses from Ontario and Alberta, and only by first name.

The Manitoba Nurses Union was quick to denounce the gathering.

“This event is neither supported, sanctioned or involves the Manitoba Nurses Union. In fact, MNU is not in any way affiliated with the individuals calling themselves ‘Canadian Frontline Nurses,’” president Darlene Jackson said in a written statement.

“While it is unfortunate that this group is taking attention away from the important vaccination efforts happening across Canada, the vast majority of nurses in this country have seen first-hand the devastating effects of COVID-19 and understand that the only way out of this pandemic is through social distancing, masking and vaccination.”

One St. Boniface Hospital nurse, who has spent time working in the COVID-19 unit, spoke out against the rally.

“It’s a real slap in the face to the people that experienced it, the people that died, got sick,” he said, letting let out a deep sigh. “The front-line workers, like myself, we got a bit of PTSD from all this.

“It was real. It was really, really bad… That feeling of helplessness trying to help these people. And those folks outside the Health Sciences Centre — it’s so disrespectful.”

The nurse said he understands the frustration with vaccine mandates and passports in general society, but health-care workers have a special duty to align themselves with science-based reasoning.

“When you take on the role of a health-care provider, you take on some of those things that are going to make it safer for other people. And that’s getting vaccinated,” he said.

“We all had to do it to become students; we all had to show that we have blood work, that we didn’t have all these diseases. Because that’s why we do what we do: to save people’s lives and help protect communities.”

cody.sellar@freepress.mb.ca