Bill C-3 and Policing at Hospitals

Wellness Within is alarmed by the introduction of Bill C-3 which includes prison sentences of up to 10 years for people who protest near health care facilities. This law has been introduced as a response to anti-vax protestors targeting hospitals and vaccine clinics.

Many Wellness Within members, including our founder, are health care providers. We fully support health care workers’ right to a safe workplace. We believe people seeking health care should be free to do so without harassment. We do not believe it is necessary or desirable to turn to carceral solutions and increased police powers to achieve this. Police in Nova Scotia and jurisdictions across Canada have a long history of harm when it comes to Black, Indigenous, migrant and 2SLGBTQIA people. A police presence around health care facilities would be more of a deterrent for members of these communities than some ill-informed protestors.

As there are already laws in Canada that prohibit blocking access to hospitals and threatening people (health care workers and patients included), we question the political motivation behind introducing these new provisions.

We encourage the federal government to consider more creative solutions to ensure access to health care and safe workplaces for providers that take into account the needs and realities of the most marginalized in our society.

Wellness Within is a registered non-profit organization working for reproductive justice, prison abolition, and health equity in K'jipuktuk, Mi'kma'ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Contact: Martha Paynter, Chair. 9022927082, martha.paynter@gmail.com