Truth or Fake – Were children in Canada vaccinated against their parents’ will?

Issued on: 28/05/2021 – 18:02

In Canada, a “vaccination centre offers ice cream to children in exchange for a vaccine, no parental consent required”, read a tweet in French published on 24 May. “The police are guarding the premises to prevent parents from intervening!”

The video under this caption was viewed more than 168,000 times. Tristan Werkmeister from the FRANCE 24 Observers analysed the claims of this post one by one. 

Main takeaways

The temporary vaccination centre seen in the video was located in Toronto, Ontario, on 23 May, for a single-day vaccination campaign open to all residents over the age of 12. The mayor of the city insisted on welcoming people without health insurance and immigrant workers. “I encourage families with eligible children to come to the clinic,” he said.

But children aged 12 and over did not necessarily need to come with their parents because the provincial Health Care Consent Act of 1996 doesn’t require parental consent for vaccination.

The individuals protesting are in fact anti-restriction and anti-vaccination demonstrators. Three of them were arrested. According to the Toronto Sun, “one was charged with public nuisance, another with failing to comply with an order, and a third was ticketed for a provincial offence”. 

On the same day, 2,500 people received their first dose of the vaccine at the temporary centre and could get an ice cream as they left the centre.