Antivaccines: Legault is considering extending the ban on demonstrating to daycare services

In addition to schools and hospitals, the Legault government is considering extending to daycare services and vaccination centers the special bill that it will table on Thursday to keep anti-vaccine activists at bay.

• Read also: A special law in Quebec to limit antivaxes

“My patience has reached its limits,” Prime Minister François Legault said Wednesday, calling on opposition parties, including Conservative MP Claire Samson, to work together.

“Why not extend it to daycare services, to vaccination centers”, he suggested a little later, at the Blue Room, commenting on the draft bill of the Liberal MP Marwah Rizqy, who proposes to prohibit anti-vaccines from approaching within 50 meters of primary and secondary schools.

This formula is inspired by a law passed in 2016 under the former Liberal government to keep pro-life protesters from abortion clinics at bay.

After having first expressed reservations, Québec solidaire finally said it was ready to support the Legault government to quickly pass a special law to keep anti-vaccines away from schools.

Party members are due to discuss it on Wednesday, but the solidarity parliamentary leader, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, has made it clear that he is in favor of such a measure.

“We have to do something, we have to do it intelligently, but we have to do something,” he summed up, saying, however, that he was worried about the possible drifts concerning the framework of the right to demonstrate.

The Liberal Party of Quebec also wants a law to prevent anti-vaccines from demonstrating near schools, but goes further by asking that it apply to all places where they are likely to intimidate the population.

The Parti Québécois has made it known that it also wants to work with the government, but wants the measure to be debated first at the Salon Bleu.

For his part, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ), Éric Duhaime, congratulates the government’s intention to “ensure the safety of children”, but warns that it will oppose any measure targeting particular groups.

“We have seen too many red squares or unions abuse this fundamental right to prevent students from studying or workers from working,” he wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

“Yes [le gouvernement Legault] wishes to attack a sub-group in particular in order to divide Quebecers among themselves, for partisan purposes, he will find the PCQ in its path, ”he added.

Crossed in the corridors of the National Assembly, the conservative deputy Claire Samson declared that she is not opposed to the principle of the bill.

However, M^me Samson expressed concern that the future law could prevent nurses and students from demonstrating around their institutions. “How far will it go?” Are we going to prevent nurses from doing sit-ins in front of hospitals? Are we going to prevent students from demonstrating in CEGEPs? ”She asked.

– With the collaboration of Patrick Bellerose

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