Ontario Premier Doug Ford is coming under fire for remarks he made in Queen’s Park on Thursday suggesting an Indigenous MPP jumped the line to get his COVID-19 vaccine.
MPP Sol Mamakwa disputed Ford’s claim that Indigenous chiefs were upset he flew in to a remote community to receive his vaccine, saying he was asked to participate in order to help curb the vaccine hesitancy that the population was seeing.
When Mamakwa asked for answers about Ontario’s vaccine rollout in First Nations communities, Ford responded by accusing the MPP of jumping the queue.
The premier did not name the elders he referred to.
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Both Mamakwa and NDP Opposition leader Andrea Horwath responded to Ford’s claim in scrums after Question Period, with the MPP saying it was community elders who invited him to take the vaccine to help combat vaccine hesitancy among Indigenous residents in Ontario.
“I don’t want the people in the north to suffer the way I have seen,” the MPP continued. “That’s when I knew I made the right decision. It’s not jumping the line but it’s providing leadership.”
Mamakwa did not attempt to hide his vaccination, posting a video to his Twitter on Feb. 1 about his experience.
Horwath defended her MPP saying, “We all know vaccine hesitancy is a reality in many communities as a result of generations of systemic racism, historic traumas and poor treatment by the health system.”
“The premier needs to undo the damage that he did this morning,” Horwath said, calling on Ford to apologize for his comments.