Employee Rights & The Covid-19 Vaccine
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
124.53249
Summary
Rocco Gagni, Executive Director of the Constitutional Rights Centre in Toronto, gives a brief overview of mandatory vaccinations in the employment context in Canada. In the context of the law of contract, is it illegal to require vaccinations as part of a contract? And what would happen if you were fired for refusing to sign a contract that required you to be vaccinated?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hi, my name is Rocco Galati, I'm the Executive Director of the Constitutional Rights Centre
00:00:12.880
I've been asked to give a very brief overview of the issue of potential mandatory vaccinations
00:00:26.840
In very broad strokes, our legal order has been described by the Supreme Court of Canada
00:00:35.680
That is, all relationships in Canada are governed by the rule of law and law.
00:00:41.520
In very broad strokes, there's only two types of law in our system.
00:00:46.400
There's public law, which includes such law as criminal law, regulatory law, administrative
00:00:52.000
law and other public law, which governs the relationship between the state, the governments,
00:01:02.000
On the other side, there's what we call private law.
00:01:05.640
And the private law governs the relationship as between private citizens.
00:01:10.980
And there's only two broad types of law in private law.
00:01:19.560
So contract governs your obligations and promises when two minds meet, when you both come to
00:01:28.740
Tort governs the consequences of your conduct when you do something that harms someone else.
00:01:36.920
In that context, and in the context of mandatory vaccinations, in Canada, any treatment, medical
00:01:50.640
treatment including vaccination without the informed consent of the citizen is unconstitutional.
00:01:58.820
The Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled this.
00:02:02.480
And so with respect to government action, if any government body tried to impose mandatory
00:02:12.780
So in the employment context, if you work for a level of government, any form of government,
00:02:20.480
and they tried to impose mandatory vaccinations, that would be unconstitutional.
00:02:25.820
Whether it's imposed through collective bargaining, or whether it's imposed for the first time
00:02:35.500
In the private context, it's a bit more nuanced and complicated.
00:02:39.240
But at the end of the day, the Constitutional Rights Center arrives at the same conclusion.
00:02:44.940
In a private context, if you sign a contract agreeing to be vaccinated as part of your employment,
00:02:52.480
then the employer does have a basis to say, well, if you don't, once you sign that contract,
00:02:58.240
if you don't adhere to being vaccinated, that they can dismiss you.
00:03:02.340
If your contract is already underway and you're employed, and they try to parachute that provision
00:03:11.140
of now having for the first time after you sign the contract without a vaccination proviso,
00:03:20.400
And if they fired you for it, that will constitute wrongful dismissal, and you can sue your employer
00:03:27.860
We at the Constitutional Rights Center are of the legal opinion that trying to impose mandatory
00:03:34.220
vaccination in even the private employment contract is not allowed.
00:03:46.780
Strictly speaking, the charter only applies to government actions.
00:03:50.100
And so if you're a government employee, you can invoke the charter.
00:03:53.780
It does not apply to private relationships of contract and tort, except that the Supreme
00:04:00.880
Court of Canada has held that even where the charter does not strictly apply, charter values
00:04:08.880
And the Supreme Court of Canada has also held that the common law that's enforced by the
00:04:13.660
judges of our country, is also subject to constitutional and charter scrutiny.
00:04:21.000
So, taken in the context of the law of contract, it's the view of the Constitutional Rights Center
00:04:31.220
that to violate on a private basis what, if it had been violated by public authorities, would
00:04:44.420
Then that part of the contract, in our view, is not enforceable because it's unconscionable,
00:04:51.520
There's a doctrine of conscionability, even in a contract, that if a proviso shocks the conscience
00:04:59.100
for some reason, pursuant to public policy, it's not enforceable.
00:05:06.480
It's our view that to do something that would otherwise violate your constitutional rights if
00:05:12.900
the state had done it, would be an unconscionable provision in the contract.
00:05:17.640
Furthermore, any court that would enforce a provision that otherwise would constitute a
00:05:26.540
constitutional violation of medical treatment without informed consent, that court judgment
00:05:33.560
or the common law of contract in enforcing such a provision would also violate the charter.
00:05:39.780
At the end of the day, it's the view of the Constitutional Rights Center that any way you cut it,
00:05:45.260
mandatory vaccination in all employment contexts would be unconstitutional and or illegal and
00:05:55.620
Of course, if you get fired in a private context, then your only remedy is to sue for wrongful dismissal.
00:06:04.580
What would happen if you took the vaccine, you agreed to the vaccine, and you got injured?
00:06:20.180
And the likely answer is you could, but you may not succeed because at the end of the day,
00:06:25.000
What you can do is get your employer to acknowledge that you're taking it even though you do not
00:06:32.560
wish to take it, and if there's any side effects or damage to you, that the employer acknowledges
00:06:39.480
that they will be strictly liable to compensate you for any such physical or neurological damage
00:06:46.320
There are those who say, no way, I don't want this vaccine, I'm not going to take it, period.
00:06:55.140
I would, I've never, I would advise somebody to do something they don't want.
00:07:00.020
But if they're concerned, they would do it, but they're concerned in the event of an eventuality,
00:07:09.040
But it still has to be basically consensual with the proviso.
00:07:13.780
Well, if mandatory vaccines are imposed on all Canadians, both children and adults,
00:07:27.940
we can go and get an injunction under the July 6, 2020 challenge that we filed with respect
00:07:40.100
If they're only imposed with respect to children, then we can bring an injunction on both the
00:07:49.180
2020 July 6 challenge, but as well we can bring an injunction with respect to the 2019 challenge
00:08:01.240
that strictly deals with children in the school system.
00:08:31.240
Or even if they're likely to struggle with respect to children in the way, any of these
00:08:33.020
are most devamers that are sold to them in the past.
00:08:34.860
It's over the last month we can hit ошибочang and it's calcutative injuries
00:08:36.960
after this month we've also had a Germans-Challłu d'O Bring it around.
00:08:39.120
The end of this week is a panic in the future and it's сод- Mizelina.
00:08:42.520
We're going to send señal out to thewhen local singers in the future and the
00:08:44.140
number one increases if they run the future for a fourth year.
00:08:48.660
The third year took advantage of inflation our study.
00:08:51.020
There are determined by the opposite side effects almost as if they were able to sacrifice