Vaccine card still an issue for international students

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This article was published 26/08/2021 (1531 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The province still hasn’t unveiled a plan to fill the health-care gap impacting international students in post-secondary education, based on comments chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin made during Tuesday’s COVID-19 news conference.

When asked if the Manitoba government would give international students access to immunization cards, which will be required to access certain services during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Roussin provided a single-sentence response.

“I think there’s been work all along on that, so we’re going to continue to try to work out those types of details,” he said.

Roussin’s response on Tuesday mirrors the short statement he made about the issue on July 5, where he mentioned that “I don’t have any specifics to share or an exact date on when we can announce anything, but there will be something upcoming.”

However, University of Manitoba international student Callum Morrison told the Sun that he is fed up with the province’s empty words when it comes to this topic, especially since the province launched its immunization card program in early June.

“I think that’s complete nonsense, because it’s been over two and a half months now,” Morrison told the Sun on Wednesday. “At this point, it’s will. There’s no political will to give it to international students.”

Morrison also spoke to the Sun about this issue in early July, pointing out that international students — alongside groups such as foreign workers and military personnel —cannot access these immunization cards due to the fact that they do not qualify for a Manitoba health card in the first place.

Even though international students can try to use their official vaccination record in lieu of an immunization card, Morrison is worried these unusual documents won’t be accepted as proof of full immunization across the board.

“I guarantee you this will be a problem because I already have problems accessing health care without a Manitoba health card,” Morrison said in July.

Now that the fall semester is only a couple weeks away, Morrison is getting worried that the province won’t resolve this discrepancy in time, with no meaningful updates having been given throughout the summer.

“I’m just getting frustrated when they keep giving this response,” he said. “You can’t say you’re working on it when you’re clearly not working on it.”

This health-care gap has been an ongoing issue since mid-2018, when the Progressive Conservative government repealed a clause in the Manitoba Health Services Insurances Act that gave college and university students from abroad access to universal health care.

Even though the PCs will install a new leader this coming fall, Morrison remains skeptical this change in management will move the needle on this issue, especially since the current front-runner is former health minister Heather Stefanson.

But the U of M student, originally from Scotland, is comforted by the fact that many Manitoba universities seem to be taking the needs of international students much more seriously in the lead-up to the fall semester.

Brandon University administration, for example, made a point of mentioning international students in a recent statement about their new vaccine policy, promising that these individuals will be accommodated if they didn’t have the opportunity to get vaccinated before the beginning of the fall semester.

While the finer details of BU’s vaccine policy haven’t been finalized yet, Brandon University Students’ Union president Olufunke Adeleye, who is an international student herself, is confident that the administration will act in good faith on this front.

“We’ve been in constant communication with the administration,” she said.

“They invited us into their faculty council meetings, so there’s definitely been opportunities to give our opinions about it and they want to work with us.”

But in terms of working with members of the province, representatives from the Canadian Federation of Students-Manitoba believe that a different approach is required, especially if they want to restore consistent health-care access for everyone.

Earlier this month, CFS-Manitoba launched a new online tool designed to help people call the health minister’s office directly, with a pre-loaded script designed to help the caller rebut any talking points that are thrown at them about denying health cards to international students.

CFS chairperson Alexandra Koslock told the Sun that this campaign is only the beginning, since the organization plans to apply more pressure and attack this issue on multiple fronts throughout the 2021-22 academic year.

“That’s means doing work locally in the next year,” she said. “We also want to work more broadly with folks in other jurisdictions across the country to really bring attention to the importance of health-care as a human right across Canada.”

Anyone wanting to utilize CFS-Manitoba’s new call tool can do so by visiting cfsmb.ca/campaigns/healthcareforall-call-the-minister.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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