A Quebec Superior Court judge on Monday rejected a request for injunction against the province’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health-care workers, nearly two weeks after the government suspended the health order.
Justice Michel Yergeau’s 47-page decision denied the request by unvaccinated health network employees, including nurses, doctors and other workers.
The applicants weren’t able to demonstrate that the order wasn’t in the interest of the public, and he said it could enter into force even if there isn’t consensus on it.
It is not for the court, Yergeau wrote, “to rule summarily on proposals which oppose individual rights and what the elected officials consider in the public interest and which leaves room for debate.”
Earlier this month, the Quebec government abandoned its Nov. 15 deadline for health-care staff to be vaccinated or suspended without pay, because it worried the order would significantly reduce services in the overburdened system.
Instead, it required unvaccinated staff to be tested three times a week and for new hires to be fully vaccinated.
The case on its merits — whether a mandatory vaccination order is constitutional — won’t be heard until sometime in 2022, if at all.
“With regards to the investigation on the merits ? it will remain to be determined whether the questions raised by the applicants still play a useful role in requiring the attention of the court,” he wrote.
Yergeau said it’s not up to the court to interfere in a political decision, but only in the legality of the acts. If the government has taken the wrong choice to protect public health, he said, it will be up to voters to decide.
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