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82 unvaccinated healthcare workers win arbitration case against hospital that fired them

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

A Canadian arbitrator ruled that the employees were entitled to termination and severance pay.

In a win for those who chose not to get the COVID shots and were fired from their jobs as a result, a Canadian arbitrator ruled that one of the nation’s leading hospitals must compensate 82 healthcare workers terminated after refusing to get the jabs.

The ruling, issued by Toronto arbitrator John Stout on August 12, concerns 82 healthcare workers who worked for the William Osler Health System (WOHS). Forty of them were fired “with cause” for not getting the COVID shots and 42 were suspended. They are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

The company’s COVID jab policy, implemented in 2021, mandated that all workers have at least two COVID shots as a condition of work.

Stout noted in his ruling that it was possible to fire staff for not getting the jab, saying, “Not surprisingly, arbitrators have found that a requirement to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in a healthcare setting is reasonable.”

But he added that “no arbitral consensus has emerged with respect to the consequences for employees who chose not to be vaccinated or disclose their vaccination status.”

Stout wrote that “based on the very unique circumstances at WOHS, I find that the grievors in this matter were terminated for just cause. The employees chose not to be vaccinated and as a result they were not reasonably available to attend at work, which at a minimum severely and negatively impacted the employment relationship.”

However, Stout also ruled that the hospital must pay the fired and suspended staff because they chose not to go along with the mandates in a manner that had no “malicious intent.”

“That being said, the individual grievors were misguided and their conduct was not with any malicious intent,” he wrote.

“The ESA (Employment Standards Act) provides that unless an employee’s actions amount to ‘willful misconduct, disobedience or willful neglect of duty that is not trivial,’ they will be entitled to termination and severance pay.”

 

Because the matter was not resolved via mediation, it went to arbitration.

Stout ultimately ruled that “I find that the individual grievors who were terminated from their employment by the Hospital are entitled to termination and severance pursuant to the ESA.”

“Accordingly, WOHS is ordered to provide such grievors with their notice and severance pay under the ESA, where applicable. The grievances are partially allowed, to the extent outlined in this award.”

The arbitration hearing was held on August 7 and included high-level staff from both the WOHS and CUPE as well as legal counsel for both parties.

Draconian COVID mandates, including those surrounding the experimental mRNA vaccines, were imposed by the provincial Progressive Conservative government of Ontario under Premier Doug Ford and the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Many recent rulings have gone in favor of those who chose to not to get the shots and were fired as a result.

The mRNA shots have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children. The jabs also have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies. As a result, many Catholics and other Christians refused to take them.

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COVID-19

Maxime Bernier slams Freedom Convoy leaders’ guilty verdict, calls Canada’s justice system ‘corrupt’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The leader of the People’s Party of Canada says Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were victims of a ‘political witch hunt.’

The leader of the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) ripped Thursday’s federal court ruling that found Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber guilty of mischief, saying the court siding with the government amounted to a “political witch hunt.”

“It is disheartening to learn that two of the heroes of the Freedom Convoy, @LichTamara and @ChrisBarber1975, have been found guilty of mischief in the longest and one of the costliest trials in Canadian history,” Maxime Bernier wrote Thursday on X.

“This clearly was a political witch hunt.”

Bernier added that in his view the reality is that Canada’s justice system is “corrupt.”

“Trudeau and his ministers who illegally invoked the Emergencies Act and violated basic rights will go unpunished,” he noted.

“Our justice system is corrupt to the bones.”

On Thursday, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, the federal judge overseeing the mischief trial, delivered her verdict, finding both Lich and Barber guilty of mischief.

Perkins-McVey seemed to agree with the Crown’s case that Lich and Barber’s influence on the Freedom Convoy constituted public mischief but did dismiss the Crown’s Carter Application accusing Lich and Barber of conspiracy outright.

Lich and Barber both faced six charges each, those being charges of mischief, obstruction, intimidation, and counseling others to commit mischief and intimidation. After the court reconvened Thursday afternoon, Lich was acquitted of four of her six charges, with the fifth charge, counseling to commit mischief, being stayed by the judge.

As for sentencing, the court will reconvene on April 16 at 1:30 p.m. EST, at which time it will say when a date and time for sentencing will be held.

Lich and Barber both face a possible 10-year prison sentence. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.

The Lich and Barber trial concluded in September 2024, more than a year after it began. It was only originally scheduled to last 16 days.

Lich and Barber were arrested on February 17, 2022, in Ottawa for their roles in leading the popular Freedom Convoy protest against COVID mandates. During COVID, Canadians were subjected to vaccine mandates, mask mandates, extensive lockdowns and even the closure of churches.

Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government invoked the Emergencies Act to clear out protesters, an action a federal judge has since said was “not justified.” During the clear-out, an elderly lady was trampled by a police horse and many who donated to the cause had their bank accounts frozen.

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2025 Federal Election

Mark Carney refuses to clarify 2022 remarks accusing the Freedom Convoy of ‘sedition’

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Mark Carney described the Freedom Convoy as an act of ‘sedition’ and advocated for the government to use its power to crush the non-violent protest movement.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney refused to elaborate on comments he made in 2022 referring to the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy protest as an act of “sedition” and advocating for the government to put an end to the movement.

“Well, look, I haven’t been a politician,” Carney said when a reporter in Windsor, Ontario, where a Freedom Convoy-linked border blockade took place in 2022, asked, “What do you say to Canadians who lost trust in the Liberal government back then and do not have trust in you now?”

“I became a politician a little more than two months ago, two and a half months ago,” he said. “I came in because I thought this country needed big change. We needed big change in the economy.”

Carney’s lack of an answer seems to be in stark contrast to the strong opinion he voiced in a February 7, 2022, column published in the Globe & Mail at the time of the convoy titled, “It’s Time To End The Sedition In Ottawa.”

In that piece, Carney wrote that the Freedom Convoy was a movement of “sedition,” adding, “That’s a word I never thought I’d use in Canada. It means incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.”

Carney went on to claim in the piece that if “left unchecked” by government authorities, the Freedom Convoy would “achieve” its “goal of undermining our democracy.”

Carney even targeted “[a]nyone sending money to the Convoy,” accusing them of “funding sedition.”

Internal emails from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) eventually showed that his definition of sedition were not in conformity with the definition under Canada’s Criminal Code, which explicitly lists the “use of force” as a necessary aspect of sedition.

“The key bit is ‘use of force,’” one RCMP officer noted in the emails. “I’m all about a resolution to this and a forceful one with us victorious but, from the facts on the ground, I don’t know we’re there except in a small number of cases.”

The reality is that the Freedom Convoy was a peaceful event of public protest against COVID mandates, and not one protestor was charged with sedition. However, the Liberal government, then under Justin Trudeau, did take an approach similar to the one advocated for by Carney, invoking the Emergencies Act to clear-out protesters. Since then, a federal judge has ruled that such action was “not justified.”

Despite this, the two most prominent leaders of the Freedom Convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, still face a possible 10-year prison sentence for their role in the non-violent assembly. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.

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