Toronto health workers say they’re exhausted, frustrated and demoralized by threat of ‘hateful’ protests

How did we get here? That’s what Dr. Naheed Dosani has been asking himself.

It was not so long ago that he and other health care workers were cheered from front porches every evening, celebrated as heroes for their work on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, nearly two years in, as a protest against vaccine mandates is scheduled to roll into Toronto, they’re being told by hospital officials it might not be a good idea to wear their scrubs in public for fear they may be targets of abuse.

“How did we get to a place where a health worker has to fear for their safety just while they’re going to work?” asked Dosani, a palliative care physician.

As the so-called “Freedom Convoy” arrives in Toronto Saturday and, with it, the threat of harassment or assault for health care workers – particularly those working in the cluster of hospitals near Queen’s Park – Dosani and other doctors interviewed by the Star said they are exhausted, frustrated and demoralized by those set to disrupt the city this weekend.

“I know the vast majority of Canadians stand united with health workers, but this small minority is a very vocal minority, and they can be very hateful,” Dosani said. “The hate that is being incited against health workers at this point by this small minority is having an impact on all of our psyches, it’s causing significant distress, and it’s traumatizing our health workers who have already seen so much trauma throughout the pandemic.”

There are fears that convoy protesters may harass or obstruct patients or staff at hospitals after reports of such incidents in Ottawa this week.

On Friday, Toronto police pre-emptively closed roads around several downtown hospitals in order to protect hospital row.

The University Health Network, Women’s College, Mount Sinai and Sick Kids hospitals said they were working together, with police, to plan for the protests and ensure staff and patients can safely access the hospitals. Security has been increased in some areas, patients have been told to expect delays, and some hospitals have rescheduled non-urgent appointments.

A spokesperson for the UHN said the protest has “meant a lot of planning and time for people within the organization, which is difficult on top of everything that has happened during the pandemic.”

Dosani, meanwhile, is part of a group of health care providers organizing a rally on Saturday as a counterprotest. In a statement, the group said they want to defend the rights of health care workers to show up to work free from harassment and ensure convoy protesters do not interfere with anyone trying to receive health care.

“Our singular message is that access to health care should never be compromised,” reads the group’s statement.

Dr. Raghu Venugopal, an emergency room physician in Toronto, is planning to attend the rally – in his scrubs.

“I’m going to wear identifying clothing because I’m proud of the privilege to serve our community,” he said. “I’m not afraid of that fact. And I think we have to have a strong message to say, go ahead and protest, but do not encumber access. ”

Venugopal cited Bill C-3, which was passed into law in December and made it a criminal offense to impede or intimidate a health professional or someone seeking health care. He said he hoped police enforce the law on Saturday.

Other health workers, like Dr. Lisa Richardson, are simply feeling overwhelmed by it all.

“That’s the word that comes to mind,” she said, “particularly when we’ve been working so hard to look after people who have COVID, whether they’re vaccinated or not.”

Richardson said the idea that her patients or their families may have trouble getting into the hospital because of a movement “that seems to have lost track of reality” was stressful and difficult to understand.

She added that health care workers simply want to be allowed to do their jobs.

“We are not asking to be celebrated. We’re just asking to be left alone and respected so that we can do our work. A nice step would be for people to understand the impact that this has had on all of us who are doing this work, and all of the people who have chosen to leave the health professions because of the stress and the burnout – that would be great . But if we can not have that, at least allow people to go to work with respect and dignity. ”

Dr. Abdu Sharkawy, an internal medicine and infectious disease specialist with the University Health Network, said the protest is indicative of a larger societal creep, fed by right-wing populists, that has created a movement of people who feel “emboldened and entitled to abuse, threaten and recklessly exercise whatever prejudice is within their hearts. ”

Dr. Sharkawy, who has spoken publicly throughout the pandemic, said he had received death threats, “heinous” voicemail messages and all manner of abuse on social media simply for providing evidence-based public health messages.

“A lot of that can be rationalized as the work and expression of a wayward few, but when people are actually willing, inclined and able to hurt other people and to be a visible threat, I think that’s a bit of a watershed moment of crisis that just can not be dismissed. ”

The danger posed by the protesters should not be minimized, he added.

“How is it acceptable that we have to hide?” he said. “We’m being told you should not wear scrubs, you should not wear anything that can readily identify you as a health care provider? I mean, this is historic in terms of the level of depravity that this movement has reached, that in Canada in 2022 we have to be afraid to be a visible symbol of something that is unconditionally a good thing. ”