Quebec Premier François Legault is refusing to have an open democratic debate about vaccine passports in the province’s legislature because he claims it would expose Canadians to “conspiracy theories.”
Legault mentioned a “certain” group of people, whom he refused to name, as the reasons behind his fears.
“I don’t want certain people – whom I won’t name – to come explain that there’s a conspiracy, it’s not good to be vaccinated, that in the end, we’re putting a microchip in people’s arms to follow what they’re doing, stories like that. I don’t think we need that in Quebec,” said Legault without giving any examples.
This week, Legault announced a sweeping vaccine passport program that would bar unvaccinated Canadians from accessing so-called “non-essential services” like sporting events, restaurants and bars.
Legault also pointed to support for vaccine passports among opposition parties including Quebec solidaire and the Parti Quebecois as a motivating factor.
“For the past 18 months, Francois Legault has been governing by decree and refusing to collaborate with the opposition,” said Quebec solidaire spokesman Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
“Today, he is pushing the envelope to the point of preventing the elected representatives of the Quebec people from debating a measure as sweeping as a vaccine passport.”
Additionally, Legault claims that Quebec’s population “agrees” with his vaccine passport system. As proof, Legault pointed to the rate Quebec citizens have been getting vaccinated.
Critics of the vaccine passport program in Quebec have claimed that it will be very difficult to enforce and could unnecessarily burden businesses that are already suffering.
Quebec’s vaccine passport decree has already faced some hurdles since first being announced in August.
Reports have indicated that numerous fraudsters attempting to sell fake COVID-19 passports and vaccination certificates are already taking advantage of the system in order to profit.
