Two Tory members of the Manitoba legislature, James Teitsma and Josh Guenter, say the government's move to make people show proof of vaccination goes too far. 

The province announced yesterday that restaurants, bars, bingo halls, sporting venues and movie theatres must require people to show a vaccine passport starting next Friday.

In criticizing the health orders, Teitsma referenced other human rights violations, including residential schools, forced sterilizations and internment camps. Teitsma released his statement on his Facebook page before the new public health orders were announced, saying that he wasn't sure exactly what they would require. But, he says, he believes mandates won't help increase vaccine uptake.

"Mandating vaccines and introducing and broadening the use of vaccine passports is likely to INCREASE vaccine hesitancy and decrease uptake," he writes in the post. "People who have historically been marginalized in society like black people, other people of color, and smaller religious groups tend to be suspicious of government. Vaccine mandates could increase that hesitancy while stigmatizing and marginalizing those same people and subjecting some of them to severe economic hardship."

After the orders were announced he updated his post suggesting that Manitoba move to a system that would allow people with recent negative COVID-19 tests to still go into public places. "Here is one suggestion: provide every Manitoban with a vaccine card that returns 'green/permitted' if you are (a) fully vaccinated (b) recently tested (3-4 days) (c) recently recovered from Covid (vaccination is not recommended for about 3 months after infection) or (d) medically advised not receive the vaccine. This way every Manitoban would have the opportunity to engage in activities like going to a restaurant - at least from time to time - and would be able to do so safely. It's simple and it's effective," Teitsma writes.

Guenter, in a letter to Premier Brian Pallister, writes that the vaccine mandate "sledgehammer" won't work in his southeastern Manitoba constituency and that it's creating two classes of people. Guenter, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, says he understands "The efficacy of the vaccines in mitigating death and hospitalizations due to the virus," but says he is speaking out as a matter of both personal convictions and on behalf of the constituents of Borderland.

"I've always had my red-lines, and this vaccine mandate is my red-line," says Guenter. "I believe that a vaccine mandate runs counter to our most basic principles of civil liberties in the country. I don't think it's fair, moral, legal or right or acceptable under any circumstances to require people to accept into their body a substance they do not want."

Guenter also takes issue with the testing regiment being implemented for designated employees who are not fully immunized or cannot provide proof of vaccination. According to public health, those employees will then undergo regular COVID-19 testing, up to three times a week for full-time employees, and provide proof of a negative test result before they can resume working.

"Anybody who has been tested multiple times knows the bloody noses you get and how painful it is, so I really believe there's some undue harassment there," said Guenter, noting such requirements haven't been in place this extensively during the past 18 months of the pandemic.

"I'm a fully vaccinated individual, and I understand the importance of vaccines, I've encouraged constituents to take the vaccine, but where this all ends for me is when public health tries to mandate vaccines. I find that unacceptable," added Guenter.

Guenter, who represents a portion of southern Manitoba with the lowest vaccination rates in the province, says it's very clear there are divisions among families and communities, and says it is time for healing.

"It's more important than ever, now, that we come together as people, whatever our perspectives, whatever our disagreements, we need to come together and we need to heal and we need to move forward, and I just think the vaccine mandate, and some of the other pronouncements that public health officials have been making, set us back," he said, citing the expanded vaccine passport benefits as an example. "They do not advance the conversation, they do not provide a path forward. Frankly, so many of my constituents are in despair, and feel they have lost hope. In this position, in this journey, where I feel I have no option, I have done what I can do behind closed doors, I must now let people know very clearly where I stand."

"I can fully accept that the pandemic is real, and I can fully accept the work that our public health officials are trying to do to prevent a hospital crisis. I can fully accept the need for latitude for leaders to be able to make decisions and sometimes get it wrong, but I think the vaccine mandate, and also indications from public health that we may be moving to a regional approach, really concern me very deeply," added Guenter. "It's clear more than ever that we need to come together as people and understand one another, and be able to trust one another again, and I just tried to speak to that in my letter."

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With files from The Canadian Press

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