Right now, over 100 Shoppers Drug Mart stores across Ontario are performing symptomatic COVID-19 tests in their stores.  They are actively inviting people with COVID-19 symptoms into a place full of seniors, the immunocompromised and children too young to be vaccinated or wear masks.

The Ontario government requires that strict safety measures be in place at all COVID testing sites.  However, these conditions are not possible at many Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies.  Symptomatic people are walked straight through the store to a tiny, windowless room.  The same room is also used for vaccinations and counseling. 

Shoppers Drug Mart has decided to expand this dangerous program to virtually all of their stores provincewide. This will expose even more people to potential infection with COVID-19, including the Omicron variant.  A pharmacy is where we go to get vital healthcare.  It shouldn't be where you get sick.

My name is Michael Miranda.  I am a pharmacist who worked at a Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto.  I first voiced my concerns when the program was announced in November 2021.  I was ignored.  On December 13, when it became clear that the program was not being stopped, but expanded, I did the only thing I could.

I quit.

This became front page news across Toronto on December 15.  You can read more on CP24 at:

https://www.cp24.com/news/toronto-pharmacist-quits-job-in-protest-over-shoppers-drug-mart-symptomatic-covid-19-testing-plan-1.5708010

But I am afraid that the corporate owners of Shoppers Drug Mart aren't listening.  Our local communities are at risk.

Therefore, I ask that you sign this petition to demand that Shoppers Drug Mart and their parent company Loblaws Companies Ltd STOP conducting symptomatic COVID-19 testing in their stores.