The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal of the province’s COVID vaccine mandate for health-care workers.
In a May 6 hearing, the court dismissed the appeal on the grounds it was moot, or no longer relevant.
Allison Pejovic, a constitutional lawyer representing the health-care workers, said she was disappointed by the decision, telling The Epoch Times the legal team had expected to argue the case over a number of days.
Pejovic said several Canadian courts have dismissed challenges of pandemic orders on the basis of mootness while, she argued, “the violation of Charter rights and freedoms has been unprecedented during COVID.”
She said the case was an “ideal opportunity” for an appellate court to consider “whether the right of liberty protects a fundamental personal medical decision” of taking a COVID-19 vaccine under threat of termination of employment.
The case was brought by 11 health-care workers and dismissed by the B.C. Supreme Court in 2024, ruling that the mandates did not infringe on workers’ rights or charter freedoms.
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The court said the health orders “were reasonable in light of the information available” to the provincial health officer at the time.
The appeal court dismissed the case after the Crown brought a motion arguing mootness, Pejovic said.
She said the case would have looked at evidence that “nearly 100 percent of British Columbians were immune to COVID” during the time COVID-19 mandates continued to be enforced for health-care workers.
Pejovic argued the case would have been an opportunity for the court to decide whether it’s lawful under the Charter to restrict rights and freedoms of people who didn’t take the COVID vaccine “when they have proven that they have natural immunity to COVID.”
B.C. Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry issued an order in 2023 requiring health-care workers to be vaccinated against COVID, saying there was a “reasonable risk” of a serious impact on public health.
When the B.C. Supreme Court heard the lawsuit in November 2023, the province still had a vaccine mandate. The health workers argued that COVID-19 no longer presented “an immediate or significant threat to public health.”
They also said Henry’s order was “ineffective” and “unreasonable” on the grounds that, because of preventative measures already in place, unvaccinated health-care professionals did not pose a greater risk of passing on the virus to patients.
The Epoch Times contacted Henry’s office but did not hear back by publication time.
In her 2023 vaccine order, Henry said she was concerned that any “slippage in the level of vaccination” among health-care workers could result in “significant illness” among them, undermining the health-care system’s capacity.
Henry said it was “essential” to maintain high vaccination levels among hospital and community care workers as the “best means available by which to mitigate the risk to the health of patients, residents, clients and workers and to ensure the preparedness and resiliency of the health-care system,” both at the time and in the event of a resurgence of COVID-19.
