A lawsuit filed against B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry is underway as a group of health-care workers who lost their jobs for not receiving COVID-19 shots aim to have the province’s vaccine mandate removed. The hearing centres around a lawsuit filed by non-profit group the Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public, on behalf of nurses and doctors who did not get vaccinated and were fired for it. The case started in B.C.’s Supreme Court on Nov. 20 and is expected to run for 10 days.
According to court documents, the health-care professionals argue COVID-19 no longer presents “an immediate or significant threat to public health.” Moreover, they argue that the order was “ineffective” and “unreasonable” on grounds that unvaccinated professionals did not pose a greater risk of passing the virus on to patients because of the preventative measures already in place. Nearly 2,500 B.C. health-care workers lost their jobs for not being vaccinated, according to the Vancouver Sun.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) says in a release it supported the legal challenge to the public health order which was brought forward on March 16, 2022. The lawsuit covers workers who refused the vaccine for various reasons including religious, conscience, and medical concerns. “No provisions for alternative employment or accommodation were made for healthcare workers who chose not to get injected for reasons of conscience or religion, for medical reasons, or for those with natural immunity to COVID,” JCCF’s release said. B.C. is the last remaining province to keep the vaccine requirement for health-care workers in place, meaning that professionals who have not been fully vaccinated are not yet allowed to return to work.
“I am of the opinion that any slippage in the level of vaccination in the health-care workforce could result in significant illness on the part of the health-care workforce which would undermine the capacity of the health-care system to respond to a significant resurgence of disease,” Ms. Henry said in an Oct. 5 public health order. The order does not have an end date. JCCF noted the mandate remains in effect despite a health-care crisis in B.C. fuelled by persistent labour shortages.