The Conservatives' COVID conspiracy conundrum
The time to stand up to anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists is yesterday.
When Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for President and then inexplicably won the 2016 election, one of my biggest worries was how it would affect the Conservative Party of Canada. Everything else being equal, the CPC has never been as far right politically as the GOP - even Joe Biden doesn’t (publicly) support a Canadian-style single-payer health system, while most Tories are far too timid to suggest any serious reforms of it - but American conservatives have always had some influence over their Canadian counterparts.
The first time I ever heard about QAnon was at an event for former Tory leader Andrew Scheer in 2018. That was a…memorable conversation.
Sadly, it’s not at all surprising to see Conservative MP Derek Sloan using his position to promote anti-vaxxer nonsense in the middle of a pandemic:
Conservative MP Derek Sloan has sponsored a parliamentary e-petition that raises questions about the safety of a future coronavirus vaccine.
It also states that “bypassing proper safety protocols means COVID-19 vaccination is effectively human experimentation.”
His decision to sponsor the e-petition comes despite repeated assurances from both public health and government officials that Health Canada will only approve a vaccine that is rigorously tested and safe to use.
Meanwhile, the e-petition has already garnered over 22,000 signatures — meaning the government will be forced to issue a response.
While Sloan said he hasn’t read the petition since it was tabled on Nov. 3, he told reporters on Wednesday that it raised “good points.”
[…]
E-petitions cannot be tabled without the sponsorship of an elected member of Parliament. As a result, many parliamentarians sponsor e-petitions they disagree with so they can ensure their constituents or advocacy groups can have the opportunity to have their voices heard.
In this case, the sponsor is from Dorchester, Ont., which is not in Sloan’s riding. However, Sloan did say in a statement that he generally sponsors any e-petition that he feels reflects concerns his constituents have, regardless of whether they reflect his personal convictions.
(Note to self: draft pro-drug-legalization petition and send to Derek Sloan to see what he does with it.)
Sloan is not the first MP to plug a nonsense petition in Parliament, and it’s certainly not just a Conservative thing. Niki Ashton is bravely standing up for the rights of poor, oppressed Huawei in the House of Commons, and let’s not forget Elizabeth May promoting a 9/11 Troofer petition in Parliament.
But the CPC is the party to which I belong, and I hoped that Erin O’Toole, the party leader I supported, would stand firm against this nonsense. Sadly, he decided to punt:
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole wouldn’t say Thursday if he has a problem with MP Derek Sloan’s sponsoring of an electronic petition that falsely casts doubt on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines at a time when the Tory leader is pushing to see vaccinations in Canada.
At a press conference in Ottawa, O’Toole faced several questions about Sloan’s involvement with an e-petition that calls COVID-19 vaccine developments “rushed,” and claims that “bypassing proper safety protocols means COVID-19 vaccination is effectively human experimentation.”
[…]
Asked if he supports Sloan’s sponsoring the petition, O’Toole instead turned the focus to the Liberal government. A lack of transparency from Ottawa about its vaccine distribution plan is causing anxiety and uncertainty, he said.
He wouldn’t say if Sloan would be disciplined, either, which leads me to believe the answer is no. Sloan is not a major figure in the Conservative Party - he ran against O’Toole for the party leadership, and finished dead last - but there are apparently enough social conservatives in the CPC that O’Toole is wary of getting on their bad side.
Donald Trump was a fringe player in the Republican Party once, too. Five years later, he has most of the GOP too cowed to admit that he lost an election he very clearly lost.
The radical fringe is a radical fringe until, one day, it isn’t. (From the other end of the spectrum, see Jeremy Corbyn taking over Britain’s Labour Party, which worked out just great for them.) I won’t go so far as to say Sloan would be expelled from the party - not yet, at least - but the leader has to put a stop to this nonsense before it gains any real traction.
Fortunately, a clear majority of CPC members still plan to take a COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available. In Russia, by contrast, people are much more wary about it:
Never one to let a bandwagon pass by, Vladimir Putin launched his own national vaccine program the moment Britain said it was starting its roll-out. Given how badly Russia has been hit, you would expect it to be a popular move. But Russians themselves seem cautious, not least because they mistrust the Kremlin.
On Thursday, Russian health officials announced a new record of more than 28,000 coronavirus cases reported in a single day, bringing the total caseload to almost 2.4 million. Russia has the world’s fourth-worst case numbers, behind only the US, India and Brazil, with over 41,000 deaths to date. Or at least 41,000 according to official statistics — confidential documents leaked to the press suggest the real figure is at least 75,000.
This points to a particular problem in Russia where a combination of reluctance to admit mistakes at the top of the system and a culture of cover-up in the regions means the government is often working off inaccurate data and the population habitually mistrusts the official line.
That mistrust is already evident in reactions to Russia’s own, much-vaunted Sputnik V vaccine. Its developers claim it is 95 percent effective after a second dose. The trouble is that the process looks to many like it’s been rushed and is based on too small a sample. This caused initial controversy, although the science seems sound and the general international consensus appears to be that it should perform to, or close to, those claims, and is both relatively cheap and easy to store and transport.
Nonetheless, a survey by the independent Levada Center found that as of October, 59 percent of respondents were unwilling to take the vaccine — and that number appears to be growing. By comparison, only 21 percent would similarly be disinclined in the UK. Of course, the Brits are not being offered Sputnik V.
[…]
Moscow’s first vaccination centers are due to open on Saturday, and no doubt there will be a massive media campaign to encourage take-up, combined with pressure on government employees to take the jab. Assuming Sputnik V lives up to its billing, it is undoubtedly a great step forward in Russia’s efforts to control the virus. But the resistance to the program is an entirely self-inflicted problem. It is the result of naked hype about Russia’s own vaccine and the public quietly knowing only too well that they have been lied to for decades.
Russia has had many serious problems for the past few millennia or so, but a dearth of scientific accomplishments isn’t one of them. The very name of this vaccine is a tribute to one of its greatest. But even Russians who respect Putin have been burned often enough not to trust him completely.
It would be sadly ironic if Russia really was the first to produce a COVID-19 vaccine that worked, but none of its people believed it. Like I wrote last week, once you’ve squandered your credibility, good luck trying to get it back.
Mighty (Tesla) oaks from little acorns grow.
If O’Toole wants to stand for something, he needs to put a stop to that kind of nonsense right now. He should have done it immediately. Especially coming from someone like Sloan.
It’s nice to see you writing about Canadian politics for a change. Inevitably, the more ridiculous American politics becomes, the less we pay attention to what’s happening in our own country.
If you petition Sloan to legalize drugs, do let your readers know what happens. ;)