Jason Kenney answers tough questions on vaccine passports

Adam Soos addressed Alberta's vaccine policies with Premier Jason Kenney at the United Conservative Party's annual general meeting.

Remove Ads

During the Sunday afternoon media scrum at the 2021 United Conservative Party annual general meeting, Premier Jason Kenney was present and ready to answer questions. Rebel News was on location, and we had the opportunity to ask two tough, but fair, questions. 

There are clear trust issues at play among Albertans when it comes to Jason Kenney’s leadership.

Back in July at the UCP Calgary Stampede Breakfast, I asked Jason Kenney whether he would allow vaccine passports in Alberta; he was not only dismissive of the idea as far-fetched, he also actively committed to intervening should the federal government seek to implement a vaccine passport system.

Kenney further boasted about the efforts of his party having revoked an over 100 year old law in Alberta that enabled the government to mandate vaccines, and even stated that a vaccine passport would violate the Health Information Act. Despite all of this, he broke his promise and implemented a vaccine passport system of his own mere months later.

Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange recently confirmed that the Restriction Exemption Program — or vaccine passport system by another name — would not be implemented for students aged 5-11, and that if schools attempted to enforce vaccines on students in those age groups, they would be reprimanded by the government.

I asked the premier how he could be trusted to maintain that commitment after failing to uphold his commitment on vaccine passports in the first place. 

Premier Kenney responded at length on the justification for the original shift on vaccine passports in addition to assuring folks that it would be wrong to enforce vaccine passports against students in low-risk age groups.

The promises sounded hauntingly reminiscent of his original pledge to oppose vaccine passports, and we all know how that went. 

I also asked Kenney about the plans for vaccine passports moving forward.

It is abundantly clear that not everyone is willing to be vaccinated, and Kenney insists that Alberta will never “force” vaccination, so when will vaccine segregation come to an end?

Kenney gave a non-comital forecast of when the vaccine passport system might come to an end and insisted that the intent was never for this to carry on forever. It remains to be seen if he will stick to his word, or if we will be left with more broken promises for Kenney. 

We were only able to attend this event and ask these tough questions because of your generous support, if you want to support real journalism, donate today at RealReporters.ca to keep us out there telling the other side of the story. 

Alberta Coronavirus Canada Jason Kenney COVID Passports Real Reporters
Remove Ads
Remove Ads
TDF Student Journalism Conference 2024

2024 Student Journalism Conference

Applications are now open for The Democracy Fund's third annual Student Journalism Conference. This is a one-of-a-kind, all-expenses-paid opportunity for young aspiring journalists in Canada!

TDF Student Journalism Conference 2024

Don't Get Censored

Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.

Subscribe via RSS
Remove Ads

Don't Get Censored

Big Tech is censoring us. Sign up so we can always stay in touch.