Ontario Liberals denounce Liberal MPP who asked for exemptions for unvaccinated health-care workers

Ontario’s Liberal Party is distancing itself from one of its own MPPs after he privately asked the provincial government to help a health-care worker remain on the job while unvaccinated.

Michael Gravelle, who served as a cabinet minister under Premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne, recently sent an email to the Minister of Health and Minister of Long-Term Care looking to help an unvaccinated personal support worker with 30 years experience who lives in Gravelle’s riding of Thunder Bay – Superior North.

The email, sent on Oct. 14, was given to journalists at Queen’s Park by the press secretary to Health Minister Christine Elliott.

“[Name redacted] has chosen not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and now faces job loss due to this decision,” the email from Gravelle reads. “As [an] MPP, I hope that some accommodation of vaccine-refusing workers in Ontario like [name redacted] might be made.”

Gravelle goes on to ask whether regular COVID-19 testing could be an option for health-care workers “who do not want the vaccine and want to keep working.”