B.C. nurse facing disciplinary hearing for comments about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter

A nurse holds a tablet in this stock image from Shutterstock.

A B.C. nurse is facing a disciplinary hearing over statements he is alleged to have made about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and racism in the health-care system.

Sean Taylor, a registered nurse, was issued a citation last month by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives, detailing the comments that are alleged to have constituted professional misconduct. The document was posted online Friday.

The college lists five specific comments made between March and November of 2020, four of which related to COVID-19.

"[Y]ou will get people to wear your masks and put them in your internment camps ... but there is a group of people, myself included, and you, and a bunch of friends, who will not comply. We will meet you in the streets and do this the old fashioned way," Taylor is alleged to have said when referring to the pandemic.

The other three statements include one that says he doesn't wear a mask, one where he claims to tell patients in hospital that "there is no virus here," one linking the virus to "Chinese culture."

The college does not say where he made the comments or to whom, but does say he made the statements while identifying himself as a nurse.

The statement he is said to have made about Black Lives Matter appears to refer to political unrest in the U.S.

"The restraint that’s being shown on the right … I watch that sh*t, I wanna take a road trip and go down and play paintball,” Taylor is alleged to have said.

The citation also describes a media interview Taylor gave in June of 2020. At that time, the province had ordered a review into allegations of anti-Indigenous racism in the B.C. health-care system.

"The segment was filmed outside the Kelowna General Hospital, and you wore your scrubs with a stethoscope around your neck," the document says.

"In the segment, you discussed allegations of racial discrimination against Indigenous patients and expressed the view that such news resulted in patients making allegations of racism against a nurse when they do not get their way."

None of the allegations against Taylor have been proven. The hearing is set to begin on Nov. 15 and last three days. According to the college's online records, Taylor's registration was cancelled in April of 2022.