Manitoban with multiple chemical sensitivities wants wider exemptions, alternatives to vaccine passports
CBC
A Manitoba woman says the provincial government's criteria for medical exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine passports dismiss the concerns of people like her with multiple chronic health conditions.
"It's an insult, really," said Sarah Gwen Peters, 74.
She has been diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities and has battled chronic infections throughout her life, she says.
Peters hasn't had a COVID-19 vaccine, due to fears about how her body might react — inspired in part by a bad past experience with a vaccine, she says.
Peters wants the province to expand the criteria for medical exemptions or offer an alternative, such as rapid testing, that would allow her and other unvaccinated people to travel without having to self-isolate on their return, dine in at restaurants, and participate in other activities open to the fully vaccinated population.
"I'll wear a mask for the rest of my life in public if I need to," she said.
She also wants the government to take a more respectful approach to addressing the concerns of vaccine-hesitant people.
Burlington MP Karina Gould gets boost from local young people after entering Liberal leadership race
A day after entering the Liberal leadership race, Burlington, Ont., MP and government House leader Karina Gould was cheered at a campaign launch party by local residents — including young people expressing hope the 37-year-old politician will represent their voices.
Two years after Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly declared she was taking the unprecedented step of moving to confiscate millions of dollars from a sanctioned Russian oligarch with assets in Canada, the government has not actually begun the court process to forfeit the money, let alone to hand it over to Ukrainian reconstruction — and it may never happen.