Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) are calling for COVID-19 vaccines to be mandatory for health-care workers.
In a news release, the CMA and CNA stated jointly that in the face of the highly contagious COVID-19 variants and the plateauing of Canada’s vaccination rate, the mandatory vaccination of health-care workers is “an additional measure to protect patients, the health workforce and health-care system capacity.”
“What we're seeing is that these variants of the COVID virus are much more contagious and that makes the cry for vaccination even stronger,” said CMA president Dr. Ann Collins in a telephone interview with CTVNews.ca Tuesday. “And at the same time, we're seeing a plateauing in vaccine uptake and we know that vaccines are what are going to get us through and out of this pandemic. So we felt it was important, along with our nursing partners, to bring this forward.”
Collins said that so far, reaction to the announcement has been positive because the public recognizes that the organizations are “putting patients at the centre of their call-to-action.”
The organizations are also calling on all levels of government and employers to implement strategies to lower barriers to vaccine access, the statement says.
“While vaccines are readily available across Canada, we recognize that the history of inequity within the health-care system impacts trust,” the statement continues. “Therefore, governments and employers must continue to support and address vaccine hesitancy and system barriers to achieving the highest rate of vaccination among the public and health workforce.”
Health-care workers were among the first to receive COVID-19 vaccines to protect them and their patients from infection and to prevent outbreaks, but specific data on how many chose to get inoculated is not readily available.
As of Tuesday, 67 per cent of Canada’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Requiring vaccinations as a condition of employment in health-care settings like hospitals and long-term care homes is not a new phenomenon, as many workplaces require doctors, nurses and support staff to be fully immunized against diseases like tetanus and hepatitis B.
In Europe, France has ordered all health-care workers to get vaccinated by mid- September, with Greece and Italy following suit with their own mandates in the face of the Delta variant driving COVID-19 cases up.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford told reporters in July that health-care workers have a “constitutional right” to opt out of vaccination, saying he doesn’t “believe in forcing anyone to get a vaccination that doesn’t want it.”
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also flatly dismissed the idea of mandatory vaccines, going so far as to amend Alberta’s Public Health Act and removing a century-old order that allows the government to force people to be vaccinated.
“We have an incredibly powerful tool at our disposal to combat this virus and its variants,” Collins said. “We should be using everything that we can to get people vaccinated.”
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.