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COVID-19

Nurses’ termination for refusing COVD shot was ‘unreasonable,’ arbitrator rules

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

‘They should have been offered the option of an unpaid leave of absence and must, therefore, be reinstated as Quinte employees if that be their wish,’ Ontario arbitrator James Hayes said.

Nine Ontario nurses fired for refusing the COVID shot could be reinstated thanks to a new ruling.

On February 28, Ontario arbitrator James Hayes ruled in favor of nine nurses, represented by the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), who were fired by Quinte for refusing to take the experimental COVID vaccine.

“They should have been offered the option of an unpaid leave of absence and must, therefore, be reinstated as Quinte employees if that be their wish,” Hayes wrote.

“Nurses intent on remaining unvaccinated are a small minority everywhere but their employee rights may not be ignored,” he added.

Quinte Health, which oversees Belleville General Hospital, North Hastings Hospital in Bancroft, Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital in Picton, and Trenton Memorial Hospital, required all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 beginning in September 2021.

Under the new policy, Quinte’s employees were expected to provide proof of receiving their first dose by October 1, 2021 and the second dose by October 31, 2021.

Staff who refused the experimental shots faced automatic termination, resulting in nine nurses being let go in 2022, and one was fired after returning from parental leave in 2023.

According to an emailed statement from Quinte Health, the policy was enforced “as an important measure to protect health-care workers, prevent transmission, maintain health-care capacity, promote public health, and fulfill our ethical obligation to prioritize patient safety and well-being.”

Susan Rowe, vice president of people and strategy at Quinte Health, claimed that the decision to fire the unvaccinated nurses was due to recruitment concerns while admitting that Quinte Health had 100 job openings across its hospitals.

She further explained that Quinte Health did not place the nurses on unpaid leave because “we did not foresee any short or mid-term change for a vaccine requirement.”

Despite the vaccine mandate, hospital statistics from Quinte Health “indicated that of the 335 staff infections between April 2021 and March 2022, only 60 were between April and December 2021. The other 275 (and likely some of the 60) were with a fully vaccinated workforce.”

After the arbitrator’s ruling, Quinte Health announced that it “respects the arbitrator’s ruling and will work with our ONA partners on next steps.”

“Hopefully, the ruling will lead to more hospitals abandoning their vaccine mandates,” an Ontario nurse told LifeSiteNews under the condition of anonymity. “Considering the nursing shortages across Canada, it would be amazing if more nurses could return to work.”

A recent Health Canada memo revealed that a shortage of 90,000 doctors, nurses and other front-line healthcare workers has caused a “health worker crisis” in Canada.

As a result of the healthcare worker shortage, wait times to receive care in Canada have increased to an average of 27.7 weeks, causing some to despair and end their lives via euthanasia rather than wait for treatment.

Currently, vaccine mandates for healthcare workers are still in place in many jurisdictions across Canada despite a critical staff shortage in many hospitals. While some provincial governments have lifted their mandates, a number of hospitals still require the experimental vaccine as a condition of employment.

Additionally, a recently unveiled survey found that a significant number of Canadian healthcare workers, including most nurses, were hesitant to take the experimental COVID shots and only did so because it was mandated across the sector.

However, many healthcare workers have refused the vaccine and are appealing the mandates. In November, hundreds of British Columbia healthcare workers joined together to sue Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry for ongoing COVID shot mandates preventing them from working.

Similarly, Ontario pro-freedom Dr. Mark Trozzi plans to appeal after he was stripped of his license for critiquing the mainstream narrative around the COVID-19 so-called “pandemic” and the associated vaccines.

COVID-19

Elon Musk-backed doctor critical of COVID response vows appeal after court sides with medical board

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

One of Gill’s “controversial” posts read, “If you have not yet figured out that we don’t need a vaccine, you are not paying attention. ”  

A Canadian physician who challenged her medical regulator after it placed “cautions” against her for speaking out against draconian COVID mandates on social media has lost a court battle, but with the help of her Elon Musk-backed legal team she has vowed to appeal the ruling. 

The case concerns Dr. Kulvinder Kaur Gill, an Ontario pediatrician who has been embroiled in a legal battle with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) for her anti-COVID views posted on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020. As reported by LifeSiteNews, her case received the support of billionaire Tesla and X owner Elon Musk, who pledged in March to back her financially.  

One of Gill’s “controversial” posts read, “If you have not yet figured out that we don’t need a vaccine, you are not paying attention. #FactsNotFear.”  

The Divisional Court decision against Gill dated May 7, 2024, concluded, “When the College chose to draw the line at those tweets which it found contained misinformation, it did so in a way which reasonably balanced Dr. Gill’s free speech rights with her professional responsibilities.” 

“In other words, its response was proportionate,” noted the ruling. 

Gill’s lawyer, Lisa Bildy with Libertas Law, stated in a press release sent to LifeSiteNews that the “Court declined to quash the ‘cautions’ orders, finding that the ‘screening committee’ of the CPSO was sufficiently alert to the Charter infringement of Dr. Gill’s speech, such that its decisions were within the range of reasonable outcomes.” 

“Dr. Gill had argued, in two factums,” noted Bildy, which can be found here and here , and filed in the companion court applications, that “her statements were not ‘verifiably false.’” 

Bildy expressed that Gill had provided the College with “ample evidence in 2020 to support her position against lockdowns,” but was sanctioned “because they went against the College’s guidance that doctors should not express opinions contradicting government or its public health edicts.” 

Gill’s court challenge against the CPSO began last month, with Bildy writing at the time that the College’s “decisions were neither reasonable nor justified and they failed to engage with the central issues for which Dr. Gill was being cautioned.” 

“The decision starts with the premise that doctors have to comply,” said Bildy, warning that censoring doctors would have a “chilling effect” on free speech.    

Bildy noted that in its ruling, the court “disagreed” with Gill’s challenge, “stating that this invited a reweighing of the evidence.” 

The court also ordered that Gill pay the CPSO $6,000 in legal costs.  

Gill is a specialist practicing in the Greater Toronto area, and has extensive experience and training in “pediatrics, and allergy and clinical immunology, including scientific research in microbiology, virology and vaccinology.” 

Last September, disciplinary proceedings against her were withdrawn by the CPSO. However, last year, Gill was ordered to pay $1 million in legal costs after her libel suit was struck down. 

The CPSO began disciplinary investigations against Gill in August 2020.  

Gill to appeal recent court ruling with support from Musk’s X  

The court’s ruling asserted that the CPSO panel members consisted of “three physicians with highly relevant expertise that they were able to bring to bear when assessing the scientific and medical information before them, expertise that this court does not have.” 

Bildy noted that in fact, the CPSO panel consisted of “three surgeons and a general member of the public who had deferred to the ‘expertise’ of government’s public health arm.” 

The court ruling also dismissed Gill’s arguments that publishing the “cautions on her public register and disseminating a notice about the cautions to hospitals and regulators across the continent was punitive and had a chilling effect on one side of a debate.” 

“The Court opted to align with other Divisional Court decisions in stating that the cautions were not a finding of professional misconduct but were merely a remedial measure. This is despite the fact that cautions have, only in recent years, become a public rebuke rather than a private ‘correction’ of a professional by their peers. This significant change has not yet been grappled with by the Ontario Court of Appeal,” noted Bildy.  

Bildy said that Gill intends to “seek leave to appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal with the support of X Corp., since her posts were made on the X platform which supports free expression and dialogue, even on contentious issues and particularly on matters of scientific and medical importance.”  

Gill noted on X Tuesday that her “notice of motion for leave to appeal will be filed” next week “to begin process.” 

She also thanked Musk and X for supporting her legal cause.  

Gill had said that she had “suddenly” found herself going “against the narrative,” and was then “seen as a black sheep and as someone who should be shunned.” 

Many Canadian doctors who spoke out against COVID mandates and the experimental mRNA injections have been censured by their medical boards. 

Earlier this month, Elon Musk’s X announced that it will fund the legal battle for another Canadian doctor critical of COVID lockdowns, Dr. Matthew Strauss, an Ontario critical care physician and professor, against his former employer Queen’s University after it forced him to resign. 

In an interview with LifeSiteNews at its annual general meeting in July 2023 near Toronto, canceled doctors Mary O’Connor, Mark Trozzi, Chris Shoemaker, and Byram Bridle were asked to state their messages to the medical community regarding how they have had to fight censure because they have opinions contrary to the COVID mainstream narrative. 

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COVID-19

Healthcare workers obtain partial win against Bonnie Henry in BC Supreme Court

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News release from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms 

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is pleased to announce that the British Columbia Supreme Court has remitted back to the provincial health officer the issue of whether remote working and administrative health care workers must take the Covid vaccine as a condition of being able to work in a health care system that the BC government claims is grossly understaffed.

While the Justice Centre is disappointed that the court upheld the Covid vaccine mandate on BC healthcare workers, this decision is viewed as a substantial win for those remote-working and administrative healthcare workers who lost their jobs due to an unfair Covid vaccine mandate and other Health Orders put in place by BC provincial health officer Bonnie Henry, starting in November 2021. The court’s decision was released on Friday, May 10, 2024, by Justice Simon Coval in Vancouver.

The Justice Centre provided for lawyers to represent the healthcare workers, who filed their Petition to the Court on March 16, 2022. Oral arguments were presented November 20 to December 1, 2023, and December 18 to December 21, 2023. The petitioners argued that the orders violated their Charter rights, section 2(a) freedom of conscience and religion, section 7 right to life, liberty and security of the person, and section 15 equality rights.

The case is formally known as Tatlock, Koop, et al. v. BC and Dr. Bonnie Henry. More background is available at this link.

Charlene Le Beau, co-counsel for the petitioners, says, “This case was a Judicial Review, which means the court had to determine whether Dr. Bonnie Henry acted reasonably in making the Covid vaccine a condition of employment. We are disappointed with the court finding that Dr. Henry acted reasonably, but pleased with the court also finding that the application of the Orders to remote-working and administrative workers went too far. As a result, the court remitted the issue back to Dr. Henry so that, in light of the reasons for judgment, she can consider whether to accept requests for exemption to the vaccine for those groups of workers. This is a positive result for BC nurses, doctors and other health care workers.”

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