EDMONTON—Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has issued a statement to “clarify” comments she made about those who received a COVID-19 vaccine having been discriminated against.
Smith said on Oct. 11 that those who didn’t get vaccinated are the “most discriminated-against group” she has seen in her lifetime.
After some objected to her remarks, Smith issued a statement on Oct. 12, saying she wants to “clarify” her earlier comments.
In the statement, Smith said her intention was to underline the mistreatment of unvaccinated individuals.
“I want to be clear that I did not intend to trivialize in any way the discrimination faced by minority communities and other persecuted groups both here in Canada and around the world or to create any false equivalences to the terrible historical discrimination and persecution suffered by so many minority groups over the last decades and centuries,” she wrote.
“We need to actively work together as Albertans and Canadians to end all discrimination against all minority communities.”
Referring to Smith’s Oct. 11 comments, NDP Leader Rachel Notley said that Smith’s remarks will turn people away from the province and hurt Alberta’s “economic future.”
“The ignorant, harmful comments about vaccines made by the new Premier hurt our reputation and, by extension, our economic future. She must apologize immediately,” Notley wrote on Twitter.
B.C.’s NDP Premier John Horgan also criticized Smith’s comments, saying, “It’s laughable, quite frankly.”
Smith’s comments on discrimination against those who are not vaccinated came in her first press conference as premier just hours after being sworn in. In the United Conservative Party leadership race, she campaigned on promises to overhaul Alberta Health Services and to strengthen legislation so Albertans can’t be “discriminated against” on the basis of medical decisions.
“This has been an extraordinary time in the last year in particular, and I want people to know that I find that unacceptable,” Smith said on Oct. 11. “We are not going to create a segregated society on the basis of a medical choice.”
During the pandemic, Alberta implemented a vaccine passport system and shut down businesses and places of worship, similar to other provinces.
