By Jay Cameron, Western Standard
There has never been a shortage of chest-puffing over Canadian healthcare.
“Every Canadian, no matter where they live, who they are or what they do, should receive the care they need to stay healthy,” says Justin Trudeau.
“Public healthcare is part of being Canadian. It’s … there for every person, when they need it,” says Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley.
“Canada’s system of universal health care is perceived by many as the crowning achievement of Canadian social policy.” (Allen vs. Alberta, 2015 ABCA 277)
What does “universal” mean? It simply means what it says: it’s for everyone.
So, in Canada, Canadians in need get treatment. Whether you’re liberal or conservative, black or white, gay or straight, old or young, employed or unemployed, healthy or unhealthy you get treatment. Our health care system is there for you if you’re a smoker with lung cancer, an alcoholic, a murderer, a drug dealer or a prisoner. If you’re a heroin addict and you’ve overdosed nine times in the last nine months, they still send the paramedics for you when you take your next bad trip.
The state pays for it all, and by the state, I mean the taxpayer.
There is, however, an exception to universality. Increasingly, it turns out that not all are welcome.
You likely know who the new modern pariahs are.
They are the same ones who are now forbidden to travel; who cannot enter restaurants; who are losing their jobs by the tens of thousands. They are the ones who do not have one of the new golden QR codes which open the doors of society for the privileged, even though many of them have had Covid and recovered, and have natural immunity which is said to be superior to shot-induced immunity.
Shamefully, in Canada, doctors are increasingly discriminating against those who are pejoratively referred to by government and the media alike as “the unvaccinated.”
Vilifying a group of people as dirty or disease spreaders has long been a part of the totalitarian playbook.
In August, the Enderby Medical Clinic refused to see a 13-year-old who had fallen off of his skateboard. It was irrelevant the child has almost zero statistical risk from Covid. It was irrelevant that both the vaccinated and unvaccinated both contract and spread Covid at roughly equal rates. He hadn’t had the shot, so he was therefore banned from the “universal” healthcare clinic. Also in Enderby, a man was turned away from a clinic due to his Covid vaccination status after he got chlorine in his eye.
In Montreal, the sole surviving family member and caregiver of a loved one in the hospital was turned away because she has not had the Covid jab. In Alberta, a medical team is refusing to perform a transplant operation for a patient who has a terminal lung disease, and who will die without the transplant.
A recent media request for confirmation from all provinces and territories regarding how many are being turned away revealed that Alberta does not track this information. Ontario reported 68 complaints had been received, but this also included complaints regarding a lack of in-person care generally.
In a country where health officials closely monitor the public, it seems once again there is insufficient oversight of health officials. And apparently, at least according to a recent poll, the majority of Canadians agree with the refusal of service to belligerent unvaccinated persons. Not sure who thought that brilliant polling question up. News flash: emergency rooms on a Saturday night have plenty of drunken and belligerent vaccinated patients, all of whom receive treatment.
The bigger point is medical ethics prohibits discrimination regarding the provision of health care. The Hippocratic Oath offers no defense to the bigoted doctor who refuses to treat a patient who has decided not to submit to one of the new mandatory Covid shots. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms offers no defense to a doctor who, as a state actor in a supposedly “universal” system, discriminates against an unvaccinated patient. Doctors should not pick and choose who they treat on the basis of their identifiable characteristics, including their Covid vaccination status.
It’s not only unconstitutional to turn away patients because of medical bigotry and elitism, it is also immoral.
Perhaps it’s unsurprising this is becoming a problem. It is the government which is threatening the jobs of the unvaccinated. It is government that has imposed the QR code vaccine passports, and the government which, as of November 30, tyrannically promises to prohibit all persons who have not had a Covid shot from boarding a train or a plane anywhere in Canada.
In a frightening escalation in New Brunswick, it is the government that has authorized grocery stores to deny service to the unvaccinated.
Society takes its cues from its leaders.
If provincial legislators wanted to do something useful, they could shake off their torpor and unconscionable silence and condemn these incidents of bigotry and pass legislation to prevent the refusal of service on the basis of Covid vaccination status.
Don’t hold your breath.
