Northwest Territories MP Michael McLeod says his government is being cautious and responsible when considering the lifting of vaccine mandates and that the three-week old trucker convoy has over-served its purpose.
McLeod spoke to the Hub on Feb. 14 prior to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement to invoke the Emergencies Act to respond to ongoing protests and blockades throughout the country with the trucker’s convoy
McLeod, who hasn’t been to Ottawa since the convoy started three weeks ago, said he has chosen to stay in his home community of Fort Providence and connect through Zoom to avoid happenings in the nation’s capital.
“I haven’t been in Ottawa since the protests started and there has been a worry that there could be a blockade at the airport and I would have to stay there,” he said.
“It’s very difficult to get to and from the House of Commons right now.
“I want to watch what happens with these protests because I don’t want to be in Ottawa trying to go through a convoy or blockade. It’s just getting a bit too nerve-wracking, I think, for me.”
McLeod said for the most part he has been content with the government’s response saying that vaccine mandates in place were intended to protect workers and not intended to punish the unvaccinated.
“They were brought in to give Canadians a peace of mind when traveling with other people,” he said. “I think everybody recognizes that the public health measures related to Covid-19 have always been intended to be temporary and are going to be altered. If they’re going to be removed, they need to be guided by science and by experts.”
In December the elected member issued a news release supporting vaccine mandates in the Northwest Territories because the NWT health care system at that time was considered pushed beyond its capacity, he said.
“When I look back on it, the only thing that would need to be updated is the number of people that have died which has seen an increase in the numbers.”
As far as the nationwide trucker convoy goes, McLeod said it began as a protest but seems to have morphed into something else entirely. Thousands of workers are being affected due to occupiers.
“Everybody in the country is exhausted and tired of this pandemic and we’ve all made sacrifices over the last two years for our health and for the health of others and (that exhaustion) has really started to show up, ” he said. “I’m starting to hear more about it as an MP from constituents.
“It’s well past being called a protest. I’d like to see a review of how the protests have been handled at different levels of government. I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people asking why (Ontario) Premier (Doug) Ford hasn’t done what he has done with other trucking protests. He has threatened to pull permits and threatened to pull registration. But in this case, he’s really done nothing.”
Other questiosn that need to be answered include how the truckers’ movement has been financed from foreign capital and why there appears to be a discrepancy between how Indigenous activists are treated under some legislation versus how non-Indigenous people are being treated.
“In some of these protests there are open acts of cultural appropriation and, open displays of racism and hate,” he said. “There seems to be a lack of attention from the police who are supposed to enforce the law.”