(LifeSiteNews) – A former attorney general for British Columbia said a recent case in which an arbitrator ruled in favor of union members who worked for courier giant Purolator but lost their jobs because they chose to not get the COVID shots could mean the end to healthcare worker jab mandates in the province.
According to Suzanne Anton, who was justice minister under British Columbia’s former Liberal government Premier Christy Clark from 2013 to 2017, the Purolator ruling is a potential “game changer.”
Arbitrator Nicholas Glass, as per a 196-page ruling made on December 14, stated that “the grievances complained that the grievors were improperly terminated or placed on involuntary unpaid leaves of absence.” He ruled the vaccine-free workers must receive compensation as the mandates were not “valid.”
As it stands, British Columbia under its NDP government is the only province in Canada forcing healthcare workers to have the COVID shots. According to Anton, the Purolator ruling could eventually help all the healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, in the province who were fired because they chose not to get the shots.
Hundreds of British Columbia healthcare workers are suing the provincial health officer, Bonnie Henry, via a class action, for the province’s COVID shot mandates, which do not allow them to work.
According to the suit, Henry claimed that the “vaccination is safe, very effective, and the single most important preventive measure for health professionals […] to protect patients, residents and clients, and the health and personal care workforce, from […] COVID-19.”
However, the lawsuit points out the adverse side effects of taking the jab, including blood clots. It further cited a study that revealed that 5,770 out of 18,198 individuals (26.7%) who took the shot experienced an adverse reaction.
Anton, as she noted to The Epoch Times, said that Glass’ ruling was a “very well-written decision and it is the first time that a decision maker has gone down this road of, first of all, ordering compensation, that I know of.”
She said the ruling calls into question the “British Columbia Public Health Officer,” adding that the healthcare workers have public support, as people she talks to “are really surprised that they’re still fired.”
The union, which was challenging Purolator, had brought in a top expert in the field of immunology to help the workers’ case. On behalf of its grievors, it argued that the COVID jabs efficacy was diminished after the Omicron variant became prevalent in the early weeks of 2022 and the policy was not needed.
As per the ruling, Purolator has been ordered to give compensation to its hourly employees who did not get the COVID shots, which includes lost benefits and wages, between July 1, 2022, and May 1, 2023.
Purolator has also been ordered to give compensation to owner-operators beginning from the first date they lost income.
Purolator ruling will send ‘shock waves through the system,’ former AG says
Anton observed that the province’s healthcare worker COVID jab mandate is “political” and that the province’s Minister of Health, Adrian Dix, is “behind [Dr. Henry] all of the way.”
Henry, as early as yesterday, has still defended the healthcare COVID jab mandates as needed.
When writing in a guest column in Business in Vancouver (BIV), Anton observed that healthcare workers might soon “get their relief,” adding, that “The Purolator decision can only help.”
She also noted how the Purolator case will send “shock waves through the system,”
“It’s been my view for some time that mandate issues need to be properly litigated, and this case shows the startling results which can develop when a well-informed arbitrator or judge has good evidence to work from,” Anton noted.
On September 15, 2021, Purolator, like many Canadian companies around that time, mandated that its workers get the COVID shot to be allowed to its workplaces. Workers were given until December 25, 2021, to comply, with the full policy coming into force on January 10, 2022.
COVID vaccine mandates, which came from provincial governments with the support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government, split Canadian society. The mRNA shots themselves have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children.
The jabs also have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies. As a result of this, many Catholics and other Christians refused to take them.