Alta. premier apologizes for comparing treatment of unvaccinated people to that of HIV/AIDS patients

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has ceded to criticism that he was unfair in comparing the stigmatization of people who aren't vaccinated against COVID-19 with the discrimination of people with HIV/AIDS during the 1980s.

Kenney said in a statement on Twitter Wednesday morning he "made an inappropriate analogy to the stigmatization of people with AIDS" during a news conference the previous day.

"I was wrong to do so and apologize without reservation."

The apology came about 14 hours after he made the inflammatory comments. 

During a sit-down interview with CTV News Edmonton Wednesday afternoon, Kenney attempted to clarify his thought process when making the comparison.

"We have 750,000 unvaccinated Albertans and we have to learn to live together with civility and respect. I made it inelegantly, but that's the point I was trying to make," Kenney said.

"People who are vaccinated are just about as likely to transmit as the unvaccinated. So this notion that we should treat some people like they're somehow unclean or a threat to our health, I think can lead us down a very dark path."

He said he has since "realized that the circumstances of the 1980s were uniquely terrible for people suffering with HIV."

On Tuesday, Kenney announced Alberta's plan to reopen and drop most COVID-19 public health measures, including its version of a vaccine passport and mask mandates.

While taking media questions, the premier said he was "deeply" concerned by those who've said they would not eat at restaurants where it was possible they could be dining alongside someone who was not vaccinated.

“To stigmatize people in that way, it kind of reminds me of the attitudes that circulated in North America in the mid-1980s about people with HIV/AIDS. This notion that they had to be kind of distanced for health reasons…this is a terribly divisive attitude," he commented.

Members of the Official Opposition NDP were quick to reference Kenney's work to overturn a law granting hospital visitation rights to same-sex couples.

"That was a disgusting and despicable comment from a premier we know campaigned to keep the loved ones of AIDS patients in California from being able to be with them when they were dying,” said NDP health critic David Shepherd.

Cabinet minister and Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault, who had called Kenney’s remarks "categorically false," told CTV News Edmonton he accepted Kenney's retraction. 

"All of us in public life need to be careful about the comparisons we make, and so he and I have corresponded about this, and I accept the apology," Boissonnault said. 

"I know people are bruised and feel hurt and I think they can accept the premier's apology at face value."

Boissonnault is a former advisor to the prime minister on LGBTQ2S+ issues and Alberta's first openly gay member of parliament and now minister. 

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Kerry McAthey and CTVNews.ca