COVID-19
Canadian judge orders Purolator to compensate employees fired for refusing COVID shot
From LifeSiteNews
On January 30, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bradford Smith ruled that shipping giant Purolator must compensate employees it fired for refusing to take the COVID shot, in accordance with a Labor Arbitrator’s decision in December 2023.
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has upheld a labor arbitrator’s decision that Purolator employees fired for refusing the COVID shot must be compensated.
On January 30, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bradford Smith ruled that shipping giant Purolator must compensate employees it fired for refusing to take the COVID shot, in accordance with a Labor Arbitrator‘s decision in December 2023.
“I find there was no procedural unfairness to Purolator,” Smith wrote in his ruling.
Beginning September 15, 2021, Purolator, like many Canadian companies around that time, mandated that its workers get the COVID shot to continue working. Workers were given until December 25, 2021, to comply, with the full policy coming into force on January 10, 2022.
However, last December an arbitrator ruled that Purolator’s vaccine mandate was reasonable only until June 30, 2022, when evidence sufficiently proved that the COVID vaccine did not prevent transmission of the COVID virus.
“[The arbitrator] determined that the balancing of interests was not fixed in time, but something which could change as circumstances changed,” wrote Smith.
“He found that as of the end of June 2022, circumstances had indeed changed, such that the [vaccination policy], although reasonable when it was implemented, was no longer reasonable after that date,” he continued.
Regardless of this development, Purolator kept the mandate in place until June 2023, barring unvaccinated employees from working.
As a result, Arbitrator Nicholas Glass ruled that Purolator must give compensation to its hourly employees who did not get the COVID shots, which included the lost benefits and wages they would have earned between July 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023.
Purolator had also been ordered to give compensation to owner-operators beginning from the first date they lost income.
Following this decision, Purolator took the case to the B.C. Supreme Court, only to have the ruling upheld by Smith.
“The Arbitrator clearly proceeded on the basis that employees’ personal autonomy and bodily integrity interests were engaged, and it was reasonable for him to do so,” reads the decision.
“I find the Decision is transparent, intelligible and justified, and thus reasonable,” wrote Smith.
The favorable ruling for the Purolator workers is one of the latest positive outcomes for Canadians who lost income, or their jobs outright, for choosing not to get the COVID shots.
In October 2023, LifeSiteNews reported on how a Canadian arbitrator in Saskatchewan ruled in favor of two oil refinery workers who were discriminated against at their workplace for not complying with COVID dictates.
From LifeSiteNews
The Ontario Court of Appeals is allowing a $290 million class-action lawsuit against Freedom Convoy protesters to continue.
On March 6, Ontario Court of Appeals Justices David Brown, Peter Lauwers, and Steve Coroza ruled that a $290 million class-action lawsuit against some of those who organized and participated in the Freedom Convoy for creating a “public nuisance causing pain” will be allowed to proceed.
“We are not unconstrained free actors but must all live subject to some rules,” Brown wrote.
“The Charter reminds us that individual action must always be alive to its effect on other members of the community since limits can be placed on individual action as long as they are ’reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society,” he continued.
The 2022 Freedom Convoy was a peaceful protest in downtown Ottawa, featuring thousands of truckers and Canadians camping outside Parliament to call for an end to COVID regulations.
Despite the demonstration’s non-violent nature, some residents from downtown Ottawa have claimed that the protest disrupted their lives.
In February 2022, the Freedom Convoy leaders were hit with the lawsuit, which originally started at $9.8 million but then ballooned to $290 million. The class-action lawsuit was filed by Ottawa civil servant Zexi Li on February 4, 2022, along with Geoffrey Delaney, Happy Goat Coffee Company, and a local union. It names plaintiffs who have businesses or were working in the city’s downtown core during the Freedom Convoy.
The defendants of the claim are Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber along with a number of other participants and entities. A previous attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed was rejected.
The decision comes just over a year after Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Prime Minister Trudeau was “not justified” in invoking the Emergencies Act to shut down the protest.
From LifeSiteNews
Both Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber face up to 10 years in prison for their roles in the non-violent Freedom Convoy protest which sought to bring an end to COVID mandates in Canada.
The verdict for Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber’s mischief trial, which was supposed to have already been released, will now come on April 3.
“We have a new verdict date. April 3,” Lich wrote on X Monday.
At the end of last month, Lich broke the news that the original verdict date of March 12, 2025, had been delayed indefinitely.
Both Lich and Barber face a possible 10-year prison sentence despite the non-violent nature of the protest. LifeSiteNews has reported extensively on their trial.
Lich recently shared a heartwarming letter she received from a child, who told her to “keep fighting” for everyone and that “God will protect” her from the “enemy.”
The Lich and Barber trial concluded in September of 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.
While Trudeau has now been replaced as Liberal Party leader by Mark Carney, the latter is on the record as having been in favor of the freezing of bank accounts of Freedom Convoy protesters and their supporters.
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