'Very, very rude residents': Abusive behaviour escalating at York Region vaccination sites

‘They’re coming to the doors. We will now have to step up our policing at the (vaccination) centres,’ says York Region CEO

Barrietoday.ca
April 14, 2021
Jessica Owen

Abuse and harassment against workers at York Region vaccination sites and contact centres is getting worse.

During a York Region council meeting last week, regional chairman and CEO Wayne Emmerson had choice words for residents engaging in the harassment.

“We’re all pretty upset with a lot of the calls and emails coming in from some very, very rude residents of York Region,” said Emmerson. “They’re coming to the doors. We will now have to step up our policing at the (vaccination) centres.

"It’s very disappointing."

Emmerson had a message for York Region residents upset with the provincial shutdown, state of emergency declaration and stay-at-home order.

“The province of Ontario has set these new rules up. They’re the driver of it. So please forward all your questions to the province regarding restaurants and (anything) you think of, because we don’t have those answers, and we did not want to go this way,” he said.

Patrick Casey, director of corporate communications for York Region, confirmed that abuse is getting worse against staff.

“Unfortunately there has been a rise in the use of abusive language and harassment toward York Region staff, including those at our vaccine clinics and contact centres,” said Casey.

Casey did not provide details of the specific incidents, however, he said that as a result of the incidents, the region has increased security presence and has trained staff at the vaccination sites in de-escalation strategies.

“Any form of abuse, verbal or physical, will not be tolerated,” he said.

Casey said he understands these times are challenging for residents.

“A combination of pandemic fatigue and being anxious to receive a vaccine adds to the frustration,” he said. “However, staff are serving residents and demonstrating York Region’s core values: integrity, commitment, accountability, respect and excellence and we kindly ask residents to do the same.”

Questions sent to York Regional Police were not answered by publication time.

A light was first shone on the issue back in March during a York Region council meeting.

At that time, Scott Cholewa, acting director of infectious disease control and operations chief for COVID-19 emergency response, told NewmarketToday that the amount of abusive behaviour toward staff had spiked on all the different phone lines operated by the public health unit in the past month.

"There has been swearing and whole range of other things we haven't experienced previously," he said. "(Public health workers) have had challenging calls where people have hurled racial or insulting terms at them.

"We have seen a real intensive increase in the past few weeks. It's not something unique to York Region, though, we have seen health units make statements about this across the board."