The federal government suspended its vaccine requirement for those who work in the public service in June 2022, but is nonetheless facing legal action over the measure at home as well as abroad, with a former employee of the Canadian Embassy in Poland seeking compensation over how she was treated.
“The vaccine mandate was truly unfortunate for Canadians but of no relevance whatsoever for Polish staff of the embassy. Any actions resulting from it towards Polish citizens like myself are illegal, and that is why I went to court," Karolina Janiak said in an interview.
Janiak had worked as locally engaged staff at the embassy in Warsaw since 2005, her last role being trade commissioner.
The Liberal government imposed the vaccine mandate on federally regulated workplaces in October 2021, including diplomatic missions, but Janiak sought a medical exemption to avoid the injections.
However, before she was able to secure an exemption she was put on leave without pay in December 2021. She resigned in February 2022 in order to secure new employment.
“Being awarded and praised for years for my service, and afterwards being treated like that and coming close to my fifties, is an earthquake,” she said. “Being a single mom with a mortgage, and with inflation now ... I had to redesign myself.”
The Epoch Times reviewed Janiak’s non-public court filings as well as internal communications between her and her Global Affairs Canada (GAC) superiors, and between the parties’ respective lawyers.
The claim filed by Janiak in April 2022 with the District Court for Warsaw-Śródmieście argues that under Polish law employers cannot mandate vaccination against COVID-19 and that they cannot unilaterally place employees on leave without pay.
Diplomatic missions operate under the Vienna Convention, which grants a set of immunities to the foreign country, but the claim asserts that locally engaged staff are protected by domestic labour laws.
Janiak is requesting approximately $40,000 in compensation, plus interest.
She says the embassy has no immunity in matters of labour relations and could be sentenced by the court, but it would have immunity on the execution of the verdict and hence could refuse to provide compensation.
GAC spokesperson Patricia Skinner says the department is aware of the lawsuit but will not comment further as the issue it before the courts.
‘Universal Nature’
The Canadian government’s position is that Janiak is responsible for the loss of her job because she didn’t follow a policy that needs to be universally applied.“Your failure to abide by the Policy and the resulting decision by the Embassy to place you on administrative leave are grounds entirely attributable to you,” the government’s attorney Agnieszka Godusławska wrote in a March 2022 letter.
Godusławska wrote that the policy principles established by the government have a “universal nature and are binding upon all mission staff in all countries without exception.”
She said the sole purpose of applying the policy is to protect the health and life of embassy staff, guests, and clients.
The belief that mandatory vaccination would fulfill this purpose was also expressed by then Canadian Ambassador to Poland, Leslie Scanlon, when informing Janiak she was being placed on leave without pay from Dec. 14, 2021.
“While it is clear that vaccines are the best way to bring this pandemic to an end, I appreciate that not everyone can get vaccinated. This is exactly why the Policy contains an accommodation clause,” wrote Scanlon.
Janiak had told her supervisor, Counsellor Francis Dorsemaine, of repeated attempts to secure a medical exemption due to her health concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccination, highlighting in a Dec. 9 email seven different medical appointments from October to December 2021, and notifying him of an upcoming series of examinations starting on Jan. 4.
Dorsemaine had told her in a previous email that Dec. 9 was a “hard deadline” for submitting the paperwork to request a medical exemption.
Challenge in Canada
A legal challenge against the federal workforce vaccine mandate is also underway in Canada.A Quebec-based group of public servants known as “Fonctionnaires unis” had its first hearing on Nov. 28, with further hearings not yet scheduled to take place in 2023.
The trial is being held at the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations Board in Ottawa.
Bernard Desgagné, the group’s coordinator, told The Epoch Times he wasn’t aware of locally engaged staff abroad challenging the mandate, but that some GAC employees are involved in the lawsuit.
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