A petition circulating on social media this morning called on Ottawa’s Toy Mountain Christmas Campaign not to require proof of vaccination from people picking up donated gifts. Toy Mountain is an annual program by the Salvation Army that distributes toys to underprivileged families in Ottawa.
The Ottawa branch of Ontario 2-1-1, which handles registration of participants in the Toy Mountain program, had been informing callers that proof of vaccination was required, according to the petition, which was written by Dee Campbell and hosted on Change.org with the title “Tell Toy Mountain that every child-in-need deserves gifts”.
OCLA called Ottawa 2-1-1 and spoke with an employee who initially stated that “due to provincial guidelines and provincial management policies, building management [of the Toy Mountain campaign offices] is asking for proof of vaccination.” While on the call with OCLA, the representative subsequently noted that she had received a new message from her manager that Toy Mountain did not have a vaccination requirement for participants receiving gifts.
OCLA was also in contact with Marc Hoey, the Coordinator of Service Enhancement for the Toy Mountain campaign, who stated that the information given by Ottawa 2-1-1 about a vaccination requirement was due to a “miscommunication”, and that there is not and has not ever been any such requirement, although the campaign had been “considering various options” prior to launching gift pick-up this year. Hoey further said that the campaign started giving out gifts to recipients today, and that no one receiving gifts has been nor will be asked for proof of vaccination.
The Salvation Army’s Divisional Secretary for Public Relations for Ontario, Glenn van Gulik, also called OCLA to communicate that no one receiving any type of service from any Salvation Army branch is required to show proof of vaccination, and that vaccination is not a requirement to receive any Salvation Army service. Staff of the Salvation Army in Ontario are subjected to vaccination policies, however.
