OTTAWA — Joel Harden, NDP MPP for Ottawa Centre, released the following statement in response to allegations about vaccine queue-jumping at a local retirement home revealed by an Ottawa Citizen report:
“I’m heartbroken and outraged for the frontline retirement home worker whose hopes of getting vaccinated were suddenly dashed because someone who allegedly had no business jumping the queue took their shot. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard about people jumping the queue to get their vaccine in Ontario, and it’s extremely disturbing when much more vulnerable people are still waiting for their turn.
Doug Ford left the door wide open to vaccine queue-jumping with his slow and sloppy vaccine roll out because he didn’t want to spend the money on investing in preparedness. Vaccines have sat in freezers. Records have been taken by pen and paper. Some administrators got their shots before seniors in long-term care and retirement homes.
The NDP is calling on the Ford government to launch a public investigation into vaccine queue-jumping, to get to the bottom of who may have improperly received a shot and where else this may have occurred. We also need a plan to scale-up the roll-out of vaccines that includes a provincial directive on who gets thawed doses when there are extras left over, to make sure shots are going into the arms of people who most need it first.”
**NDP Deputy Leader Sara Singh wrote to Ret. Gen. Rick Hillier to request a public investigation Monday.
Harden calls for investigation into alleged vaccine queue-jumping in Ottawa
Published on February 10, 2021