COVID-19
Nurses’ termination for refusing COVD shot was ‘unreasonable,’ arbitrator rules
From LifeSiteNews
‘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.
“If we did not terminate, we would have to hold positions for people and could only backfill those on a temporary basis,” she testified. “It would have been challenging to recruit … and retain individuals with temporary roles.”
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
Former Trudeau minister faces censure for ‘deliberately lying’ about Emergencies Act invocation
From LifeSiteNews
By Christina Maas of Reclaim The Net
Trudeau’s former public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, finds himself at the center of controversy as the Canadian Parliament debates whether to formally censure him for ‘deliberately lying’ about the justification for invoking the Emergencies Act.
Trudeau’s former public safety minister, Marco Mendicino, finds himself at the center of controversy as the Canadian Parliament debates whether to formally censure him for “deliberately lying” about the justification for invoking the Emergencies Act and freezing the bank accounts of civil liberties supporters during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests.
Conservative MP Glen Motz, a vocal critic, emphasized the importance of accountability, stating, “Parliament deserves to receive clear and definitive answers to questions. We must be entitled to the truth.”
The Emergencies Act, invoked on February 14, 2022, granted sweeping powers to law enforcement, enabling them to arrest demonstrators, conduct searches, and freeze the financial assets of those involved in or supported, the trucker-led protests. However, questions surrounding the legality of its invocation have lingered, with opposition parties and legal experts criticizing the move as excessive and unwarranted.
On Thursday, Mendicino faced calls for censure after Blacklock’s Reporter revealed formal accusations of contempt of Parliament against him. The former minister, who was removed from cabinet in 2023, stands accused of misleading both MPs and the public by falsely claiming that the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act was based on law enforcement advice. A final report on the matter contradicts his testimony, stating, “The Special Joint Committee was intentionally misled.”
Mendicino’s repeated assertions at the time, including statements like, “We invoked the Emergencies Act after we received advice from law enforcement,” have been flatly contradicted by all other evidence. Despite this, he has yet to publicly challenge the allegations.
The controversy deepened as documents and testimony revealed discrepancies in the government’s handling of the crisis. While Attorney General Arif Virani acknowledged the existence of a written legal opinion regarding the Act’s invocation, he cited solicitor-client privilege to justify its confidentiality. Opposition MPs, including New Democrat Matthew Green, questioned the lack of transparency. “So you are both the client and the solicitor?” Green asked, to which Virani responded, “I wear different hats.”
The invocation of the Act has since been ruled unconstitutional by a federal court, a decision the Trudeau government is appealing. Critics argue that the lack of transparency and apparent misuse of power set a dangerous precedent. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms echoed these concerns, emphasizing that emergency powers must be exercised only under exceptional circumstances and with a clear legal basis.
Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.
COVID-19
Australian doctor who criticized COVID jabs has his suspension reversed
From LifeSiteNews
By David James
‘I am free, I am no longer suspended. I can prescribe Ivermectin, and most importantly – and this is what AHPRA is most afraid of – I can criticize the vaccines freely … as a medical practitioner of this country,’ said COVID critic Dr. William Bay.
A long-awaited decision regarding the suspension of the medical registration of Dr William Bay by the Medical Board of Australia has been handed down by the Queensland Supreme Court. Justice Thomas Bradley overturned the suspension, finding that Bay had been subject to “bias and failure to afford fair process” over complaints unrelated to his clinical practice.
The case was important because it reversed the brutal censorship of medical practitioners, which had forced many doctors into silence during the COVID crisis to avoid losing their livelihoods.
Bay and his supporters were jubilant after the decision. “The judgement in the matter of Bay versus AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) and the state of Queensland has just been handed down, and we have … absolute and complete victory,” he proclaimed outside the court. “I am free, I am no longer suspended. I can prescribe Ivermectin, and most importantly – and this is what AHPRA is most afraid of – I can criticize the vaccines freely … as a medical practitioner of this country.”
Bay went on: “The vaccines are bad, the vaccines are no good, and people should be afforded the right to informed consent to choose these so-called vaccines. Doctors like me will be speaking out because we have nothing to fear.”
Bay added that the judge ruled not only to reinstate his registration, but also set aside the investigation into him, deeming it invalid. He also forced AHPRA to pay the legal costs. “Everything is victorious for myself, and I praise God,” he said.
The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), which partners the Medical Board of Australia, is a body kept at arm’s length from the government to prevent legal and political accountability. It was able to decide which doctors could be deregistered for allegedly not following the government line. If asked questions about its decisions AHPRA would reply that it was not a Commonwealth agency so there was no obligation to respond.
The national board of AHPRA is composed of two social workers, one accountant, one physiotherapist, one mathematician and three lawyers. Even the Australian Medical Association, which also aggressively threatened dissenting doctors during COVID, has objected to its role. Vice-president Dr Chris Moy described the powers given to AHPRA as being “in the realms of incoherent zealotry”.
This was the apparatus that Bay took on, and his victory is a significant step towards allowing medical practitioners to voice their concerns about Covid and the vaccines. Until now, most doctors, at least those still in a job, have had to keep any differing views to themselves. As Bay suggests, that meant they abrogated their duty to ensure patients gave informed consent.
Justice Bradley said the AHPRA board’s regulatory role did not “include protection of government and regulatory agencies from political criticism.” To that extent the decision seems to allow freedom of speech for medical practitioners. But AHPRA still has the power to deregister doctors without any accountability. And if there is one lesson from Covid it is that bureaucrats in the Executive branch have little respect for legal or ethical principles.
READ: More scientists are supporting a swift recall of the dangerous COVID jabs
It is to be hoped that Australian medicos who felt forced into silence now begin to speak out about the vaccines, the mandating of which has coincided with a dramatic rise in all-cause mortality in heavily vaccinated countries around the world, including Australia. This may prove psychologically difficult, though, because those doctors would then have to explain why they have changed their position, a discussion they will no doubt prefer to avoid.
The Bay decision has implications for the way the three arms of government: the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, function in Australia. There are supposed to be checks and balances, but the COVID crisis revealed that, when put under stress, the separation of powers does not work well, or at all.
During the crisis the legislature routinely passed off its responsibilities to the executive branch, which removed any voter influence because bureaucrats are not elected. The former premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, went a step further by illegitimately giving himself and the Health Minister positions in the executive branch, when all they were entitled to was roles in the legislature as members of the party in power. This appalling move resulted in the biggest political protests ever seen in Melbourne, yet the legislation passed anyway.
The legislature’s abrogation of responsibility left the judiciary as the only branch of government able to address the abuse of Australia’s foundational political institutions. To date, the judges have disappointed. But the Bay decision may be a sign of better things to come.
READ: Just 24% of Americans plan to receive the newest COVID shot: poll
-
Alberta22 hours ago
Proposed $70 billion AI data centre in MD of Greenview could launch an incredible new chapter for western Canadian energy
-
COVID-192 days ago
Australian doctor who criticized COVID jabs has his suspension reversed
-
Business2 days ago
Massive growth in federal workforce contributes to Ottawa’s red ink
-
Alberta18 hours ago
Your towing rights! AMA unveils measures to help fight predatory towing
-
Frontier Centre for Public Policy2 days ago
False Claims, Real Consequences: The ICC Referrals That Damaged Canada’s Reputation
-
COVID-192 days ago
Former Trudeau minister faces censure for ‘deliberately lying’ about Emergencies Act invocation
-
National2 days ago
When’s the election? Singh finally commits. Poilievre asks Governor General to step in
-
Daily Caller2 days ago
Party Leaders Exposed For ‘Lying’ About Biden Health