The use of vaccines is being debated in New Brunswick this week as citizens and legislators are gathered for three days of public hearings on a tough new law the government wants to enact.
The legislation would make vaccinations mandatory for children in schools and daycares unless they have a medical exemption.
The hearings follow a measles outbreak in the Saint John area this spring.
If passed, the law would take effect Sept. 1, 2021.
On Tuesday, the province’s education minister, Dominic Cardy, delivered a withering critique of vaccination opponents, calling them conspiracy theorists who “influence and deceive” parents into thinking their children are are at risk if they are vaccinated.
“It is not supported in fact, ” Cardy said.
“If you believe in evidence-based decision-making, you have to look at the evidence, and the evidence is incontrovertible.”
Dena Churchill, a former chiropractor from Halifax who lost her licence to practice because her public campaign against vaccinations, disagreed.
Dena Churchill, at right, an anti-vaccination activist attending the hearings calls Cardy’s criticism ‘disappointing.’ (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
“There’s two sides to every story and anyone who thinks there’s on side has an underlying motive for thinking so,” Churchill said.
In April 2018, Canada’s public health agency called vaccines “one of the safest and most effective tools we have to protect ourselves, our families and our communities from infectious diseases.”
It also warned that “not enough Canadians are being vaccinated. As a result, Canadians still experience illnesses from vaccine-preventable diseases that can cause serious complications and can even lead to death.”
With files from CBC, Huffington Post, Government of Canada
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