From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

While hospitals remain understaffed, many provinces still refuse to allow unvaccinated staff return to work.

Canada is bringing in record numbers of foreign healthcare workers while unvaccinated staff remain barred from work in many provinces.

According to information obtained June 25 by CBC News, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has allowed 4,336 temporary healthcare workers to enter Canada in 2023, as hospitals remain understaffed amid ongoing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“It’s unreasonable that some provinces are still blocking unvaccinated nurses from working,” an Ontario nurse told LifeSiteNews under the condition of anonymity.

“But it’s even more shocking that the Canadian government would rather bring in foreign workers than drop a vaccine mandate for Canadian staff, especially with so much evidence now that the COVID shots are not effective in preventing transmission,” she continued.

According to government data, the number of foreign healthcare workers skyrocketed from 447 in 2018 to 4,336 in 2023. Healthcare workers now make up about two percent of the total temporary foreign worker positions that were approved in 2023.

In 2023, the Trudeau government approved 2,514 foreign nurse aides, orderlies and patient service associates to work in Canada, compared with 16 in 2018.

Similarly, Canadian nurses and doctors are being replaced with foreign workers. In 2023, 612 nursing positions for foreign workers were approved, up from 65 in 2018.

Additionally, 216 family doctor positions were approved in 2023 compared with 72 in 2018.

In Canada, hospitals must first prove that there is no one already in Canada who can take the position before being eligible to ask for a foreign worker.

However, this causes many to question how Canada could lose so many healthcare staff between 2018 and 2023 that they had to bring in nearly 10 times the number of foreign workers.

Where are Canadian healthcare workers?

A recent Health Canada memo revealed that a shortage of 90,000 doctors, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers has caused a “health worker crisis” in Canada.

Similarly, wait times to receive care in most provinces have gone up dramatically in recent years, with the national average now at 27.7 weeks.

However, while hospitals remain understaffed, many provinces still refuse to allow unvaccinated staff return to work.

Ontario, in particular, has been criticized for exacerbating its healthcare worker shortage by levying COVID vaccine mandates as a condition of employment.

According to recently released figures, Ontario will need 33,200 more nurses and 50,853 more personal support workers by 2032 to fill the healthcare workers shortage – figures the Doug Ford government had asked the Information and Privacy Commissioner to keep secret.

While the official number of nurses and other workers relieved of their duties for refusing to take the experimental injections remains uncertain, Raphael Gomez, director of the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Relations at the University of Toronto, told CTV News that as many as 10 percent of nurses in the province either quit or retired early as a result of the mandates.

Similarly, British Columbia’s top court recently ruled that healthcare workers can still be mandated to receive the experimental COVID injections as a condition of employment, meaning hundreds of healthcare workers still cannot work as hospitals remain understaffed.

Despite the recent ruling, hundreds of British Columbia healthcare workers are still suing provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry over a mandate that prevents them from working.

However, those who dare to speak out against the dangers of the COVID vaccine are punished even more severely than those who quietly refused the shot.

In April, LifeSiteNews reported that Canadian nurse Kristen Nagle was found guilty of violating Ontario’s COVID rules for participating in an anti-lockdown rally and speaking out against COVID mandates.

While her fine was massively reduced, she was still placed under a two-year probation, which she said is designed to stop her from “speaking out or going against public health measures.”

Similarly, Ontario pro-freedom Dr. Mark Trozzi recently announced he plans to appeal the stripping of his medical license for criticizing the mainstream narrative around the COVID-19 “pandemic” and the associated vaccines.