A Conservative bill (C-278) intended to end COVID vaccine mandates from being imposed again on Canadians lost in the House of Commons on Wednesday by a margin of 205 – 114.

Every Member of Parliament from the Liberal Party, New Democrat Party (NDP), and Bloq Québécois voted against the bill, except for one NDP member, Gord Johns. 

While debating the bill on Tuesday, the Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre accused Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of invoking the COVID vaccine passport for the sake of his political gain, while ignoring his own health experts.

“Let us remember that the Prime Minister originally said that the vaccines would be a personal choice. Then he did a poll showing that it would be popular to target a small minority of people who chose not to be vaccinated. He flip-flopped and said he would then make it mandatory. Three days later, he called an election, and attempted to exploit that political moment in order to regain power.”

Vaccine mandate

The Trudeau government dropped their COVID mandates in June of last year, after having them in place since October 2021, allowing unvaccinated Canadians to travel by air and train again, including on outbound international flights.

The announcement came the same day Justin Trudeau was caught flying into the country with an active COVID infection, which he supposedly caught while mingling with left-wing world leaders in Los Angeles.

Over 5.7 million Canadians were been unable to travel during Trudeau’s COVID mandates, leading to drawn-out nationwide protests against them. 

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his ArriveCan app kept Canadians safe and accused Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre of wearing a tinfoil hat for questioning it.