TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) – Two workers from a Toronto area Hospital who chose not to get the COVID shots and were then fired from their jobs were wrongfully terminated, an arbitrator ruled.
In a ruling issued March 1, Labour arbitrator Jasbir Parmar, stated the Humber River Hospital in Toronto “did not have cause” to fire part-time hospital clerical staff Stacy Hughes and Marisol Sanchez.
“While the grievors’ decision not to be vaccinated meant they were not following the hospital’s policy, their refusal to receive the vaccine cannot reasonably be deemed as insubordination or other punishable behavior,” Parmar ruled.
“I find the hospital did not have cause to terminate the grievors’ employment, whether on disciplinary grounds or otherwise.”
Hughes had worked for the hospital since 2017 and Marisol had worked for them since 2016. Both refused to comply with the hospital’s mandatory COVID jab policy, according to legal documents.
The hospital had enacted the mandate in December 2021 and all staff had until January 17, 2022, to submit proof they had had the shots. Employees who did not comply with the mandate, noted the hospital policy at the time, were “subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
Hughes and Sanchez were placed on a two-week unpaid leave of absence for not complying with the jab mandate and were told they have until February 3, 2022, to get the shots or face being fired for good. When both did not comply with the mandate, they were fired.
Teamsters Local Union No. 419 had worked on their behalf to fight the firings. While the union never contested the fact there was a COVID jab mandate in place, it noted it “does not concede that the hospital’s policy, in its entirety, is reasonable.”
“The union submits that no discipline is appropriate because, based on long-standing, well-established legal principles, employees cannot be disciplined for exercising their right not to consent to medical treatment and/or the disclosure of private medical information to the Hospital,” the legal documents read.
Parmar noted that the hospital’s COVID jab policy, although it was in line with Ontario’s COVID jab mandate, which allowed for employees to undergo regular testing, it went over and above the province’s mandate as a result of removing the testing option.
“Furthermore, the union submits that the hospital did not have cause, in the specific circumstances of this case, to terminate the grievors’ employment on the basis of non-culpable grounds,” wrote Parmar, who then concluded “the grievances should be upheld.”
“I find the hospital has not established the grievors’ engaged in culpable conduct warranting disciplinary action. I also find the hospital was not justified in terminating the grievors’ employment on non-culpable grounds.”
Draconian COVID mandates, including those surrounding the experimental mRNA vaccines, were imposed by both the provincial Progressive Conservative government of Ontario under Premier Doug Ford, as well as the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In April 2021, the Ontario provincial government once again increased its COVID measures and declared a state of emergency over rising cases of the virus. It then put in place a complete ban on all outdoor gatherings that, in effect, made peaceful protests illegal in the province.
Many recent rulings have gone in favor of those who chose to not get the shots and were fired from their jobs as a result.
COVID vaccine mandates, which came from provincial governments with the support of 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.