Member of Alberta premier’s staff questions Calgary doctor’s political motives as others rally to his defence
Dr. Joe Vipond, a Calgary emergency room doctor who has been very vocal about the province's response to COVID-19, is now being criticized over alleged ties to the Alberta NDP.
Since the pandemic began, Vipond has been an active voice about masking, maintaining health restrictions and encouraging vaccination.
More recently, he's spearheaded a number of rallies taking aim at the government's decision to relax isolation, contact tracing and even testing of COVID-19 cases in mid-August.
Now, critics are accusing him of being too connected to the Alberta NDP, saying he has also donated to the party.
Vipond doesn't deny that he's contributed to that party, but says that's the right of every Canadian.
"There is a record of me donating to one political party," Vipond said during an interview with CTV News on Sunday. "I would just like to say that's a normal part of our electoral process and it's a normal part of our democracy.
Critics of the doctor include staff within the government, including the premier’s issues manager, Matt Wolf, who noted the donations on Twitter.
Soon, Vipond’s perfectly legal personal donations became a touchstone in the public health debate, sparking more critics as well as defenders.
Vipond himself said he felt compelled to reveal his party donations on Twitter, which further fuelled interest in the issue.
"If I'm invalidated for having opinions on public policy because I've engaged in the legal, democratic process, then I would hope the view would be the same for others who've donated to other political parties."
He said his connection to the Alberta NDP stops at that point.
"I've never received any money from the NDP, I've never been professionally engaged with the NDP. I've had policy meetings with them, as I have with other political parties.
"This is an element to invalidate the discussion points that I've put out there, the same discussion points that have also been out by Dr. Theresa Tam, the Canadian Pediatric Society, other (Chief Medical Officers of Health) across the country, other physicians here in Alberta."
Vipond said the rhetoric against him is "a testament that their voices have been effective."
"They're struggling to find ways to invalidate the important points that we are putting out there."
He added he was invited to run in the 2015 federal election by three different political parties, but he declined all of those invitations.
"I think that also speaks to how I am non-partisan."
David Fisman, a professor in the epidemiology division at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, lauded Vipond's stance.
The rallies in Calgary and Edmonton are expected to continue throughout the week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Pilot reported fire onboard plane carrying fuel, attempted to return to Fairbanks just before crash
One of the two pilots aboard an airplane carrying fuel reported there was a fire on the airplane shortly before it crashed and burned outside Fairbanks, killing both people on board, a federal aviation official said Wednesday.