'This is the right thing to do,' minister announces
The Government of Canada will require all federal workers to be vaccinated in an attempt to mitigate the growing Delta variant. The news came on Friday afternoon, with the minister of intergovernmental affairs Dominic LeBlanc making the announcement at a global press conference.
“We know vaccinations are the best way to help protect our fellow Canadians from COVID-19 variants of concern,” added Le Blanc. “We are encouraged by the many federal employees who have already been vaccinated and hope that vaccination rates will continue to climb as the Government of Canada moves ahead on its vaccination strategy.”
This vaccine requirement will also extend to travellers – including commercial air, interprovincial trains, marine vessels, and cruise ships.
“The Government of Canada is leading by example in requiring vaccinations for public service employees, and we are asking all federally regulated employers to develop vaccine plans to ensure their employees and workplaces are safe,” commented the honourable Omar Alghabra minister of transport. “This is the right thing to do and will ensure Canada continues to build back better from the global COVID-19 pandemic.”
The move comes as more and more Canadian companies mandate vaccinations for returning employees. Just recently, British Colombia ordered all long-term care workers to be vaccinated by October 12th. What’s more, CBC recently reported that Twitter will require all Canadian and American staff to be inoculated if they want to come into the office.
While the majority of employees seem to support the vaccine drive, some are pushing back. Just recently, CNN fired three employees who came into the office unvaccinated.
"All three have been terminated. Let me be clear - we have a zero-tolerance policy on this," CNN chief Jeff Zucker was quoted as saying by the company's senior reporter Oliver Darcy. "Everyone from news, sports and studios who comes in now and going forward must be vaccinated. We have been clear about this for months, so there should be no confusion.”
