A small group of unhinged, conspiracy touting nurses appear to be the masterminds behind the recent anti-vax protests across Canada.
On September 1st, mobs of people swarmed hospitals to scream and hurl insults at frontline healthcare workers. A nurse was spat at while heading to her shift at Nanaimo General Hospital. They organized the anti-vax rally at Vancouver General Hospital earlier this month.
These protesters made it hard for the workers to do their jobs that day. They also made it harder for sick people to get the care they need.
So it’s time to shine a light on the rotten roots of these protests.
For starters, let’s talk about Sarah Choujounian, a former registered practical nurse, and Kristen Nagle, a former neonatal ICU nurse. The emphasis here is on the word “former,” because they’ve both been fired.
Credit: canadianfrontlinenurses.ca 
Credit: Sarah Choujounian / Twitter
Now they don’t look like they are working as nurses, but rather as full-time anti-vax crusaders.
These two disgraced Ontario nurses are the co-founders of Canadian Frontline Nurses.
The organization, which launched in January 2021 (remember that date), says they stand for freedom and choice while denying the science around COVID-19.
The Canadian Frontline Nurses Facebook page was launched on January 11, 2021, its website a few days later.
They certainly had a busy January.
Do you remember what else happened in January?
That’s right, a right-wing mob attacked the US Capitol Building and rioted in the streets on January 6th.
And guess who was there?
Just a few days before launching their new organization, they went down to Washington, D.C. to be part of the Trump-inspired protests
Kristen Nagle, the former baby nurse, spoke at an anti-lockdown rally before hundreds of extremists invaded the US Congress.
Interesting way to spend your vacation days.
Both of these nurses were fired from their jobs for going against the non-essential travel ban to join the MAGA mob at the White House.
But that wasn’t their first controversy. Both have organized and participated in rallies against wearing masks and government-mandated lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another nurse behind these protests is Kristal Pitter. She used to work in long-term care as a home inspector, but she was fired after spewing garbage about Bill Gates using a COVID-19 vaccine to alter people’s DNA.
Wait—didn’t a huge percentage of Ontario’s COVID deaths occur in long-term care facilities?
Pitter is accused of using social media to spread health misinformation, including the myth that vaccines cause autism. She also claims the coronavirus pandemic is a huge conspiracy.
Do you think we’re making this stuff up?
Read for yourself! Google their bios on Canadian Frontline Nurses. They are weirdly self-incriminating.
What Nagle doesn’t say in her bio—but gleefully shares in her blog and Facebook posts—are some wild, dangerous, and unfounded ideas.
For example, she doesn’t think viruses exist. Any viruses, not just the coronavirus.
She believes rabies is caused by malnourishment and mistreatment—not the rabies virus.
And she says there’s no such thing as polio.
Hmmmm…
How comfortable would you be if Nagle was taking care of your very sick baby in a neonatal intensive care unit?
And then there is the question no one seems to have an answer for. Where did these conspiracy-spewing nurses who have no jobs get the money to launch a new organization with nationwide protests, fancy expensive signs, and scripted talking points?
Legitimate nursing organizations have condemned Canadian Frontline Nurses. The Canadian Nurses Association attacked their anti-vax disinformation as “conspiracy” in a release entitled, “Enough is enough.”
“The reckless views of a handful of discredited people who identify as nurses have aligned in some cases with angry crowds who are putting public health and safety at risk. They have drawn in anti-science, anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti-public health followers whose beliefs align with theirs… Their outlandish assertions about science would be laughable were they not so dangerous.”
The point is not what these science-denying nurses believe or don’t believe.
We live in Canada. Freedom of expression, faith, and belief are part of our society, no matter how outside of the norm some of them may be.
But what these former nurses are saying is dangerous and unprofessional.
They are using the authority of the nursing profession to make themselves sound legitimate. They create confusion and division when people need to come together.
Choujounian, Nagle and Pitter can call these protests whatever they like. But their version of freedom would lead to more COVID cases and likely more deaths. That means they’re basically pro-virus and their selfish take on freedom is mostly about putting their personal desires above protecting the health of their patients, coworkers and neighbours.
Their ME-FIRST ideas have real-world impacts.
This is not innocent speech. It’s like they’re yelling FIRE! in a crowded theatre. Everyone panics, but there’s no fire.
Doctors can lose their licenses for spreading COVID misinformation. Nurses should, too.
I suppose, if you’re like Kristen Nagle and you don’t believe in viruses, then none of this matters.
But if you care about your family and neighbours, then think twice before you trust these quacks.
They got fired because their own bosses didn’t trust them.
Why should you?
