Tory Leadership Candidate Says He Would Fire Canada’s Chief Medical Officer Over Pandemic Response

Candidate Roman Baber speaks at the Conservative Party of Canada English leadership debate in Edmonton, Alta., on May 11, 2022. The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh

Conservative leadership candidate Roman Baber says if he became prime minister, his first order of business would be to fire Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam over her COVID-19 pandemic response.

Baber made the comments in an email addressed to Conservative Party members on May 17, saying that Tam “lost any credibility she had left” after she recommended that Canadians wear masks during sexual activity earlier in the pandemic on Sept. 2, 2020.

“As Prime Minister, I will fire Dr. Tam on my first day in office!” Baber said in the email.

Baber reiterated this point on social media on May 17.

“Rather than protect LTC [long-term care], build capacity & tender fair data, [Tam’s] policies resulted in 600,000 surgeries delayed, over a million cancer screens missed, overdose & mental health pandemic,” he wrote on Twitter.

Baber sat as an Independent MPP for the Toronto York Centre riding after Ontario Premier Doug Ford ousted him from the Progressive Conservative Party caucus in January 2021 for criticizing the province’s COVID-19 lockdown measures and other public health restrictions.

In his email to party members, Baber also called for a judicial inquiry into Public Health’s management of the pandemic to investigate how decisions were made “and the influence of foreign interests, pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists on pandemic decision-making.”

Baber has also been vocal in support of the Freedom Convoy protest earlier this year, which initially started to oppose the federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed on cross-border truck drivers.

During last week’s Tory leadership debate, Baber drew cheers from the audience when he criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergencies Act to give the police sweeping additional powers to remove the protesters from Ottawa’s downtown core—powers that the Ottawa police chief recently said the police didn’t request.

“Everything that Justin Trudeau said about the protests in Ottawa turned out to be false,” Baber told the crowd.

Baber and his Tory leadership opponent Leslyn Lewis have also criticized the World Health Organization’s pandemic response. The international health organization is now constructing a global pandemic treaty, which both candidates said would encroach on Canada’s sovereignty.