A Sarnia father of four said he could be losing his job because of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Kirk Cope was among a few dozen protestors who gathered outside Lambton Public Health Tuesday morning, holding handmade signs and waving at honking vehicles passing by the Exmouth Street health unit.
Kirk Cope told SarniaNewsToday.ca why he took part.
"Because it is not okay to force people to take a vaccine they're not comfortable with, under any circumstances. Especially when some doctors say natural immunity is best -- everyone in my family has had COVID, so why would we get the vaccine?"
Cope said he's being given an ultimatum to feed his family, or not.
"I support four kids, and come January, I could potentially be losing my job. Apparently it's a choice [to get the vaccine]. I can either do what they say, or not have a job -- I don't think that's fair."
Protestors opposed to vaccine mandates outside Lambton Public Health in Sarnia. 2 November 2021. (Photo by SarniaNewsToday.ca)
Four recent mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics were met by protestors when the province's GO-VAXX mobile clinic made stops in Sarnia, Mooretown and Petrolia.
Lambton Medical Officer of Health Dr. Sudit Ranade said he chatted with some of the protestors at one of the clinics, encouraging everyone to be respectful.
"They had very interesting ideas and they had some concerns and we tried to talk through those, and that's okay -- there's nothing wrong with that and I don't mind doing that," said Ranade. "But what is not okay is when they're interrupting people in a line to try to convince them that they shouldn't be vaccinated, because this person has shown up to get a service and they need to be respected. It's about keeping that distance and being respectful of each other, which we should all be trying to do anyways."
Dr. Ranade said a total of about 225 first and second doses were administered through the mobile clinics.
The converted Metrolinx bus has been travelling across Ontario in an effort to make vaccines accessible for everyone.
-With files from Stephanie Chaves