Calgary emergency physician Dr. Joe Vipond — who heavily criticized the Alberta government and Alberta Health Services’ COVID-19 response — is shifting his fight to climate change and heading to Glasgow, a COVID case hot spot..Vipond tweeted Sunday that he and his daughter are heading to Glasgow for COP26, the 26th annual United Nations climate change conference, despite reports COVID-19 infections are surging in the area..Vipond attended many protests in Calgary and Edmonton and actively spoke out against the provincial government’s easing of restrictions through the summer..The emergency physician became the mainstream media go-to doctor for his stance on continuing health measures and pandemic controls, then came under criticism when his financial support of the Alberta NDP government surfaced and revealed a number of substantial donations to the party..Vipond dismissed allegations of his “partisan affiliations” in an early-August interview with CTV stating: “There is a record of me donating to one political party. I would just like to say that’s a normal part of our electoral process and it’s a normal part of our democracy.”.Now looking to focus on a new fight, Vipond will travel with his daughter, a climate change activist, to Glasgow at the end of October for the two-week conference, despite the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area currently recording the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. .Despite significantly lower infection rates around the country, a Glasgow news site says 507 cases were recorded Sunday and a number of neighbourhoods in Glasgow are seeing a seven-day positivity rate of more than 400 per 100,000 of the population..A number of comments posted on Vipond’s twitter thread accuse those traveling to the climate conference of being hypocritical citing the “footprints” they will be leaving in the wake of their travels..Jayson Lobb commented, “You mean flying on a jet plane around the world leaving a massive footprint? Yes, her dad is teaching her what every climate change person knows. Their own carbon footprint doesn’t matter.”.“Non-essential jet travel in a pandemic…hypocrisy is thy name,” commented @icycledna..Sandy B commented, “The hypocrisy of the people flying to a climate change meeting is mind boggling. Wonder what the total carbon footprint of all those jets will be?”.“So let me get this straight, you gonna fly across the world to talk about how other people shouldn’t be allowed to fly across the world?” replied Derek Wassink..An estimated 30,000 delegates from around the world are expected to attend COP26 in Glasgow from October 31 to November 12, including thousands of official negotiators representing 197 different countries in the talks..Melanie Risdon is a reporter with the Western Standard.,.mrisdon@westernstandardonline.com
