Witness Testimony

Cindy Campbell testified that during the early stages of the pandemic, her hospital reduced operating room capacity from approximately 16 rooms to emergency-only operations, resulting in surplus nursing staff rather than overwhelming demand. She stated that many perioperative and ambulatory units were closed, redeployment plans were rarely used, and emergency departments appeared calmer compared to pre-pandemic conditions. She contrasted this with public messaging portraying hospitals as overstretched, stating that in her observation staffing rooms were often full and nurses were reassigned to screening and surveillance duties.
Campbell testified that when vaccine mandates were implemented in late 2021, hospitals chose termination policies rather than the antigen testing accommodation outlined in Ontario’s Directive 6 by the Chief Medical Officer of Health. She stated that official termination numbers did not reflect resignations, early retirements, leaves of absence, or pressured departures, and that vacancy rates subsequently increased significantly in certain networks such as Hamilton Health Sciences. She further testified that natural immunity, religious exemptions, and creed-based exemptions were denied despite prior accommodation practices for other vaccines, and that many immigrant nurses from countries with histories of authoritarian governance viewed the mandates as coercive.
She argued that hospital CEOs failed to conduct adequate risk–benefit and financial analyses before terminating experienced nurses in a system already facing shortages. Campbell stated that vaccine breakthrough infections were acknowledged by mid-2021 and that booster mandates were not consistently implemented, which she described as a policy inconsistency if patient protection was the objective. She concluded that staffing losses, burnout, and demoralization have had ongoing effects on wait times, rural hospital closures, surgical backlogs, and overall system stability, and that transparency regarding staffing data remains lacking.