A group of former Quesnel city employees who lost their jobs for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19 are taking the city to court. In a notice of civil action, the nine plaintiffs say they object to being subjected to an “unwanted medical procedure” that “involves the injection of experimental vaccines that are ineffective in preventing infection and transmission and carry serious risks, including the risk of death, and override the right them to exercise their right to informed consent in matters of taking medical risk.” According to the allegation, Borough City Manager Byron Johnson issued a policy on Nov. 5, 2021, that required all employees, volunteers and contractors to prove they were fully vaccinated by Jan. 3, 2022, and those who were not will give four weeks of unpaid leave. Those who continued to refuse and did not receive housing under the Human Rights Code within that time frame would be fired in turn and likely would not qualify for Employment Insurance benefits, Johnson further warned. The nine were placed on unpaid leave on January 10, 2022 and, on February 7, 2022, all were terminated from their employment with only one eligible for EI benefits until May 2022. They continue to question the need to get vaccinated, saying that the risk of serious illness and death from the disease depends entirely on a person’s age, sex and health status, and that, according to the BC Center for Disease Control, the median age Death by or with COVID-19 in the province is 82 years. “Vast sections of society are at extremely low risk, with healthy young and middle-aged people at statistically zero risk of death,” they say in the claim. Instead, they question the vaccines’ effectiveness and safety, saying Health Canada has not put them through the same rigorous scientific approval process as previous vaccines and drugs. “Because of their infancy, these new therapeutics could cause side effects that are unknown—and unknown—at present. No one can be sure of the long-term effects of a vaccine that has not been around for a long time and has not been studied for many years”, they say. They go on to claim that mRNA vaccines “cause dire adverse effects that are often worse than coronavirus infection, especially in young, healthy recipients.” Before implementing the order, they say the City refused to meet with their union to develop an adjustment plan and noted a Labor Relations Board decision in which the arbitrator penalized an employer for not “engaging in a collaborative process” before the implementation of a mandatory vaccine policy. The plaintiffs are each seeking $2 million in damages, half for alleged violations of their rights under the Workers’ Compensation Act, the Health and Safety at Work Regulation, the Criminal Code, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and half for punitive and exemplary damages and aggravated damages for mental anguish. They also seek several declarations, including one that, under the Workers’ Compensation Act, the City “created an unsafe work environment by mandating experimental products linked to serious adverse events, including myocarditis, heart attacks and death, which potentially endanger employees’ lives.” The claim was filed in the Supreme Court of BC. in Prince George on June 22. None of the claims have yet been tested in court and the defendants, which include the provincial government as well as the city and city manager, have yet to file responses to the claim.
