Editorial: Quebec’s government gave up on COVID safety when it gave up on vaccine passports

OpinionsEditorialThe Link — Published February 22, 2022 3 minutes

Vaccine passports are no longer required to enter big box stores, liquor stores, or cannabis stores. As of Feb. 21, they were no longer required for places of worship and funerals.

The provincial government sees it as learning to live with the virus, but medical professionals see it as removing the incentive to get vaccinated. Quebec isn’t the only province to act like COVID is politely collecting its things and heading out the door. Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario have all nixxed their provincial vaccine passport requirements. Fresh off the heels of the “Freedom Convoy”, it feels as if provincial leaders are giving up on public health and giving into the demands of anti-vaxxers.    

Eating at home versus being an immunocompromised person living through a pandemic is incomparable. Anti-vaxxers were always able to get takeout or have food delivered to them. Applying the vaccine passport to more essential services, like big box stores, encouraged more people to get vaccinated. It is no coincidence that appointments for a first dose of the COVID vaccine spiked when the provincial government announced a vaccine passport would be necessary to access liquor or cannabis stores.

Getting rid of the vaccine passport before COVID-19 has fully been packed up and sealed away is irresponsible. The health safety protocols should have been and should be stricter. Having a passive attitude towards COVID puts people’s lives at risk, and could lead us straight into another wave or new variant.

At the start of the school year, McGill University required students to present a vaccine passport to enter library spaces, participate in varsity sports, and attend events. Moreover, the school closed their libraries to the general public. A few weeks before McGill’s announcement, Concordia stated vaccine passports would be required to access on campus dining areas like Reggies Bar and to participate in sports. Concordia’s libraries remained open to the public, with no vaccine passport required.

Both universities left vaccine passports at the door when it came to safety in the classroom, however. McGill’s students and faculty alike thought the decision was misinformed and wanted vaccine passports to be required to enter a classroom.

The vaccine passport may be used again if another wave of COVID-19 hits, which seems inevitable considering the government’s current position. Just because “the situation is improving gradually," as the acting Quebec director of public health Dr. Luc Boileau puts it, it is not an invitation for our leaders to cast aside the protocols that have helped decrease cases and hospitalizations before everything finally settles. 

“Learning to live with the virus” is a punch to the gut of those who cannot get vaccinated and the immunocompromised, and rewards the people who ignored science with a nice meal in a restaurant.