Two cabinet ministers who have connections to Springs Church have publicly denounced an in-person convocation ceremony held for 2021 graduates of a Winnipeg college run by the congregation.
Premier Brian Pallister, however, was not as quick to condemn an event that appears to have broken several public health orders when pressed on the subject Saturday.
“I’ll certainly look forward to finding out what’s actually happened before I comment, but, obviously, if there are violations, I would expect that there would be consequences for that and it would be most unfortunate,” Pallister said during a news conference held Saturday at 11 a.m.
Photos of unmasked graduates from Springs College in close quarters — which were originally posted on the @springschurch Instagram account this week and have since been deleted — have sparked outrage on social media in recent days.
One of the images shows nearly 20 students who are not wearing masks gathered on and near an indoor stage with a graduation backdrop. Meantime, most post-secondary graduates in the province will be celebrating convocation at virtual events this spring.
The church did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the matter, but a video of pastor Leon Fontaine defending the ceremony was posted on social media late Saturday night.
In the video, Fontaine said there have been “a lot of misrepresentations and outright false statements” about the college’s drive-in graduation, owing to uncontextualized photos.
“We take the public health orders very seriously, and have done everything in our power in the 14 months to comply with the health orders,” he said, adding countless hours are spent interpreting orders.
“Members of the public were not put at risk at any time as a result of the virtual college graduation.”
Fontaine went on to explain that a class of 18 students, who had been studying together as a cohort since orientation and did not have to wear masks…
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