Alberta Health Services (AHS) workers on unpaid leave and out of work due to vaccine mandates brought hundreds of shoes and boots of AHS staffers to Calgary’s Peace Bridge..The display — organized by a group called the Alberta Boot Project — consists of more than 700 shoes and boots with posters and signs from frontline workers in the medical field who have been put on leave without pay for refusing to comply with AHS’ vaccination policy..Kate King, founder of the Alberta Boot Project, worked as a primary care paramedic east of Edmonton for 10 years before she was put on leave without pay by AHS for refusing to adhere to their mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy..“We’re here today to draw awareness to the human cost these mandates have taken and to help people realize these are real people and families affected,” King told the Western Standard.. image_6487327Photos courtesy Alberta Boot Project organizer Kate King . image_6487327-2 .King, with the help of volunteers — including other suspended AHS workers — arrived in Calgary to brave another cold morning on Wednesday and set up the display along the Bow River pathway on the south side of Calgary’s Peace Bridge, just east of the Louise Bridge connecting 10 Ave. SW to Memorial Drive and Kensington.. image_6487327-3 . image_6487327-4 . image_6487327-1-1 .The Alberta Boot Project, which came together more than a week ago, set up its first display of the suspended AHS workers’ shoes at the legislature in Edmonton on Monday..“We’re hoping to raise as much awareness as possible so people can see we’re real people who are suffering through this,” said King in an interview on Monday..From Calgary, the Alberta Boot Project display will head to Red Deer Thursday and on to other Alberta municipalities — including Lethbridge, Grande Prairie, St. Paul, Bonnyville and Peace River, so far — in the coming weeks..More to come….Melanie Risdon is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.mrisdon@westernstandardonline.com
