Ontario Arbitrator Finds University’s Vaccine Mandates ‘Reasonable,’ Despite Not Being Required by Health Authority

A health care worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a UHN COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Toronto on Jan. 7, 2021. Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

A labour arbitrator has found it “reasonable” for Wilfrid Laurier University to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates and continue to enforce them even when they’re no longer required by the local health authority.

Mark Wright, an arbitrator in Toronto, has ruled that Laurier University has the “management rights” to mandate vaccine policy for all students, staff, and faculty, and to carry on with it even if the local health authority had revoked the requirement.