GATINEAU, Quebec (LifeSiteNews) – The leader of the People’s Party of Canada says the Canadian federal government must rehire or compensate employees fired for refusing the COVID-19 jabs after repealing its mandates.
“First, repeal the vaccine mandates on federal employees and federally regulated industries,” wrote Maxime Bernier in a January 28 press release.
“But that’s not enough. The government should reinstate all civil servants, military personnel, and other government employees who unjustly lost their jobs,” he continued.
“It should instruct federally regulated industries like transport and telecom to rehire their employees who were unjustly fired.”
Bernier added that in cases where these unjustly fired workers “don’t want to return to their former jobs,” they should get “any severance package and unemployment benefit that a terminated employee normally receives.”
The politician’s statement was released in support of the thousands of Canadian truckers and their supporters now protesting COVID mandates. The Freedom Convoy has been parked in Ottawa since Saturday.
Bernier was in Ottawa during the weekend, meeting the truckers and lending an ear to their concerns. ***
Catherine and I walked through the streets of downtown Ottawa this afternoon to talk with truckers taking part in the #TruckerConvoy2022 about their concerns and hopes. pic.twitter.com/Mr2vqDDgHs
— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) January 31, 2022
Last year Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated COVID-19 jabs for all federal public service workers. His government has also banned anyone in Canada who qualifies for the jabs but refuses them from traveling by air, sea, and rail.
In his press release, Bernier also said that COVID vaccine-free Canadians should be allowed to travel.
“Both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can catch and spread the virus. Vaccine passports are completely useless,” wrote Bernier.
“Repeal all travel restrictions on planes, trains, and boats for unvaccinated Canadians. These measures are useless and are a violation of our basic constitutional rights.”
As his third demand, Bernier wrote that the “government should stop bailing out provinces that devastate their economy with lockdowns, curfews, vaccine passports, and vaccine mandates.”
“Although provincial governments are responsible for most covid measures that affect Canadians, they would very probably have been a lot more prudent and moderate without the billions of dollars of borrowed and printed money sent by Ottawa through various programs,” he added.
“Provincial governments should be responsible for their own decisions. If they want to impose destructive measures, they should be accountable to their own citizens.”
The Freedom Convoy says they are not going anywhere until their demands are met. As of this writing, organizers have raised $10.1 million in funds.
Last week, the group listed its demands, which include eliminating “all vaccine passports, including inter-Canada passport system,” and all “mandatory programs of vaccination and contact tracing.”
In his press release, Bernier praised the truckers.
“Unvaccinated cross-border truckers have been providing an essential service to the Canadian economy for two years,” he wrote.
“That’s why they were [initially] exempt from the border closures. They pose no threat to anyone. They’re alone in their trucks most of the time. There is no crisis because of sick truckers.”
On Monday Prime Minister Trudeau claimed the Freedom Convoy was full of Nazi and racist sympathies. The mainstream media had repeatedly published images of a man seen at the protest with a Confederate flag, now widely considered a symbol of white supremacist beliefs, and of a man holding a Nazi flag.
However, many conservative political commentators think the Nazi and Confederate flag holders were paid provocateurs, not real convoy protesters. Some media outlets have put a reward for information leading to their identity.