Did Kenney and his lying corrupt abusive UCP intentionally order rejected toxic, defective PPE for Alberta’s medical workers while giving away (and arrogantly serving political self interests) the locally made safe functional stuff? Sick creeps.
Comment by a rural Albertan: In the CBC article [below], this quote is enraging – it’s exactly what KKKenney has done through the whole crisis – politicize it, foist his ideology on us every day – and then blame his clusterfucks on everyone else – just like his god trump does:
“The call to nationalize [PPE] suppliers is preposterous, an example of politicizing the COVID-19 emergency to promote an irrelevant political agenda,”
Edmonton lawyer Avnish Nanda:
A message to Jason Kenney from the workers of Alberta.
How does it feel to be a budget cut?
Cut doctors pay during a pandemic
$600 million cut from post secondary
Closed and sold multiple provincial parks
Ended drug coverage for seniors’ dependants 
while giving mega $billions to billion dollar profit making oil and gas companies, including $ billions in his massive gift to TC Energy for Keystone XL Pipeline (I expect Kenney knew that the pipeline will never be built when he “gave” TC our money)
Reduced minimum wage for young workers
20,000 teachers and educators laid off In a tweet on a Saturday no less.
Ended tech diversification
Defunded Edmonton and Calgary by $500 million each
You dead-eyed, milk drinking, human worm, you sicken us.”
Kenney steals from environment, health, education, seniors, youth, and the public to give to the rich, like Doug Ford does, Steve Harper did, and Andrew Scheer lusts that he could.
TWEET OF THE YEAR! Edwin@edwinmundt tweet April 14, 2020:
If West Canadian Crude prices go any lower, the oil companies are going to have to lay off the Premier and his cabinet.
A few of the tweets in esponse:
Amy Katherine Miranda@AmyMiranda:
BRILLIANT! The side effect of this virus is seeing how much profit they will put over the lives of people. We can’t drink oil. They know their time is limited, if we don’t stop oil and gas we will live inside forever because we won’t have clean air.
Gabriel Thaine@gabewithafender Replying to @edwinmundt:
You win the Internet
Kenney’s heinous PPE fiasco bribery switcheroo clusterfuck: Did Kenney pull this sleazy stunt to punish Alberta medical workers for daring to stand up for their rights, filing lawsuit against Kenney-UCP Klan for ripping up their contracts?
So the UCP gave away our good masks after getting cheap Chinese replacements that don’t protect our healthcare workers. Goddamn it Kenney. on Reddit, April 17, 2020
FunctionalChocoholic·1 day ago
I’m an RN in the central zone and I can confirm this is true. The masks are terrible, don’t fit properly, have fallen off nurses faces while in patient isolation rooms, and smell really terrible. They’re causing skin irritation, sore throats, and bad headaches. It’s so disappointing that this is what we have to deal with.
You shouldn’t be disappointed. You should be absolutely furious. This government is criminal.
Cheap, defective, toxic, knockoffs. Quite the bouquet of gratitude from the UCP.
I wonder at what point people will get violent about this, because this is wayyy past unacceptable.
I agree 100 % with you. I’m in YYC and I needed to use the “ear-savers” with the good masks as they caused minor ear irritations. Haven’t needed to use them with the cheap replacements, as the masks are so loose and baggy. This week has been rough.
Who did they give the other masks away to?level
I’m an RN in Alberta, and I can confirm these masks are absolutely terrible!! Constantly sliding down your nose, huge gaps at the sides, can’t properly seal the nose so you’re blowing air into your eyes whenever you exhale, and the worst part is they are causing massive issues with skin irritation, throat and lung irritation. On my second shift wearing one my face was swollen and burning within an hour and I could feel my airway constricting, so I had to take it off. Probably half the nurses on my unit have had similar reactions to these masks. Makes me sad that the health and lives of frontline healthcare workers are worth so little to this government.
Thank you for speaking out and for all that you do. Please speak to the news about this and keep sharing your experiences with this sub-par ppe on social media. People need to know what’s going on. This garbage has to go, you all deserve proper equipment.
pleasedontbanme123·14 hours ago
hahahah so it’s not just me that’s having them slide down their nose? I feel like I am touching my face 10x more readjusting the damn things throughout the day.
On the plus side though, even though they are cheap and shitty, at least they don’t seem to hurt my ears quite as bad.
i wonder if you can report something not being sold to the public that is given away to staff @ https://healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2020/72707a-eng.php
might be worth while to take photo’s of the skin irritation to submit if you can get someone brave enough to wear one again.
I’ve heard this as well. Kenny decided to ship our masks and leave front line AHS staff with garbage that offers no protection and is of inferior quality. Nurses have the right to refuse unsafe work and their union should be backing them.
And if they do he’ll use them walking off as an excuse to privatize everything to hell and back just that much sooner. I really, really hate that guy.
Where’s quality & control when receiving these shipments or before distributing them to hospitals?
The Ball Has Been Dropped Hard.
And The Floor Is Lava.
My girlfriend is a nurse. She confirmed this to me as well. Also complained that the new masks have a noxious chemical odor to them and gave her a headache for her entire shift.
Me too:(. They make my eyes water
Kenney also spent money on Facebook advertising regarding the donation of masks to other provinces.
He’s using the pandemic to try and score political points.
Of course he is. This is what the Reform Party of the nineties did to the right wing in Canada. This os what was just under the surface all along.
So… Why did he give away those masks? A PR move?
OpenSourceSausage·21 hours ago
It’s a PR move and a political move. Someone’s predicted that Kenney will use this to leverage himself into an optimal position to oust Andrew Scheer which I feel is completely plausible. But in the interim, he’s going to leverage it to help shove a pipeline through BC. The argument will be “we helped YOUR province’s medical establishment when your citizens were dying and now in our time of need, you’re going to refuse to help our economy when our citizens are suffering?” It is altruism in the form of politics.
You might say that you’re from Quebec and it will never work, but it’s not about shoving a pipeline through Quebec. Did you ever wonder why BC, Ontario and Quebec are receiving this medical equipment? It’s not because Kenney loves Quebec. It’s because Quebec & Ontario are the provinces who decide what party is in office.
With regards to BC, it’s clearly about leveraging this crisis to encourage the people there to be more receptive to the pipeline and also maybe winning a few more seats out there.
Absolutely, it’s quid pro quo. He couldn’t care less about people or if they have ppe or not, he only cares about oil & $. I especially like how also spent a ton of money on filming all the supplies being shipped out from the airport while wearing a mask all to make him look like he’s the “good guy”. He’s an absolute disaster of a premiere and a dispicable human being.
An attempt at a trade for a pipeline probably
They’re doing bidding wars on n95 masks.
The quantity delivered to ontario was basically the backdrop of his charity work. what happened to the plural warehouses fully stocked?
Someone should contact the news about this. I doubt the average Albertan knows about this. Our nurses need the right protection!!!
I sent a link to cbc regarding it. They quickly responded that they are looking for nurses who will confirm it on record
Do you really think Postmedia or Global will give this the time of day? They’ll ignore it as much as possible so they can cheerlead for Kenney and the UCP like they always do.
At best, CBC will pick it up, but because none of the blue koolaid drinkers in the province watch the ‘Commie Broadcast Channel’, it won’t get much attention.
Sadly the whole world is probably having the same issue.
This is true. Our hospital has filed a complaint because the masks are terrible. The elastics break. They pucker at the sides and under the chin and the nose piece doesn’t stay bent. They smell and feel cheap:(. One of my coworkers broke out into hives from wearing it and had to go home. My eyes water from wearing it as if there’s chemicals in it.
Typo on the box should be a clue.
All the nurses at my care facility are all complaining how shit the masks are. And judging by the pics in this thread they are the chinese ones.
I’m in security at a hospital in central Alberta and can confirm this is true. They’re next to useless.
All in the name of good will for a pipeline.
Can also confirm. Had a nice mask for one shift, had days off and came back to hear we were down to our last box. Had new ones come in and they are awful! They don’t fit on the face right and leave your cheeks, nose, and any contact rashy. Other nurses I work with stated headaches with the smell. We all hate them but are mandated to wear them for 12 hours.
Somehow this man continues to do things that lower my opinion of him, which was never particularly high in the first place.
If anything he is consistent at his job
More than 1 child
Kenney is pissed at doctors and nurses. Hes engaging in malicious compliance.
My wife works in healthcare, can confirm this. 29% effectiveness in testing. Nice one you fucking muppets.
pleasedontbanme123·14 hours ago
where are you getting the 29% effectiveness?
At work I was curious so I looked them up online, and the website is pretty funny with the bad translations.
lolol
It’s all about optics. Like he has to talk before Dr Henshaw. No one wants to hear from him but he’s afraid that she will become more popular than him (she already is). No one wants to hear him. And we all know that he’s going to gut the hell out of healthcare and education when this is over. It the ignorant still love him. That is until his cuts affects one of them they’ll make noise but it’ll be too late by then.
Calgary was protesting him prior to the pandemic, and the city was a hotbed for conservative support. Voting him in again will be like voting Trump in again. However, both cases have loud dumbass voices
What a huge blunder if true. Kenney should have given away the Chinese knock-offs, won some political points and then the follow-up stories about the quality of the masks likely wouldn’t have taken off. If this proves to be true and isn’t just a few one-offs here or there then this is going to come back to bite Kenney.
Let’s be honest though, there’s no way Kenney looked at a single box of masks so I’d really want to know who’s in charge of the quality control here and I expect it’s probably someone at AHS who really screwed this up. Given the displeasure between AHS and the government over cost cutting, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kenney was setup to fail on this specifically to assassinate him. We’ll have to wait and see how this plays out.
harmfulwhenswallowed·23 hours ago
AHS thought they had enough masks. That in the middle of a pandemic it turns out hard to guarantee quantity and quality should surprise no one. I wonder about the timing of the announcement. Was it made before or after there was a chance for the new masks to be inspected?
It’s a frustrating story but there needs to be some investigation regarding this. Like from a journalist with supporting facts.
Not sure about what maskes were donated. But the existing ones are crap, there is nurses who sre cutting up the old ones and sewig them on to the crap ones every night for their next shift so it stays on theor face.
The UCP own all the journalists so good luck with that.
I’d be interested to know how you know what type of masks Jason gave away. Maybe he gave away the cheap replacements from China.
pleasedontbanme123·14 hours ago
He was standing in front of Pri-Med brand masks during his press conference and the ER at the Royal Alex has not been restocked with those, I have experienced that first hand.
The Pri-Med box even reads Pri-Med Edmonton, I suspect they may even be manufactured locally.
pleasedontbanme123·14 hours ago
interesting to know that these were issued province wide, I thought it was maybe just my department or hospital.
pleasedontbanme123·14 hours ago
The main problem with them is that the nose clip is made out of plastic, you can’t bend it properly…. So it doesn’t fit around your nose and becomes flat, slides down your nose etc and needs constant readjusting (defeats the purpose of wearing a mask, constantly touching your face etc). Women that have small faces, get these giant outpouchings on the sides…
Because you can’t get any kind of seal around your nose, everytime you breathe all of the air comes out the top of the mask… Where we are wearing eye shields, face shields, goggles / whatever has been given to us, which means everytime you exhale, the eye protection fogs up zzzzzzzzz. I mean…. Not gonna lie, being able to see while you are providing healthcare is pretty helpful lol.
Then there is the issue of the ear straps randomly breaking, while you are in a covid room or dealing with a covid patient…. Not cool. It’s like being a soldier given a gun that shoots MOST of the time SOME of the time PROBABLY! lol
They absolutely suck.
I predict a huge surge in cases. We WERE doing well.
Upvoting in the hopes that the mainstream media see the post, dig into this and figure out if the story is true — horrifying if it is.
My friend was literally just telling me about this. The new masks suck. We sent all the good ones away and gave our healthcare workers inferior masks so Kenney can look like less of a fat idiot at the next premier’s meeting.
My opinion of Kenney gets lower and lower and lower….. 🙁 Bill 10 anyone?
This person better hope Tyler doesn’t find out who is attacking his wife with this sort of messaging or they’re gonna get a visit.
.. The PPE we had in those warehouses was ordered from before the pandemic exploded and were worth their weight in gold and as callous as it may sound, should have stayed in Alberta.
Instead, Kenney shuld have shipped the newly acquired PPE just in case this happened.
Close friend also confirmed for me today that her hospital also has new but lousy masks.
When Kenney gave away those masks people that praised him for the surplus were getting shit on (and rightfully so) because his Government didn’t procure them, AHS did.
Kenney made the decision to give away all of AHS’ GOOD masks, of which they had enough, so they had to go out and source the crappy ones made by opportunistic Chinese companies – there’s not a lot of choice out there for medical equipment right now.
So yes. It IS Kenney’s and the provinces fault. AHS is trying to make the best of a bad situation that wasn’t their making.
Any source to confirm that the masks that were sent to other provinces are the old type? Maybe there is a wider shortage of the old type of mask, so now we’re using these ones?
He was standing in front of Pri-Med brand masks during his press conference and the ER at the Royal Alex has not been restocked with those, I have experienced that first hand.
The Pri-Med box even reads Pri-Med Edmonton, I suspect they may even be manufactured locally.
Jason Kenny is trying to kill us all.
I get that people don’t want to lose their job, or face punishment, but seriously, whistleblowing on this stuff NEEDS A NAME ATTACHED otherwise noone takes action. stand up, you all have a union, if you ever were dismissed, it would be reversed faster than you can say Jason Kenney is a Moron.
This is YOUR LIVES. Stand up, say you are afraid and attach your name to it. Name names. Shut this shit down
Is this the supply that we sent to Calgary?
Randomly these masks are made in Ningbo China only 500 miles away from Wuhan the epicentre of Covid-19. They are super cheap compared to the others we had.
90% of the world’s PPEs are produced within 500 miles of Wuhan.
Yep same with the supplies at UofA. It’s trash.
We need more PRI•MED masks!
hydrocarbonsRus·43 minutes ago
Why does the UCP, who are neither healthcare providers or scientists, get to decide when and when not to give away masks that they have zero knowledge about? Why is it even allowed? It’s like asking a monkey to fly a plane- just not a smart idea
Wow this is so fucking sad. We need to protect our healthcare workers!!! Kenney is the scum of the earth. He needs to get overthrown already.
Dr Kenney would never do this to you.
So it is a bad idea to allow good masks to leave when we need them? Except if someone else (Trump) tries to stop good masks from leaving?
Publicity costs money.
Since the FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY is more than two million dollars in debt, they had to perform human sacrifices so they will look good.
They are totally prolife of course. Just not if you aren’t a zygote or a fetus
I’ve been contacted on my Instagram account by multiple nurses and health workers saying the new replacement masks are unusable. There’s even a HSAA union complaint filed now.
COVID-19: Alberta doctors slam province for ‘shoddy’ masks by Jason Herring, April 18, 2020, The Calgary Herald
Front-line health-care workers in Alberta are raising alarm over recently shipped surgical masks which they say aren’t safe to use during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Mike Chatenay, a surgeon at Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital, said his ward recently received the replacement personal protective equipment (PPE) and it was immediately clear the masks weren’t up to par.
“When you’re talking to patients, the mask slips down your face, and you’re constantly having to readjust it,” Chatenay said. “It obviously defeats the purpose of masks, to keep your hands away from your face. When you have to constantly readjust the mask, it’s putting yourself at risk.”
The Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE), a union representing many Alberta health-care workers, echoed the concerns, saying the “shoddy” masks went out to workers across the province last week, potentially putting both workers and patients at risk.
“The surgical masks that were sent were definitely different from the usual ones that they send,” said union vice-president Susan Slade.
“They don’t fit around your nose as well, they don’t seal, they actually just fall off sometimes during patient care. … There’s skin rash, throat irritation. They’re just not very good-quality masks.”
In a statement, Alberta Ministry of Health press secretary Steve Buick said equipment provided by Alberta Health Services is safe.
“AHS is doing a superb job of sourcing PPE. To do so, they’re working with new suppliers, and that includes adjusting products to meet their needs and respond to staff concerns,” Buick said. “All PPE procured by AHS is safe and will protect staff and patients.”
Buick said that regular AHS providers are unable to meet demand for procedure masks, so front-line workers could see 10 or more new brands of masks over the coming weeks.
He added that future AHS shipments from the supplier who shipped the faulty masks would include corrections to the nose-piece and adjustments for a better fit.
Dr. Mike Chatenay@mchatenay
The PPE we’re getting to replace the stuff used for @jkenney’s political stunt is utter shit. The masks fit poorly, smell bad, the nose bridge doesn’t stay crimped, requires constant readjustment (face touching). Are the N95s we’re getting equally bad? God help us if they are.
Alberta’s usual supply of surgical masks is manufactured in Edmonton, Chatenay said, while the new shipment originates from China, something that he says shows the need for local procurement.
Last week, the province announced plans to donate a stockpile of PPE to British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, with Premier Jason Kenney pledging since when do Kenney pledges mean anything? that the donations would not undermine Alberta’s ability to provide its workers with quality equipment. Chatenay said it’s vital that Alberta ensures it has quality PPE for staff.
The poor quality of the masks is a cause for additional concern for Chatenay, given some nurses in his ward have been forgoing masks at times due to shortages of on-hand supply.
He worries a shortage or poor supply of heavy-duty equipment like N95 respirator masks could have serious consequences, particularly as health care workers need to be individually fit for the N95 masks.
“If this is an indication of quality, what we’re getting with these surgical masks, what’s going to happen with our N95 masks?” asked Chatenay.
Slade said it’s important issues with getting staff adequate PPE are resolved before the peak of Alberta’s COVID-19 outbreak, which is projected for mid-May. Risking spread in health care environments could lengthen the province’s outbreak, she said.
“The longer that you have PPE that isn’t efficient or is not adequate to be safe for the patients and for the staff, the longer we’re going to be in this situation,” Slade said.
“Front-line staff right now need that PPE and it’s important that they feel safe at work.”
Alberta health-care workers say new masks don’t seal, cause rashes and headaches, Union calls for production of protective equipment to be nationalized to protect workers from COVID-19 by Sarah Rieger · CBC News · Apr 18, 2020
Masks delivered to health-care workers in Alberta this week are causing headaches and rashes for some, and don’t adequately seal to protect workers and patients, nurses say.
But the Alberta government says the masks are safe and said calls to nationalize the manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) are politicizing a crisis.
One Calgary nurse, who CBC News has agreed not to identify to protect her employment, said before this week her unit was supplied with procedural masks from Edmonton-based Pri-Med, a company registered with Health Canada that makes medical supplies.
But now they’ve switched to masks from Vanch, a company based in Shenzhen, China, that focuses on radio-frequency identification products but also makes thermometers and masks.
“[The new masks] have gaps along the side, you can’t seal them along your face … because the mask itself is so big and the loops on the side are so big, the seal on the top of the nose doesn’t do anything. You put it on and you smile at your patient and your nose is exposed,” the nurse said.
“They don’t stay in place, they’ve got a funky odour and they’re causing quite a lot of reactions … with these ones, my face is actually burning and swollen.“
She said within about 30 minutes of putting one of the new masks on, she started to feel a burning sensation along the edge of the mask and her airway felt constricted.
I feel like our lives are obviously worth more than that.- Calgary nurse
She could only handle wearing the mask for about 90 minutes, and her face stayed swollen and felt like it was burning until the following day. She said colleagues have reported similar issues.
She said there are some of the former, Pri-Med masks, available, and those are being prioritized for workers in units with COVID-19 cases and other respiratory illnesses.
“I feel like our lives are obviously worth more than that. And I feel they’re putting us at a needless risk when we had the proper masks that were working…. These particular masks are horrible, horrible quality.”
Dr. Michael Chatenay, an Edmonton surgeon, said the new masks are of substandard quality, which has him worried about other supplies the province is procuring.
“What’s even more concerning is, are the quality of the N95 masks we’re going to be getting, are they going to be of the same quality? The 3M masks we’re getting are very good…. These are the masks that are really important to protect our lives from this virus.”
Health-care workers have shared similar frustrations on social media, with one poster sharing a video of how easily the new procedural mask slips off their nose.
Dr. K.U.@DrKU14Replying to @Crackmacs and 11 others
I am currently on shift in ER and the new masks are terrible. Large gaps as nasal bridge piece does not hold shape, slides and face which results in adjustments by hand (what we’re trying 2 avoid).
Thanks @jkenney for giving away our quality PPE and risking our safety.
Lindsey Campbell MD@LCampbellMd Replying to @Crackmacs and 11 others
I can corroborate these testimonies. The new masks are atrocious and do very little to stop droplets as they do not stay on your face. It is a waste of money.
Susan Slade is vice-president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents 95,000 workers in the province, about half of whom work in health care. She said a number of workers have shared similar concerns about mask quality.
“People need these masks right now. They need to be able to wear them and they need to be able to feel safe at work,” she told CBC News.
“It doesn’t matter how many thousands and thousands of masks we can procure…. If they’re not of appropriate quality, what’s the point?”
She wants to see the government obtain higher quality masks in the short term and to work toward nationalizing medical equipment production.
“The only way we can truly ensure quality control and timely distribution of PPE is if it’s manufactured in-house, in Alberta, and overseen by a public body.”
Call to nationalize ‘preposterous’
Steve Buick, press secretary to provincial Health Minister Tyler Shandro, said all PPE procured by Alberta Health Services is safe and will protect staff and patients. Pffffft! They are such cruel liars, Kenney, UCP and their “press” propandists. Disgusting. It’s one thing for UCP to lie for oil and gas, harming rural Albertans. It’s quite another to lie for Kenney to fulfill his dream of pissing on Andrew Scheer and becoming PM of Canada, risking and harming medical workers and threatening the lives of thousands of innocent Albertans. Kenney’s evil grows deeper by the day, delighting buddy Satan.
“The call to nationalize suppliers is preposterous, an example of politicizing the COVID-19 emergency to promote an irrelevant political agenda,” he said.
“AHS is doing a superb job of sourcing PPE. To do so, they’re working with new suppliers, and that includes adjusting products to meet their needs and respond to staff concerns.”
The minister’s office said AHS is working on a process to reduce the smell from the procedural masks, and future shipments from the supplier will include corrections to improve fit. Unbelievable Ego-driven Kenney Clusterfuck.
On April 11 the province announced it had signed contracts valued at more than $200 million for PPE, including for millions of gowns and masks. The same day, the premier said the province would be shipping millions of pieces of excess medical equipment to provinces in need.
CBC News spoke to two nurses following that decision, who said while they applauded the province’s generosity, they had concerns that as guidelines change to require more frequent changeover of PPE, workers could go through supplies faster than planned. CBC News has agreed not to identify those nurses to protect their employment.
Alberta Health Services said on Twitter that it has been sourcing alternative providers of products to ensure PPE continues to be readily available, and said the odour from the new procedural masks has to do with the plastic the masks are shipped in. Liar liar pants on fire!
“Because regular supply chain for procurement of procedure masks cannot meet the required demand during this response, staff may see ten or more new brands of masks, over the coming weeks. These masks are all safe, certified and meet ATSM Level 1 filtration requirements,” AHS said.
Happy to report that Alberta has received another 2 million KN95 masks. They have been approved for use by AHS after rigorous quality control measures. Liar liar, pants on fire.
This large order is part of our effort to diversify PPE suppliers, part of Alberta’s broader #COVID19 procurement success.
We continue to distribute millions of procedural masks & other PPE to long term care facilities, pharmacists, first responders, et al. We have ~80 million units being shipped or on order. Plus our Bits & Pieces Program is stepping up domestic production of PPE & other supplies.
AHS is also collecting and sterilizing used N95 masks, which provide a better filter and seal than procedural masks, in the event of a shortage.
Stories have surfaced internationally about subpar medical supplies arriving from China, and health-care workers across the country have expressed anxieties around PPE shortages.
On Saturday in Calgary, volunteers with national group Conquer COVID-19 were receiving donations of PPE to distribute to front-line workers.
Provincial Culture and Status of Women Minister Leela Aheer was there, helping collect donations.
She said while the government has made it easier to procure PPE, they’re in uncharted territory, and non-profits can help fill gaps that open up.
“To have these organizations come to us and tell us where they’re lacking, where the gaps are, it’s really helpful for us because then we can figure out what’s the best way forward. So I’m very grateful to anybody who responds or gives us feedback or criticism,” she said.
With files from Joel Dryden, Terri Trembath, Helen Pike and Kashmala Fida
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