Federal employees suspended for refusing the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine have been awarded more than half a million dollars in settlements, an Inquiry of Ministry discloses, per Blacklock’s Reporter.The documents, tabled in the House of Commons at the request of Conservative MP Ted Falk, who opposed mandatory vaccination as a breach of Charter rights, show payments totaling $509,746 in damages and compensation to employees wrongly denied legitimate exemptions. “What are the total expenditures on compensation, severance packages and settlements to employees who were impacted by the government’s requirement during the COVID-19 pandemic that federal public servants provide proof of vaccination?” asked Falk in his request for the Inquiry. Payments included $177,991 to employees at the Department of Health, $88,223 to employees at the Department of Foreign Affairs, $65,694 to employees at the Correctional Service of Canada, $33,240 to employees at Statistics Canada and $15,982 to employees at the Department of National Defence (DND). None of the employees sued.The DND compensated three employees with “damages under the Canadian Human Rights Act on grounds of discrimination based on religion,” said the Inquiry.The Treasury Board in 2021 imposed the Policy On COVID-19 Vaccination, which required 283,000 federal employees to show proof they had taken the jab.At least 2,560 workers were suspended without pay before the mandate was lifted in 2022, based on piecemeal payroll records tabled in parliament. The number of firings is unknown.Falk in 2022 asked the Commons for an independent judicial inquiry into federal COVID-19 management. “Canadians will never get the answers they deserve if the ministers who perpetuated or promoted many of the failures, abuses and violations of Charter rights that we have seen over the past two years are the same ones tasked with reviewing their own government’s response,” said Falk. “As I reflect on the past two years, there are too many questions. These are questions that have never been answered by government and in many cases no one in government or media has even had the courage to publicly ask them.”“Media failed in their objectivity to ask questions, choosing instead to parrot government talking points as truth, sowing fear and division as they quietly pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars in government subsidies. They refused to allow different points of view. They did not ask the tough questions and they silenced or mocked anyone who did.”“Canadians should not need to fear repercussions in their workplaces, their communities, their professional associations, online or by the media. However that is what happened.”
