Negotiating Vaccine Exemptions

Suggestions for obtaining vaccine exemptions for healthcare workers or students entering post secondary education in any field for which vaccines are required.

Thank you for contacting Vaccine Choice Canada with your vaccine exemption question.
First, you need to know that private institutions can make any rules they wish regarding vaccination. Even for public institutions, there are no clearly defined federal or provincial laws that prevent them from making arbitrary and unfair rules about vaccination. As well, there is no law that protects a person’s right to education or employment if they choose to reject vaccine demands by an employer or educational institution. Some institutions adopt a ‘my way or the highway’ policy which leaves the person with only two choices, a) accept the vaccination policy, or b) walk away from their planned course of education or employment.
Healthcare workers and students must negotiate their own vaccine exemptions individually using the few tools that are available to them. This means writing a letter to the institution informing them that the worker/student objects to the vaccine policies being imposed, and seeks an exemption based on the legal and Constitutional guarantees outlined below. In order to assist, at the end of our letter we include a form designed and used successfully by a college student in the health field. You may use this form, or modify it to your requirements, or translate it into French if you wish.
According to Canadian Medical Law, every person has the right to refuse medical treatment that carries a risk of injury and/or death – which vaccines certainly do. Consent can be given only if it’s based upon full information about the risks and benefits of such treatment, ie it must be what is known as ‘Informed Consent’
This is the most important ethical standard broadly implemented in medicine and should be available to every human being, including health care workers and students entering their chosen field of study. It’s particularly worrisome that the medical field would ask its own members to violate Informed Consent protections against themselves. Canadian Medical Law also says that when coercion is used or a treatment is forced upon a person, it is called a “battery” – as in ‘assault and battery’.
The book, Canadian Medical Law – Introduction for Physicians, Nurses and Other Health Care Professionals, by Barney Sneiderman, John O. Irvine, Philip H. Osborne – Second Edition, 1995.  Carswell Thompson Professional Publishing, is an extensive commentary on Informed Consent.
And beyond this is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees every person, “security of the person” and the right to “freedom of religion and conscience”.  In other words, every individual has the right to protect themselves from unwanted medical interference, and to exercise free will in matters concerning their beliefs or religion. Find more about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms at http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html
The Quarantine Regulations of Canada, 2006, http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/C.R.C.,_c._1368.pdf The interpretation of the terminology within the Regulations clearly define conveyance and traveler to mean entry/exit across Canadian borders.  Regulations do NOT give the unjust powers of forced vaccination.
We urge you to find out what Laws are in effect in your province.  For example, in Ontario, the Health Care Consent Act defines the meaning of Consent, and clearly states that consent obtained under duress is fraudulent. http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_96h02_e.htm#BK12
And lastly, you need to find your vaccination records if you have any, and get clear about which vaccines you have received up until now.  You can also have antibody titre tests done to determine if you have circulating antibodies to any of the so-called vaccine-preventable diseases.
We’ve seen nurses lose their job because they refuse to accept MMR vaccine, and student nurses unable to finish their education because they are barred from doing their practicum if they refuse to submit to vaccines. Many are laid off without pay for refusing flu shots. These draconian penalties are a direct contradiction of protections granted to Canadians as articulated in Canadian Medical Law and Charter guarantees.
As an individual, it is extremely difficult to go against the grain and challenge institutions and employers. We urge nurses in particular to organize with others and fight against these coercive policies.  We also urge you and others to put pressure on your union(s) and get Informed Consent protections entrenched in your contract(s).
Until health workers and students across the country form lobby groups advocating for Informed Consent protections for themselves, the situation you’re facing will be repeated over and over again.  There is strength and hope in numbers and people need to work together to protect their own health from these coercive policies.
Please let us know what you find in your research and the outcome for you of these various avenues we suggest.
Vaccine Choice Canada
info@vaccinechoicecanada.com
Below is a form designed and used successfully by a college student in the health field. You may use this form, or modify it to your requirements, or translate it into French if you wish.

Statement of Conscience or Religious Belief Affidavit

I, _______________________________________________
Address __________________________________________
Date of Birth: (year) ________ (month) ___________ (day) ___________
School/Employer _________________________________________________________
make an oath or solemnly affirm and say as follows:
The conditions/requirements for immunization mandated by my school/employer to submit to ( ……………. ) vaccine(s) conflict with my sincerely held convictions based on my religion or conscience. The Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms guarantees my right to freedom of religion or conscience and my right to “security of the person”. Canadian Medical Law affirms my right to exercise Informed Consent and to refuse invasive medical procedures based on risk assessment. Forced vaccination violates my basic rights as a Canadian citizen.
I understand that the Medical Officer of Health may order that I be excluded from school/work if there is an outbreak or immediate risk of an outbreak of a disease in the school/workplace that I attend where the following have not been received:
1. A statement of immunization or other satisfactory evidence of immunization
2. A statement of medical exemption stating that immunization is unnecessary because of evidence of immunity
Sworn and Solemnly Affirmed before me
At the (city, town, municipality) _______________________________of
_________________________________ in the Province of _________________,
_______________________________________
Signature of student/employee
this __________day of ________, 20________
______________________________________
A Commissioner, etc.
How to Get the Statement of Conscience or Religious Belief Affidavit Signed:

• A Commissioner of Oath is available at all municipal offices (fees may apply), as well as some MP/MPP offices (no fees apply). Call ahead as some offices require appointments. Identification will be required.
• A Notary Public or a Justice of the Peace can also sign or stamp your affidavit. You would need to contact a legal office, and fees will apply.