West Nipissing Finally Rescinds COVID Vaccine Mandate

Councillor offers heartfelt apology.

It is now legal once again for residents of West Nipissing to volunteer and work for their community. 

Last night (January 3rd, 2023), West Nipissing finally rescinded  one of the most historically shameful policies it has ever had. 

Even though there is more COVID spread today than there was 12 months ago. And even though there are more COVID-related hospitalizations than there were 12 months ago. And even though we are right at the peak of the cold and flu season. It was still a no-brainer for this council to unanimously pass a resolution which would put an end to their mandatory COVID vaccination policy. 

I would have welcomed the rescinding of this policy at any time but the timing of rescinding it now paints for us an obvious picture. 

The policy was a mistake. It caused division, promoted hatred and will leave long lasting animosity and lack of trust in our leaders. 

Most other government organization and employers who naively passed COVID vaccination policies last Fall when there was not as much data available. What makes the case of West Nipissing shameful is that because of council in-fighting last year, this council got the benefit of avoiding a vote on this policy until January 18th. By then they had enormous data showing that such a mandate would accomplish nothing and organizations and other municipalities were already abolishing such mandates.

It would have been bad enough if this policy caused all this hardship even while generating some benefits (i.e. a hypothetical drop in spread or COVID hospitalization). But it’s clear that this policy did not accomplish any good. 

The previous council knew this was going to be the case. As perfectly said by councilor Tessier last night, the previous council had received the data last January. They were well aware that the vaccination statuses didn’t correlate with spread. The per capita numbers were clearly presented by constituent (and eventual mayoral runner-up) Dave Lewington. 

In his January 2022 presentation to council, Dave clearly shared the numbers that showed that PER CAPITA, the province had more cases (and as a result spread) in vaccinated individuals than it did in unvaccinated individuals. 

This was largely why the Ontario government would scrap its vaccine passport system a few short weeks later. The consensus was obvious. The vaccine may have had personal benefits (and may still) but we knew a year ago that it did not prevent spread. 

The only justification for passing such a policy a year ago was to either shame those holding out into complying with a health recommendation or to outright punish those who didn’t “do the right thing”. 

We can argue if getting the shots or not was in fact the “right thing” but we can’t deny that these policies were only allowed and encouraged to punish or shame. 

And that is why they were such a mistake. 

Newly elected municipal councillor Anne Tessier said it perfectly yesterday. Many times it takes decades for politicians to apologize for prior government injustices. Terrified to upset the status quo until all the guilty parties are long gone. 

But Tessier showed courage and conviction by offering the apology right away. I was thankful and hopeful when I heard her statement. 

He remarks on the record will not correct the harm done by the previous council’s punitive policy. However it does help start the process of rectifying it. 

The silence afterwards and lack of any rebuttal to her completely accurate and factual comments shows that she is right. All politicians and leaders need to take that stand right now. We need to end all health choice discrimination in our country. We need our governments to learn from Ms. Tessier and apologize.