Bildy said she is currently facing a “deluge” of inquiries from doctors, hockey families, and university students looking for legal options amid the life-altering consequences of refusing the vaccine.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” she said. “People are desperate. They are at their wit’s end.”
Other university students Bildy represents have said their institutions told them they were “trespassing” and were banned from entering campus without vaccination proof, she said.
“It would be irresponsible and negligent to put our health care system at risk by mandating vaccines, thereby purging tens of thousands of Ontario’s frontline health care workers out of the system,” the letter said.
Bildy is concerned that a brain drain in the medical field is about to happen—particularly of doctors—as “virtually no exemptions are being granted” even though their reasons for not complying are “unique, informed, and rational.”
Hockey Dreams Dashed
A similar ordeal is playing out for kids who dream of competing in major league hockey one day, said Bildy, who was contacted by “a lot of hockey families” after the minor leagues mandated vaccination for children as young as 12.“These kids shouldn’t have to be missing out on hockey when it isn’t even mandatory for that age group to have the vaccines in order to play,” Bildy said.
She added that while she’s tried to help some families get exemptions through religious or medical grounds, it’s still an uphill task.
“They’re just getting a blanket denial [from] the hockey leagues,” she said, adding some families are pulling their kids out of the leagues while others are taking a break for the season.
“There’s just absolutely no compassion for these kids,” she said. “[The hockey leagues] are the gatekeepers. They have complete control over whether these kids will have a future in hockey in this country.”
Mandates Go Beyond ‘Any Rational Basis’
Sayeh Hassan, a staff lawyer at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, says she has received numerous requests for help from university and college students after being told by their institutions to get the shot even though their classes are held online.“Even if people are studying from home, doing it virtually, there’s still a requirement to be vaccinated, which really doesn’t have any rational basis,” Hassan told The Epoch Times.
She cited another example of an Ontario father of two young children who was pursuing a degree in mechanics but couldn’t complete the program after the college forbade him from entering the on-campus workshop because he didn’t get vaccinated.
“That’s just one person out of thousands and thousands of people who are going through similar situations, very tragic situations,” she said.
Hassan also decried the lack of medical exemptions for people who experience severe side effects to the vaccine.
“I’ve heard from a lady who was in her mid-30s, very healthy,“ she said. ”She’s a single mom of two, had her first shot, and then a couple of weeks later, started having heart problems, and she’s now on two heart medications.”
She finds it “unbelievable” that such people are not granted medical exemptions and are required to take a second dose “even after having health reactions and health conditions because of the vaccine.”
On the business side, Hassan said the Justice Centre is hearing from gym and restaurant owners who do not want to mandate the governments’ proof-of-vaccination regime for their clients.
“What’s happening with these people essentially is they’re putting their livelihoods, their businesses, at risk and standing up for what they think is the right thing—and that is not to discriminate against people based on their vaccination status.”
Ryan O’Connor, a Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in areas such as employment and appeals, says he has heard from business owners throughout the pandemic who have decided to relocate their businesses to other jurisdictions, mainly the United States.
“It’s been very difficult to operate a business with all of the public health restrictions that have been in place over the last 19 months, locally and also provincially,” he said.
“So it stands to reason that at least some persons who are subject to restrictions and mandates in the workplace might then decide to go to a jurisdiction that may be a little bit more open for business.”
O’Connor, who also advises clients on matters involving federal and provincial legislation, thinks the vaccine mandates will eventually be imposed across industries in the public as well as the private sector.
“At least there’s a signal from the province that these mandates may be temporary, but if they’re going to be temporary, then I hope that individuals would think long and hard about terminating someone’s employment,” he said.
“Because once someone loses a job, it’s a little harder to get it back.”
O’Connor stressed that instead of “maligning” individuals who seek vaccine exemptions, they should be treated with compassion and understanding.
“There are various reasons why individuals cannot be or are unable to be vaccinated: religious belief, a disability they experience, their medical status, their age, or because they wish to wait,” he said.
“Instead of being treated as expendable in the workplace, or that they should be denied access to an education, a little bit of understanding, care, and compassion will go a long way to resolving some of these issues.”
