NB Employees File Court Request Claiming COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Is Unconstitutional | The Canadian News

An advocacy group in New Brunswick is taking legal action against the province over its COVID-19 vaccination mandate for public officials.

The group, Stand 4 Freedom New Brunswick, filed the court file on behalf of four government employees.

The deadline to get vaccinated is November 19. Government employees, including those working in health care, education, and long-term care, must show proof of complete immunization or face unpaid leave.

According to an advocacy group press release, the four applicants are challenging the mandate as “unconstitutional and therefore without force or effect.”

The four named applicants include two teachers and two Horizon Health employees.

“If we can be banned from working in public service as teachers and nurses because we reject irreversible medical interventions or refuse to disclose to the government the nature of those personal decisions, then we will no longer live in a free and equal society,” Stuart Murray, a Anglophone East School District teacher, is quoted in the press release.

“Even if we could ever theoretically justify coercing people into accepting an injection in order to keep their jobs, we certainly can’t justify it in the context of a vaccine that we know is no better than natural immunity.”

The other three applicants are Trista Michaud-Hachey, a teacher in the West Anglophone School District, Tabatha Belding, a Horizon Health RN, and Lisa Gorham, an executive assistant at Horizon Health.

Applicants claim that the vaccine mandate violates their credited rights to liberty, personal safety, personal health choices, and reasonable expectations of privacy with respect to medical information.

The accusations have not been proven in court.

The request also seeks an order for any official who is sanctioned by the mandate to be reinstated and compensated for lost wages.

Global News has reached out to the province for comment.

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