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Hospitals across the country are preparing for a day of protest on Monday with demonstrations against pandemic protocols expected to hamper access to healthcare facilities including one in downtown Toronto.

The group Canadian Frontline Nurses is planning what it calls a silent protest against mandates in all 10 provinces, targeting five hospitals in Toronto, London, Barrie, Ottawa and Sudbury.

“We will gather at Toronto General Hospital creating a wall memorial in tribute for those affected, weaving out stories into the fence,” reads a post on social media. It asks demonstrators to keep any signs away from the vaccine narrative, focusing instead on pro-choice and against mandates.

After vaccine passports were announced in several provinces, similar protests held across the country blocked access to ambulances and other medical services. That prompted the Ontario and Canadian medical associations to release a joint statement calling the demonstrations “wrong and unacceptable.”

“The health-care workers who have worked tirelessly for months on end are being bullied and harassed for doing their jobs. This is wrong and unacceptable – full stop,” read a portion of the statement.

The Ontario Hospital Association called the demonstrations “truly disheartening,” noting the irony that should any of these protesters get sick or seriously ill from COVID, “it will be hospitals and frontline workers that they turn to for care, perhaps even to save their life.”

Toronto ICU physician Dr. Michael Warner says while people are entitled to make their voices heard, his hope is that the authorities will not tolerate any form of harassment.

“If you have something to say, tell your elected officials, go to the legislature. Use whatever other means are necessary to make your voice heard. But leave the hospital alone, leave the patients alone, and let the healthcare workers continue to do their work unencumbered,” he says in a tweet.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford called the protests “selfish, cowardly and reckless.” However, he stopped short of announcing any measures to try and stop them.

“Our health care workers have sacrificed so much to keep us all safe during this pandemic,” he said in a tweet. “They don’t deserve this kind of treatment — not now, not ever. Leave our health care workers alone.”

Toronto Mayor John Tory condemned the protests in a tweet Sunday afternoon.

“You are doing nothing to help people, to protect the progress we have made reopening our city, or make sure we bring this pandemic to an end,” he said.

He added that he supported the police “taking whatever action is necessary to protect the lives of innocent people seeking medical care and all of our healthcare heroes.”

“We have long passed the time when we can have this tyranny of a few interfere with access to healthcare during a pandemic,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service said they’re aware of the planned protest tomorrow.

“As with all protests and demonstrations, we will continue to monitor the situation and officers will respond, where appropriate,” said Const. Alex Li

The Ontario Medical Association also weighed in, saying in a news release they’re “saddened and deeply disappointed that additional anti-vaccination protests are planned outside hospitals this week.”

“We strongly urge those exercising their right to freedom of expression to do so peacefully & in a manner that is respectful,” they said.

Federal party leaders jousted over foreign policy, climate change and Indigenous issues during Thursday’s English-language debate – their last, best chance to sway voters before the Sept. 20 election.

Questions about the fall of Afghanistan and the ongoing imprisonment of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China ignited heated discussions between the five leaders invited to participate.

Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul and Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet piled on Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau for calling an election while Afghanistan was falling to the Taliban.

Trudeau shot back at his opponents, accusing them of talking down the work by the military and diplomats to get 3,700 people out of Afghanistan, and 43 more with the help of Qatar earlier Thursday.

Trudeau also said his government is doing everything it can to get Kovrig and Spavor, known in Canada and around the world as the “two Michaels,” out of China.

“If you want to get the Michaels home, you do not simply lob tomatoes across the Pacific,” he told O’Toole.

The federal leaders also sparred over Indigenous reconciliation, with Paul saying the issue should not be treated like a buffet.

Singh accused Trudeau of “taking a knee” – as he did at an anti-racism rally on Parliament Hill last year – while taking Indigenous kids to court.

Singh was referring to Ottawa’s controversial legal challenge of a pair of rulings involving First Nations children.

Trudeau shot back, saying cynicism is harming reconciliation efforts, and that his government has made progress by getting more Indigenous kids into quality schools and lifting more than 100 boil-water advisories.

O’Toole said he would like to see the Canadian flag raised again on Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, with a commitment to “move forward” on the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The Canadian flag has remained at half-mast on the Peace Tower and other federal buildings since late spring to mark the finding of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools. O’Toole has previously said Canadians “should be proud to put our flag back up.”

On climate change, Singh and Trudeau had a fiery exchange, with the Liberal leader saying the NDP’s policy rates an ‘F’ while stating that experts have given the Liberal plan high marks.

Singh accused Trudeau of presiding over the worst record on fighting climate change in the G7 during his six years in power.

Paul said Canada could become a renewable energy superpower, and all parties need to work together to respond to the shared threat.

The two-hour debate began with tough questions from moderator Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute.

To Trudeau, it was why he called an election just as a fourth wave of COVID-19 was sweeping the country.

He argued that the debate would show voters have to choose among radically different views on how to finish the fight against COVID-19 and build back better.

To O’Toole, the question was how can voters trust that he would be in the driver’s seat if elected prime minister, and not his caucus, many members of which have decidedly more conservative views on issues like abortion and climate change.

“I am driving the bus,” O’Toole insisted, stressing that he’s personally “pro-choice.”

Singh was asked to explain why he has yet to release the costing for his election platform. He did not directly respond while saying the NDP is the only party that would make the ultrarich pay their fair share.

Blanchet took issue with Kurl asking him why he supports “discriminatory laws” in Quebec, which prohibit some public sector workers in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols.

He insisted the laws are not discriminatory but are legitimate laws that reflect the values of the Quebec nation.

Perhaps the most devastating question went to Paul, who was asked how she could hope to lead the country when she’s been unable to lead her own party members, some of whom spent weeks prior to the campaign trying to dump Paul as leader.

Paul conceded she’s been through a difficult period but said she’s had to “crawl over a lot of broken glass” to get on the leaders’ debate platform and is proud to be the first Black woman to do so.

People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier did not meet the independent Leaders’ Debates Commission’s criteria for participating in either the English-language debate or the French-language debate on Wednesday.

But dozens of his supporters showed up Thursday outside the debate venue – the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., just across the river from Parliament Hill – to protest his absence.

The debate was the last of three to be held during the campaign and came 11 days before election day and just as four days of advance polls are set to open Friday.

Shortly before arriving for the debate, the five leaders got together to shoot a video urging all Canadians to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“It was really important to let folks know that getting vaccinated is not a partisan thing,” said Singh, who initiated the united message, as he made his way into the debate venue.

“I want you to vote for me but it doesn’t matter who you vote for, all leaders agree getting vaccinated is one of the most important things we can do to fight this pandemic, to keep people safe.”

Emergency room nurse Jaime Gallaher recalls the emotional toll of a verbal attack she recently faced from a woman at a grocery store after another gruelling workday.

“I was still red-eyed from crying from the past two hours and she just swore at me,” Gallaher said following protests outside Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, B.C. “I just broke down in tears, put my carton of milk down and left the grocery store.”

Experts are raising concern over “moral injury” among health-care workers suddenly targeted after several provinces brought in vaccine passports.

Gallaher said she had spent two extra hours at work to avoid protesters on the same day last week when other hospitals in British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada were grappling with rallies.

“We were making some life-and-death decisions around bed allocations. On that specific day, of all days, we had two young patients in our department who were waiting for ICU beds for two days, but they couldn’t get them because the ICU was full of unvaccinated COVID patients,” said.

“One of our patients actually passed away in emerge, behind a curtain with his family, which was gut-wrenching because that should never, ever happen. They had no privacy to mourn.”

Gallaher said while protesters are entitled to their opinions, the demonstration could be heard in the ER and was a “slap in the face.” They could have protested at a park or other public place, she added.

Staff at the hospital were already reeling from treating a seriously ill unvaccinated mother in her 30s with two young children before she was transferred to intensive care.

“She deteriorated quite rapidly in our department over the course of a couple of hours. And the fear in her eyes and the questions about ‘What will happen to my kids?’ The fear was like nothing I’ve ever seen,” she said, adding that the woman expressed remorse about not getting vaccinated.

Gallaher said nurses who try and care for themselves by booking massage or physiotherapy appointments have been turned away because they have been in contact with COVID-19 patients. They have had to rely on support from each other as many are leaving the profession, she said.

Elizabeth Peter, a nursing professor at the University of Toronto, said nurses on the front lines of the pandemic are suffering from “moral injury,” a term also used by the Ontario Hospital Association after several protests outside hospitals in the province.

The military term describes the plight of soldiers experiencing an extreme violation of their moral values, but Peter said it’s fitting for exhausted health-care workers who are trying to save lives against the backdrop of protesters opposed to scientifically proven COVID-19 vaccines.

The anger of many health-care professionals has turned to moral outrage at this point in the pandemic, Peter said.

“Virtually everyone in health care would want to help other people,” she said. “But when they get the protesters actually telling them they’re harmful, horrible humans, that’s deeply distressing.”

Peter is writing two studies on the moral impact of the pandemic, one on registered nurses and the other on licensed practical nurses working in long-term care homes based on interviews that were finished last spring. A separate study is needed on later effects on the front-line workers to include the anti-vaccination protests and yet another wave of sickness, Peter added.

Earlier this week, the Alberta government withdrew a proposed three per cent salary cut for nurses in the province. The nurses union has said the province still wants concessions like ending lump-sum payments, which amount to a two per cent reduction in their take-home pay.

Finance Minister Travis Toews said the “new proposal acknowledges the hard work and dedication of Alberta’s nurses while respecting the tough fiscal situation the province is in.”

Dr. Rod Lim, a pediatric emergency room physician in London, Ont., said health-care workers around the country already feel “under siege” but Alberta’s contract proposal and the negativity of the protest indicate health workers are unvalued 18 months into the pandemic.

“The protests are demoralizing,” he said. “There’s a lack of common decency, to protest in front of a hospital, to delay people who are trying to get the care that they deserve. They have nothing to do with the protests, nothing to do with government policy, and they’re being adversely affected. This is absolutely maddening and brings out all kinds of emotions.”

Lim, who chairs the wellness committee of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, said a shortage of nurses and other staff in emergency departments has led to parts of some emergency rooms being closed when the number of COVID-19 patients is rising.

He said there needs to be a national mental health strategy for doctors dealing with the emotional fallout of the pandemic, in co-ordination with the provinces.

“Never before has the mental health of a workforce, especially among physicians, especially among emergency and ICU physicians across Canada, been really at the forefront that it is now.”