On Parliament Hill

In recent months, I have heard from students who are being discriminated against by their educational institutions for choosing not to be vaccinated. Many have recently found themselves released from their institutions. This is shameful.

I have been clear from the beginning: Every Canadian who wants to be vaccinated against COVID-19 should have access and those who choose not to should not be discriminated against.

Nobody should lose their freedoms, their job, or their ability to pursue higher education over what ought to be a personal, private medical decision.

In the case of Manitoba’s post-secondary institutions, only one school (that I’m aware of) allows students the option of regular testing. That this most basic compromise would not be allowed is deeply concerning, and begs long overdue questions about the overall state of our universities.

Universities are supposed to be where people think deeply and critically. Places where numerous viewpoints can be expressed and debated, freely. Places where assertions and “truth claims” must be backed up with facts as shown through careful research.

Sadly, too many Canadian universities long ago ceased to be little more than bastions of far left ideology and woke sensibilities.

No left wing cause or sensibility is too far afield to be given credence and credibility. Yet the notion of a conscience or religious exemption from getting a COVID-19 vaccine causes an immediate circling of the wagons.

Why?

Whether motivated by fear or by collusion, as soon as one school put a vaccine mandate in place, like lemmings, they all did. Why?

Elementary and high schools have been able to keep going in person and keep students safe without such a divisive and discriminatory mandate?

Why unnecessarily divide your student body? Why foster a culture of discrimination?

Did no one think to question this course of action?

In a culture that is increasingly unable to separate fact from opinion, this is a time when we need great critical thinkers. Where are they?

Where are those who ask, “why”?

Where is the demand for empirical evidence to back up the truth claims and “meta-narratives” propagated daily by our political leaders?

These students had questions and concerns about a new vaccine.

Rather than engage those concerns, those who could have helped answer those questions have turned their backs on them.

We need our universities to step up and question the claims being made. Instead they have banned students and fired staff and faculty who dared question the dominant COVID-19 party line.

Needless to say, they have let us down.

Canadian students and parents deserve better. Tuition and tax dollars should never be used to close the doors on someone who wants to learn, just because they hold a different point of view.

As MP for Provencher, I will continue to ask the tough questions. To advocate and speak out for the Charter rights of all Canadians, because Canadians deserve better.