The Skeena
Stikine MLA Nathan Cullen could only shake his head when he heard that anti-vaxxers were harassing parents in Prince George outside a vaccination clinic for children.
“Who gets up in the morning and says ‘I’m going to protest and yell at kids and their parents going to get a life-saving vaccine today’?” Cullen tweeted.
The NDP government in B.C. passed a piece of legislation last month called the Access to Services COVID-19 Vaccination Act. It prohibits anti-vaxxers from protesting within 20 metres of hospitals, COVID clinics and K-12 schools.
That didn’t sit too well with some people in the Skeena. Not long after the Act passed, a billboard for Cullen outside of Smithers was defaced with racist graffiti comparing provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry to Hitler.
But that didn’t stop Cullen from speaking out about anti-vax wingnuts. “We passed a law protecting those families trying to keep them and us safe,” he tweeted in response to the Prince George events. “Good thing.”
Cullen said there are currently more than 100 northerners recovering from COVID in intensive care units in southern B.C.
“We all know someone who is hesitant to get vaccinated living in the north,” he wrote recently on Facebook. “We have to be compassionate and determined. Vaccines are safe and effective. They protect you and those you love. Folks need to hear the facts.”
