COVID-19 Shots: An Important Canadian Court Decision
Update
A note of clarification: some people have misinterpreted this court decision to be an older one that was subsequently overturned in the court of appeal. That was a different case; one of a father that wanted his two children to get COVID-19 shots against the will of the mother. The ruling in this more recent case took the decision from the court of appeal into account and dismissed it for several reasons; see paragraph #602, onwards, of this more recent decision to see these arguments.
This is an important decision made in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice (in the country of Canada). A mother wanted her three children to get COVID-19 shots. The father asked for the court to allow the decision to be made in a future case based on the overall weight of the scientific evidence. The mother asked the court to take judicial notice to overrule the father. The court ruled that the father and his children should get their day in court.
It is refreshing to see a healthy dose of common sense in a decision like this. It throws out the concept of judicial notice, which has been abused in the context of COVID-19. One of the arguments for not taking judicial notice was that public health messaging has represented a continuously moving set of goalposts. This decision also shows respect to the Constitution.
So, it looks like this decision has set up the potential for a rare future case; one that aims to make a decision based on the overall scientific evidence as opposed to legal technicalities.
Have a look at the decision at this link.
A friend of mine in Toronto was in a custody battle with the mother of his 4 year old child, this past summer. There were a few points of contention including that he didn’t want their child to have the covid vax and he wanted to homeschool the child. The mother wanted the child vaxxed and in school. The mother won the part about school but the father won the vax part thankfully. I was really surprised at this, but so relieved!
I am really saddened to see families torn apart by this. I can hardly understand why the parent would push the issue after their kids have likely gone along fine without the shots by now. It's madness and as someone from a broken family myself, I can say that it's not fair on the kids at all.