Bill forcing parents to vaccinate their kids to attend school fails to pass in Canadian province
The bill would have removed religious and philosophical exemptions as reasons a parent could opt their children out of vaccination programs.
(LifeSiteNews) – A controversial bill that would have mandated kids to be vaccinated to attend public schools in a small Canadian province has been defeated. Lawmakers rejected removing “non-medical” religious and philosophical vaccine exemptions from existing law.
Bill 11 An Act Respecting Proof of Immunization, introduced in 2019 by New Brunswicks Minister of Education Dominic Cardy, was defeated 22-20 in a free vote last week.
The bill had the support of New Brunswick minority Progressive Conservative (PC) Premier Blaine Higgs. If it had passed, it would have come into force on September 1, 2021.
Voting for the bill were 13 PC MLAs, which included Higgs and Cardy, and seven members of the Liberal Party.
Voting against the bill were six PC MLAs, 12 Liberals, three People’s Alliance, and one independent MLA.
Four MLAs abstained from voting, which included three Green Party MLAs and one PC MLA.
Cardy said he was “deeply disappointed” that the bill did not pass, and that those who voted against it gave into pressure from groups opposing the bill who pushed “medieval conspiracy theories.”
Attorney General Andrea Anderson-Mason was one of the PC MLAs who voted against the bill. She was quoted in a CBC report as saying the reason she opposed the bill was due to a lack of “evidence” that there “had been an impact on the number of immunizations in our province as a result of the anti-vaxx movement.”
“We were not provided with any information to show that people were even using the exemptions, and I think those are critical bits of data,” Anderson-Mason said.
The bill was heavily opposed by Vaccine Choice Canada (VCC), a not-for-profit society founded by families who have suffered from vaccine reactions or injuries.