Conservative MP's comments about vaccination, COVID-19 spread 'not appropriate': O'Toole

Ottawa -

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole is condemning comments made by one of his MPs regarding vaccination and the risk associated with the COVID-19 virus.

O’Toole was referring to remarks made by MP Marilyn Gladu on CTV’s Question Period on Sunday, wherein she took issue with vaccine disclosure, argued against mandatory vaccinations, and called into question the severity of the virus.

“It’s important for members of Parliament to advocate for their constituents who may be losing a job or may need reasonable accommodation, we do that all the time on a range of issues. But it’s very different to cause confusion with respect to the health and well-being of Canadians and Ms. Gladu’s interview did that yesterday,” he told reporters on Monday.

“It’s not appropriate at a time we should be answering questions about vaccine hesitancy, not creating new questions.”

Gladu has been the face of the new intra-party caucus to defend the rights of those unvaccinated.

• Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox

She wouldn’t say whether she was vaccinated, citing “medical privacy purposes.”

“People are being forced to disclose this. And that is another issue that we need to talk about because what's next? What next, will you be forced to disclose about your medical history?” she told Question Period.

She then compared COVID-19 to the polio disease that spread in the first half of the 20th century, but said the novel coronavirus doesn’t pose the same “frequency of risk.”

“In terms of the risk, people that got polio, many of them died and many of them were crippled, and that is not the same frequency of risk that we see with COVID-19…I’m just receiving the information from medical experts that talk about the relative risk. I'm not a doctor myself.”

At the peak of the polio epidemic in Canada, in 1953, there were nearly 9,000 cases and 500 deaths from coast to coast. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic there have been 1.74 million cases and 29,192 deaths in Canada.

Fellow Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis has also expressed unease with the declaration of one’s vaccination status.

In a recent Twitter post, Lewis said it’s “misguided” to assume that those who don’t want to publicly disclose their vaccination status aren’t vaccinated.

“Canadian law has long established the importance of medical privacy, and many Canadians, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, are united in the fight to uphold democracy and freedoms,” the post reads.

She also called into question the efficacy of vaccinating children.

In response to her tweets, O’Toole on Monday said members of Parliament of all stripes should let medical professionals do the talking.

“Social media is becoming the creation of instant experts across the country, I don’t think that helps,” he said.

O’Toole said his team will address comments that cause more confusion than certainty but underlined that the Conservative Party encourages all Canadians to get vaccinated.

“Our team will address instances where people are causing more questions and perhaps adding to hesitancy as opposed to advocating for their constituents and concerns about the border and other things,” he said, adding that the party will continue to focus on issues such as the economy and rising inflation.

O’Toole has refrained from saying how many of his elected MPs are vaccinated but on Monday underlined that any participating representative in the House of Commons will be fully vaccinated when Parliament returns on Nov. 22.

“It’s important for our party and it’s important for elected officials to demonstrate leadership, that means respecting all laws. That means reducing uncertainty about vaccines,” he said.

The Board of Internal Economy has announced a vaccine mandate for the House of Commons, requiring MPs to be vaccinated to enter the Chamber in person. It’s a decision that members of the Conservative caucus have questioned, amid widespread support within the other parties.

O’Toole announced on Oct. 27 that the party would “respect and abide by” the decision but would be challenging it at the “earliest opportunity.”