Five Western University students tried to prevent the school from getting vaccinated and strengthening the shots, but the Ontario Superior Court recently rejected the lawsuit.
Provincial Court ruled that Western, as an independent institution, has the right to carry out its own vaccine tasks.
Source: grantme.ca
Judge Kelly Tranquilli said in a written ruling that Western can manage its own affairs separately from its provinces, and collecting personal health data from faculty and students is the way it implements its vaccination policy.
"Collecting vaccine proofs is the way to implement and execute vaccination policies or tasks. This court considers that policy is a product of Western's broad autonomy," she said.
Source: Western University
The five students are Simon Hawke, Tiana Gleason, Michael Puzzo, James Donalds and Ashanté Camara. They claim that by collecting students' personal medical information, Western University violated the Freedom of Information and Privacy Protection Act (FIPPA) and believed that under Article 38 (2), this does not belong to a "legitimate authorization activity."
They want to issue a ban that prevents Western University from requiring students to provide COVID-19 vaccination certificates to sign up for classes, attend campus events "or for any other purpose" and destroy existing personal vaccine data they have collected so far from the early stages of the pandemic.
Source: CBC
Students and lawyers from The Democracy Fund (TDF) filed a permanent injunction with a London court on September 7.
The civil liberties organization, founded last year, said it supports "the justice of Canadians, whose civil liberties have been violated by government lockdowns and other public policies to deal with the pandemic." TDF financed the legal challenge on behalf of these students.
Source: CBC
Judge said that the policy was "not mandatory."
Students also argued that Western University's policies are coercive. Judge Tranquilli disagreed, noting that the university does give students a choice, but they are responsible for the results.
She wrote: "Western University forces them to choose between two options, and if they don't like it, it's their choice. Each choice has consequences, and that's the essence of choice."
Source: CBC
Tranquilli said that although the province has canceled regulatory tasks, Ontario Chief Health Officer (CMHO) encouraged post-secondary institutions to decide to continue implementing vaccination policies as part of their overall sustained health and safety requirements.
She added that how other organizations, including various institutions, decide to manage their businesses does not affect Western University’s vaccine policy.
"Western University's policy conclusions this year are reasonable, partly because of the current recommendations of CMHO," she said.
Source: CBC
"Western University formally reviewed its policy for the 2021-2022 academic year. Its review includes consultations with university stakeholders and other universities."
"Importantly, Western University solicited opinions from internal and external subject matter experts in several different medical disciplines for advice on issues such as the forecast of COVID-19 transmission rate in the fall."
Although she understands the students are surrounding Western The University announced the frustration of the policy after students paid for their fall tuition, but she noted that the university’s decision was made within the time frame before the policy expires on September 7.
The court ruled that Western University's policy did not violate FIPPA, adding that it could not issue bans on future vaccine missions, as it would depend on the nature of future public health guidelines.
Western University has extended the deadline for booster shots to January 9, 2023, citing Health Canada approved Moderna's latest bivalent vaccine against the Omicron variant.
