Federal Court Approves Lawsuit Challenging Travel Vaccine Mandate

January 10, 2025 TruthUSA

A federal court has ruled that a lawsuit challenging the Liberal government’s now-suspended COVID-19 travel vaccine mandate can proceed to trial, after previous legal challenges were dismissed as moot.

The lawsuit was initiated by businessmen Karl Harrison and Shaun Rickard, who sought judicial review in December 2021. They were the first to challenge the constitutionality of the travel restrictions that prevented millions of unvaccinated Canadians from traveling within the country.

Their initial legal challenge, which was linked with similar legal actions by former Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford and People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier, was deemed moot by a federal court judge in October 2022.

Justice Jocelyne Gagné stated that there was no active dispute to resolve since the government had suspended the mandate in June 2022. The travel mandate was initially introduced in October 2021.

Despite the Federal Court of Appeal upholding Gagné’s decision in November 2023, Harrison and Rickard pursued a different path. They filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages under various sections of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Associate Judge Trent Horne allowed Harrison’s claim under Section 6(1) of the charter to proceed, but not Rickard’s, as Rickard was a permanent resident at the time of the vaccine mandate.

Judge Horne permitted the Section 15 claim on equality rights to proceed, even though vaccination status is not officially recognized as one of the protected grounds.

“While the chances of having vaccination status recognized as an analogous ground for the purposes of section 15 may be remote in light of the current jurisprudence, I am not satisfied that such an argument is bound to fail if the plaintiffs allege that vaccination would constitute an unacceptable cost to their personal identity, or would tear asunder immutable or even deeply held beliefs,” wrote Horne.

Sam Presvelos, the lawyer representing Harrison and Rickard, is appealing the Federal Court’s decision to dismiss claims under Section 7 and Section 12 of the charter.

The Institute for Justice and Freedom, co-founded by Harrison, mentioned in a statement that the appeal process could take several months and warned of a potential further appeal to the Supreme Court by the attorney general if successful.

“We need to ensure that this can never happen again,” Harrison commented on the travel mandate in a statement to The Epoch Times. “The court will have to decide whether the unvaccinated are a protected class in Canada.”

Former Transport Minister Omar Alghabra and then-Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos have supported the vaccine mandate, citing its positive impact on reducing the spread of COVID-19 among travelers, workers, and communities. The Justice Department was reached out to for a response.

Government data suggests that the mandate had minimal effect on virus transmission, as the Omicron variant affected both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

Noé Chartier contributed to this report.

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