Even though it led to her firing, Kristen Nagel remains outspoken regarding the health system’s response to the pandemic..In January, the 14-year registered nurse was fired from London, Ontario’s Health Sciences Centre. She shared her story in Saskatoon yesterday to a crowd gathered at the Vimy Memorial..“I am a nurse as well as a holistic nutritionist. But most importantly I’m a mother first,” Nagel said..“When I saw all this rolling out, what was happening with the kids, the masking, the sanitization, the fear that they were putting on them… I knew that I could not stand idly back.”.Nagle organized a freedom rally in London, then co-founded the Canadian Frontline Nurses with Toronto nurse Sarah Choujounian. They received unwanted attention after they joined American nurses at the January 6 Trump rally in Washington, D.C..“They spun that story that we were there to seize the Capitol. We became domestic terrorists. The RCMP came to our house to find out our involvement,” Nagel recalled..“We were defamed nationally through Canada, through the States, on many different platforms. It was really hard, and Sarah and I both felt the weight of that. It was scary. It was terrifying. We didn’t really know how we were going to turn around from this.”.Widespread criticism was soon displaced by encouragement..“We found this wave of support and it hasn’t stopped. And it’s connected us to nurses all across Canada and the world. We will not let our voices be silenced, we will not be bullied, and we will not stop advocating for you [and] our children and to bring the ethics back into healthcare,” she said..Nagel said many mothers in high-risk pregnancies were “dehumanized” through “unethical measures.” They were allowed only one support person during their stay on the antenatal unit, separating them from children or partners for weeks or months..“Mothers were told to wear a mask during labour,” Nagel said. “If it was a C-section, dad was not allowed in the O-room, so mom had to stay there by herself. If she was put under general anesthetic, both parents missed the birth of their baby.”.Nagel said mothers were “threatened that if they didn’t get a [COVID-19] test done and their baby was taken to the NICU, they wouldn’t see their child for three days minimum. And babies were only seeing a masked mother’s face or parents’. [W]hen the masks came off, they were terrified because they didn’t recognize their own parents’ face and would cry relentlessly until the mask went on.”.Older children have also been instilled with fear, Nagle said..“They’re making them scared of each other, connection, even the air they breathe. And when there’s too much fear, that turns into trauma, and trauma turns into terror, and that’s now what we’re seeing in the kids.”.Nagle and three frontline nurses started their five-week speaking tour in Barrie, Ontario July 5. The foursome will speak in Spruce Grove this afternoon, and make many more stops until they reach Victoria July 25. More stops are scheduled for the return trip east..“The Canada I know is what we’ve been experiencing on this trip,” Nagel said. “Although our country might be vast in size, it is small, and we are so connected and we’re so willing to help each other no matter what the cost. We’re willing to put our jobs on the line, friendships on the line…anything it takes to stand up for one another.”.Saskatoon resident and People’s Party of Canada candidate Mark Friesen appreciates the nurses’ courage and knowledge..“A lot of this information, of course, is stifled and censored. In fact, some of these nurses have lost their job because of their voice,” Friesen said..“But they continue on, on our behalf. So it’s an incredible, important thing that they’re doing, and I support them 100% and I think we should support them 100%.”.Lee Harding is a Western Standard correspondent based in Saskatchewan.
