Trudeau Defends COVID Vaccination Record, But Says Some ‘Probably Got Very Sick’ From Jabs

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media in Ottawa on Feb. 12, 2023. Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his COVID-19 vaccination policy helped Canada get through the pandemic and criticized related “misinformation and disinformation,” but he also said some people experienced side effects from the shots.

“The challenge that we have now is that increasingly, misinformation and disinformation [are] carrying people to believe things that are untrue. Vaccinations [are] a perfect example of it,” Trudeau said on April 24 while having an armchair discussion with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the University of Ottawa.

“Like any modern bit of medical advancements, there are potential side effects in vaccinations, and there are people who’ve probably gotten very sick from vaccinations [among] the billions of people who’ve been vaccinated against COVID over the past few years.”

The prime minister did not elaborate. Health Canada says that serious adverse events do occur but are rare.

Trudeau discussed vaccination after taking a question from a student who said there is concern that the word “misinformation” is being used to discredit opposing views in the context of the pandemic.

The student asked Trudeau how he decides what is misinformation and when to use the word.

The prime minister said he relies on the “actual definitions” of misinformation and disinformation and that there are certain “proven and accepted” “scientific realities” that have been laid out by experts over generations, such as that “water is wet and it freezes at zero degrees Celsius.”

In that context, he said some people have deliberately spread falsehoods about vaccines that endangered the lives of others, but he didn’t provide examples.

The prime minister said in facing the “greatest public health crisis” in 100 years, it was his duty to protect the lives of Canadians.

“And therefore, while not forcing anyone to get vaccinated, I chose to make sure that all the incentives and all the protections were there to encourage Canadians to get vaccinated,” he said.

The Liberal government imposed vaccination mandates on transportation, the public service, and federally regulated workplaces from October 2021 until June 2022.

Those who did not get vaccinated were prohibited from travelling on planes and trains and were placed on leave without pay or fired from their jobs.

Documents and testimonies in relation to a court case against the travel vaccine mandate show that the government knew the risk of in-flight transmission was low and that it had limited data on how vaccination could help reduce the spread in that setting.

Trudeau also promised provinces $1 billion to implement vaccine passports, which prevented the unvaccinated from entering restaurants, sports facilities, and places of worship.

“We got vaccinated to a higher level than just about any other of our peer countries, and that’s why we had a less deadly pandemic than most other countries,” he said.

The John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center places Canada 73rd worst out of 193 countries for COVID deaths per 100,000 population.

But the World Health Organization says that comparing the number of COVID deaths among countries is difficult due to them having different processes to test and report.