An Alberta Health Services employee will be allowed to appeal for EI benefits she was initially denied due to the alleged “misconduct” of refusing a COVID-19 vaccine..Amanda Michaud, a biomedical equipment technologist with Alberta Health Services in Grande Prairie, was put on "unpaid leave" in late fall 2021 after she refused the COVID-19 vaccination mandated by her employer. Her application for EI benefits was denied. .On Nov. 9, 2022, the General Division of the Canada Employment Insurance Commission ruled Michaud committed “misconduct by” refusing the vaccine. .The EI Commission also summarily denied her an appeal. The Department of Employment and Social Development Act, which came into effect June 29, 2021, stated “[t]he General Division must summarily dismiss an appeal if it is satisfied that it has no reasonable chance of success”..That section was repealed Dec. 5, 2022. The new law gave 90 days for appeals to be made that had previously been dismissed under the old statute..James Kitchen, lawyer for Amanda Michaud, filed to overturn the dismissal of the appeal, claiming there had been errors in facts and law in the previous decision. The Social Security Tribunal of Canada’s Appeal Division ruled in favour of Michaud, who is now free to appeal to the SST General Division again..“The General Division said her case was hopeless and therefore refused to even hear it. The EI Commission even agreed that was wrong at law … and the Appeal Division agreed with us. Amanda's case must go back to the General Division to be heard on the merits,” Kitchen told the Western Standard by email.."Thousands of Canadians, including many of my clients, have been unlawfully denied their EI benefits after being let go from their jobs for exercising their right to decline the COVID vaccines. I am honoured to represent Ms. Michaud as she continues to hold the EI Commission legally accountable for withholding EI benefits from unvaccinated Canadians on the absurd basis they lost their jobs due to their own ‘misconduct’ by refusing an ineffective and experimental medical intervention.".Michaud returned to work January 2022 after AHS allowed people to return to work if they submitted to regular testing. A policy change two months later ended the requirement as well. This month she marks 15 years of employment with Alberta Health.
