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N.S. passes bill to protect senior health officials from harassment outside homes

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HALIFAX -

The Nova Scotia legislature quickly adopted new legislation Thursday protecting senior health officials from harassment and intimidation outside their homes.

The unusual move saw amendments to the Access to Health Services Act unanimously pass third and final reading in just under 10 minutes.

Justice Minister Brad Johns said the changes to the law are in direct response to protests that occurred this week outside the home of Dr. Robert Strang, the province's chief medical officer of health.

"Nova Scotians do have a right to protest peacefully," Johns told reporters. "However they do not have a right to intimidate or harass those who are responsible for making tough health and policy decisions."

Johns said the changes extend the existing 50-metre safe buffer zone prohibiting protests around health-care facilities to include the homes of health workers. They also broaden the definition of health workers to include senior health executives.

"It became apparent somebody had to do something," Johns said, adding that the move was the idea of his department and didn't come from Strang.

The RCMP has said there were anti-mask protests Sunday, Monday and Tuesday outside a home on the street where Strang lives in the Fall River area, east of Halifax.

Police subsequently arrested two people who face charges of criminal harassment, intimidation of a health professional, mischief and making harassing phone calls. Jeremy Mitchell MacKenzie, 36, of Pictou, N.S., and 31-year-old Morgan May Guptill of Cole Harbour, N.S., appeared before provincial court briefly on Wednesday and are due back in court Friday.

Johns described the actions of protesters outside Strang's home and their subsequent postings of video to social media as "un-Nova Scotian."

"They and their loved ones deserve to be protected," he said of the province's health officials.

Fines for contravening the amended act remain at $5,000 for individuals and $100,000 for corporations.

The initial legislation was passed last October following a COVID-19 related protest outside a Halifax hospital.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 24, 2022.

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