Sask. Health Authority investigating its own inspector after handshake with anti-lockdown activist

The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is investigating one of its public health inspectors after a recent interaction with an anti-lockdown activist who led an unlawful outdoor rally in southwest Saskatchewan, the province's health minister says.

"There is a right way of doing it and there's a wrong way of doing it. And in Maple Creek, that was the wrong way of doing things," Paul Merriman said of the inspector's actions.

Bradford Giesbrecht, an inspector and the president of the provincial chapter of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors, was captured on video shaking hands with Chris Saccoccia, who has spoken out against masks, lockdowns and COVID-19 vaccines and was driving cross-country last week to address large crowds. 

Giesbrecht was accompanied by two RCMP officers. After the handshake, Giesbrecht invited Saccoccia, who was not wearing a mask, to check out local restaurants and a tattoo parlour.

"Awesome place, make sure you spend some time," Giesbrecht said. 

Premier Scott Moe had asked Saccoccia to stay out of Saskatchewan and, like the mayor of Maple Creek, advised people against attending Saccoccia's rally. An early-April outdoor gathering near Maple Creek had turned into a COVID-19 superspreader, infecting more than 40 people.

Saccoccia's video diary of the ensuing Maple Creek rally captured him offering a hitchhiker a ride to Regina and, at one point, appearing to hug a baby at the invitation of the child's parent.

Merriman, speaking to reporters on Thursday for the first time about the inspector's exchange with Saccoccia, said Giesbrecht disobeyed the current public health order by shaking hands and is under investigation by the SHA.

"[They're] going through the normal process that they would with any act that is outside of their guidelines," he said. 

Merriman said public health inspectors receive training and have been working with law enforcement agencies during the pandemic "to make sure that they are doing this properly."

"These are also people with family members that have to go out into sometimes challenging situations where people are openly defiant and be able to educate them," Merriman said of inspectors. 

Merriman said inspectors' job is to first inform the public about the sometimes shifting terms of public health orders and, if faced with non-compliance, fine offenders.

A handshake like the one offered by Giesbrecht "shouldn't happen, step one," Merriman said.

WATCH │ Health Minister Paul Merriman addresses the handshake

Maple Creek-area rancher Jon Bowie said he saw the footage and was horrified by the handshake.

He said he was glad the inspector was under investigation, but that Merriman was not sending a strong statement.

"It's so much more than just a handshake at a rally, though. It's whose hand he's shaking. It is a health inspector representing the health authority inviting someone with radical views to come back to a community," Bowie said. 

"The health authority has been promoting mask use, and the optics of a senior health inspector who is also the president of [the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors] is staggering. This goes beyond a lapse in judgment."

CBC News has reached out to Giesbrecht for comment on Merriman's remarks.