Alberta premier criticized, apologizes for comparing vaccine passport to AIDS crisis
Alberta’s premier has apologized after facing backlash due to comments he made at Tuesday’s COVID-19 update comparing the potential stigma of being unvaccinated to the discrimination people with HIV/AIDS faced in the 80s.
Jason Kenney made the comments while speaking about attitudes he said he’d observed online, where people expressed they wouldn’t feel safe dining in restaurants alongside someone who was unvaccinated.
“That sentiment deeply concerns me,” said Kenney. “Treating fellow people as though they are somehow unclean.”
“To stigmatize people in that way, it kind of reminds me of the attitudes that circulated in North America in the mid-1980s about people with HIV/AIDS. This notion that they had to be kind of distanced for health reasons…this is a terribly divisive attitude.”
Members from the political opposition, political analysts and others voiced their upset at the comparison online.
“Let’s be very clear. There is simply no comparing vaccine passports, something that has been a travel requirement for countries for decades, to the discrimination faced by victims of HIV,” said Randy Boissonnault, MP for Edmonton City Centre and Minister of Tourism.
Let’s be very clear. There is simply no comparing vaccine passports, something that has been a travel requirement for countries for decades, to the discrimination faced by victims of HIV. https://t.co/QoufEGz3Nh
— Randy Boissonnault 🏳️🌈 (@R_Boissonnault) February 9, 2022
Jason Kenney, who proudly kept men from their dying partners during the AIDS crisis, just tried to compare wanting to know that everyone else in the restaurant has also done their part to stop the spread, to discrimination during the AIDS crisis.
I can’t even… #AbLeg
— Kathleen Ganley (@KathleenGanley) February 9, 2022
Kenney just compared the divisiveness over covid and demonization of nonvaccinated Albertans with the 1980s demonization of those with HIV/aids. Kenney said that! The Kenney who was at the forefront of demonizing those with HIV/aids in the 1980s. See San Francisco.
— Duane Bratt (@DuaneBratt) February 9, 2022
In a tweet, Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley stated “How could the Premier ever justify saying such a horrible thing? He must immediately apologize.”
How could the Premier ever justify saying such a horrible thing?
He must immediately apologize. #ableghttps://t.co/Z617BNMKTr
— Rachel Notley (@RachelNotley) February 9, 2022
On Wednesday morning Premier Kenney issued an apology, saying that he “made an inappropriate analogy to the stigmatization of people with AIDS,” and the he “was wrong to do so and apologize without reservation.”
In my new conference yesterday I made an inappropriate analogy to the stigmatization of people with AIDS. I was wrong to do so and apologize without reservation.
— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) February 9, 2022
The premier made the comments while announcing a plan to ease restrictions in Alberta, including the Restriction Exemptions Program.
On Tuesday, Saskatchewan also announced its plan to remove its own COVID-19 vaccine passport system later this week.
Alberta reported 1,667 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday.
Follow Channels and Categories