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Ontario Premier Doug Ford Premier of Ontario / Youtube screen grab

TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) – On August 19, Ontario Progressive Conservative (PC) Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the Chatham—Kent—Leamington riding, Rick Nicholls, was removed from the party caucus for refusing to submit to a mandatory COVID shot policy enacted by his former party.

Unvaccinated members of the Ontario PC party were given an ultimatum to be vaccinated by 5:00PM on Thursday, August 19. Before the deadline, MPP Nicholls held his own press conference in the afternoon at Queen’s Park, stating that he and his wife remain unvaccinated for “personal reasons.”

“I voiced my concerns about our policy privately to the premier and to the Ontario PC caucus,” Nicholls said. “But under no circumstances will I nor should any Ontarian be forced or coerced to do something against their will. To do so is an affront to the democratic principles of this magnificent institution.”

After the deadline was reached, Premier Doug Ford followed through with the threat of expulsion and released a statement saying that Nicholls “failed to provide a legitimate reason for exemption from vaccination,” and “as a consequence, he is no longer a sitting member of the PC caucus and will not be permitted to seek re-election as a PC candidate.”

Ford also said: “Over the past year, I have repeatedly stood in front of Ontarians and urged them to get vaccinated as soon as they become eligible. The people of this province have responded to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 by making sacrifices to keep our families, our communities, ourselves and others safe, it also includes our elected officials, who we all expect to lead by example, and who must rightfully be held to a higher standard.”

Just over a month ago, Ford said he would not make vaccination mandatory for any industry, but he has since mandated the COVID jab for various public service positions, including teachers and healthcare workers.

As part of his statement, MPP Nicholls said of Ford’s reversal: “I took the premier at his word that vaccination is a choice and that all Ontarians have a constitutional right to make such a choice. Like almost two million eligible Ontarians, I choose to exercise this autonomy over my own body while continuing to work hard for the people of Ontario.”

Nicholls is now the third MPP to be booted from the PC caucus for going against the party-line about the restrictions and measures enacted on the province of Ontario since March of 2020. Belinda Karahalios and Roman Baber have also been ousted.

Karahalios was kicked out for voting against Bill 195, which amounted to an extension of emergency powers. At the time she said: “By transferring away the ability for Ontario MPPs to consider, debate, and vote on how emergency powers are used on Ontarians, Bill 195 essentially silences every single Ontario MPP on the most important issue facing our legislature today.”

Baber was kicked out for a letter he wrote to Ford in January in which he said, among other things, that the lockdown measures have proven to be “deadlier than COVID.”

Until yesterday, Nicholls had supported the PC government in everything it had done during the last 18 months. In January he told Chatham Daily News that he believed the government should be given an “A-” rating for its handling of the pandemic. He added: “People have adhered to guidelines that have been administered by the government and the chief medical officer of health for Ontario, Dr. (David) Williams. I think it speaks volumes to the people and caring community that we have right now.”

MPP Christina Mitas, who is pregnant with her third child, was also threatened with expulsion due to her choice to avoid the jab, but was given a pass due to a medical exemption.

Anti-lockdown advocate and Independent MPP Randy Hillier was ousted from the PC caucus in 2019, and has spoken about what he sees as a dysfunctional environment that does not put the people of Ontario first: “I have always placed the interests of my constituents and the people of my riding ahead of conventions or meetings of the PC party. I will not apologize for this. This is not a question of loyalty to the party but rather an acknowledgment of my overarching responsibility to you as your elected representative in Ontario’s provincial parliament.”

Hillier said in one interview a year before the lockdown began that the environment was “stifling.” He also said when asked what it was like to be in the PC caucus under Ford, “we knew, and most knew that if you spoke out in any fashion that was not in full agreement with the position taken by the leadership, in laymen’s terms it was ‘my way of the high-way.’”

LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.