Demonstrators take to streets of Montreal to protest upcoming vaccine passport
Posted August 14, 2021 4:01 pm.
Last Updated August 14, 2021 6:17 pm.
MONTREAL — Thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Montreal on Saturday to denounce the Quebec government’s decision to impose a vaccine passport system in a bid to slow the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ralliers called for the government to revoke its decision or hold a public debate on the system, which is set to come into effect on Sept. 1 and will require people show proof of vaccination to access some non-essential services with high degrees of contact, such as at festivals, bars, restaurants and gyms.
Premier Francois Legault has rejected the idea of a debate, saying it would expose Quebecers to inaccurate, dangerous conspiracy theories about vaccines.
Quebec opposition parties also denounced the provincial government’s refusal to hold a debate on Thursday, saying it reflects a larger problem with its use of emergency powers.
The association behind the rally, Quebec Debout, has been known to protest COVID-19 public health measures.
One of the event’s coordinators, Jonathan Hamelin, says protests will continue as long as Quebec censors debates.
One protester told CityNews: “We’re all against this mandate and this idea that people should be excluded and designated as second class citizens. They can’t travel to see their family. That’s what we’re protesting, not the vaccine itself.”
Added another: “Respect our rights and freedom for all Canadians.”
WATCH: Quebec introducing a vaccine passport (Aug. 5, 2021)
Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto, says it’s worth questioning whether the benefits of such a passport outweighs the drawbacks.
“There’s concerns with freedom of movement, there’s concerns with surveillance, there’s concerns with vulnerability,” said Bowman. “But if this is going to work and work well, it means that the benefits of this need to override all of those concerns, that all those benefits are so strong that it justifies the action taken. And I’m not saying they’re not, but I’m saying that I don’t know.
“One of the strengths that Canada has had is social cohesion on how to deal with the pandemic in that we’ve mostly gotten along and we’ve moved in a straight line. Vaccine certificates or passports or whatever you want to call it, however you choose to describe them, are divisive. They divide people. They’re designed to divide people but they also divide people politically and emotionally.”
