Michelle Marion was one of the nurses fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Nurse shortage in Huron-Perth: Where they won’t hire back nurses fired for not taking COVID vaccine

“Some days it feels like it’s all going to fall apart,” said a doctor recently, referring to our precariously overloaded, understaffed healthcare system. So, why are some health networks paying nurses to not come to work?

CTV News recently broke the story of Michelle Marion, a surgical nurse who was fired by the Huron Perth Health Alliance (HPHA) because she refused to surrender her personal autonomy to a global experiment – the COVID-19 shots. There was no comprehensive, long-term data to support the efficacy or safety of the completely new, mRNA “vaccine” against the COVID-19 virus.

Michelle grew up just down the road from my Huron County farm. Being the same age as our own family, Michelle and her sisters spent lots of time hanging out at our farm engaging in rough and tumble activities and eating my wife’s homemade pizza. Good, carefree times.

Although rather timid by nature, Michelle never backed away from any task at hand, always bringing more to the chore than seemed possible for a girl her size, pure grit. How many young women would take on the job of building high-tensile fencing to pay their own way through nurses training? The work was demanding; the studies even more so.

Rewarded for her work, Michelle graduated with her Registered Practical Nurse certification, class of 2013. After nearly another year of perioperative training that qualified her as a surgical nurse, she eventually began handing scalpels and sutures to the surgeons in Stratford General Hospital’s operating theater, for the next four years.

Then in 2020, there came theatrical broadcasts of people falling dead in the streets of China and a wave of COVID panic swept over the world. The only way out, the authorities said, was to take a needle that promised to stop it all. COVID shots were mandated in many workplaces and HPHA was one of them.

Like many others, Michelle resisted the immense pressure to comply. Nurses were in tears, not wanting to take the jab; yet, losing their job was unaffordable. The mandate was enabled by the vulnerability of workers who had no choice but accept the jab to keep their job. Most submitted to the coercion: “I can’t afford the luxury of having a conscience”, bitterly exclaimed one young nurse with a child to feed at home.

“Don’t do this to me” yelled one surgeon when he learned that Michelle would no longer be at his elbow beside the operating table. There was rightful target of his anger, but certainly not the beleaguered nurse.

After one final, face to face discussion with administration, she was escorted off the hospital premises by her union rep. In November 2021, Michelle Marion — a young, highly skilled surgical nurse with a budding career — was fired. According to inside sources, another 15-20 nurses also were given the boot for the same reason.

After briefly filling a part time role locally in private surgical clinic, Michelle traveled to Alberta where the jab mandates had been abandoned. There, she resumed her nursing career.

Nearly three years later, HPHA offered Michelle a termination settlement: $3,500 (out of taxpayers’ dollars) to go away, never again reapply for a position within HPHA, and keep very quiet about it. The sum she was offered was the total owed under the Employment Standards Act, an amount far less than the collective agreement that would normally apply to union members. The union did not enforce their own collective bargaining agreement on behalf of their member.

The nurses’ union seemed indifferent to the fired workers’ grievances, claiming to represent the union, not the employee, a rather puzzling differentiation.

After a burdensome, inner battle, Michelle rejected the settlement offer from her former employer and decided to go public with her story. “I wouldn’t sacrifice my body to keep my job,” she said. “Why would I sacrifice my conscience for even less?”

While nearly all other hospital associations have long since abandoned their jab mandate, the HPHA still has its anachronistic policy in place. CEO Andrew Williams claims that it’s still there to protect their patients and workers. However, others suspect that the outdated policy will not be removed until all the terminated workers’ grievances are resolved in order to preclude the fired nurses from asking for their jobs back.

Anna, another young nurse who was similarly fired, described her upsetting transition from a well-paying nursing position to taking a waitressing job. Recently, she has had her former hospital position re-offered to her, but has lost three years of wages and seniority accumulation. She is weighing her options — return to a better paying job with its incumbent stresses or stay with her current role as a heavy equipment operator.

Anna raises some valid questions: If most hospitals have no safety concerns about dropping their jab mandates, why do some others still have theirs in place? Furthermore, Anna points out that the four hospitals in the South Grey Bruce Health Center never did impose a jab mandate on their existing employees — why the blatant inconsistency on what was to be a matter of life and death?

As of late 2024, the Huron-Perth Health Alliance that operates four hospitals reportedly had 116 staff vacancies and was asking for government help to train nurses.

John Schwartzentruber is a Huron County farmer.