Opinion: Compulsory vaccination would cross a red line

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Public sentiment towards Canadians refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has taken a nasty turn of late. This trend must stop now, or Canada risks opening a dark chapter.

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Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said people are “angry” at unvaccinated Canadians. On Tuesday, Quebec announced a fine for unvaccinated adults. New Brunswick’s premier recently commented that if the unvaccinated cannot be persuaded to get vaccinated and outbreaks continue, governments may need to move to the “next level”.

The next level? Beyond the extraordinary list of restrictions currently placed on unvaccinated Canadians, mediated by vaccine passports, what would the “next level” look like? The answer appears to be mandatory vaccination with penalties for non-compliance. Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s health minister, recently said that he envisions mandatory vaccination policies in this country.

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It’s fair to feel frustrated with people who, based on their embrace of blatant falsehoods, refuse to get vaccinated. Frankly, it’s outrageous. But the change in attitude towards Canadians who are not vaccinated, a change that is being pushed by our political leaders, must be denounced unequivocally and in the strongest terms.

If we make vaccination mandatory, Canada will have betrayed itself. It is a fundamental principle of our society that medical interventions should be voluntary. This principle is violated when the State makes vaccination a condition for basic participation in society and sanctions noncompliance. This issue raises profound considerations regarding human dignity and bodily integrity. It should be a red line.

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This red line is reason enough to rule out compulsory vaccination against COVID-19, but this policy also seems unnecessary. More than 80 percent of all Canadians aged five and over are vaccinated. The unvaccinated are a small portion of our population, one that will shrink as more children are vaccinated.

It is one thing, for public health and the common good, to temporarily make vaccination a condition for discretionary activities like dining out or attending a sports game. But we will be sailing entirely different waters if we turn unvaccinated Canadians into today’s lepers and make vaccination a condition for meaningful membership in our society. These uncharted waters are treacherous and must be avoided.

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Fortunately, the change from a pandemic to an endemic seems to be increasingly on the horizon. Progress towards that milestone may be accelerated by the development of Omicron. The eventual transition to endemic will make the labels of vaccinated and unvaccinated much less powerful and polarizing than they are now. We should all look forward to the time when this way of dividing society is a relic of the past.

Fundamental rights and freedoms have often been the subject of lip service by governments as they severely restrict civil liberties again and again during the pandemic. Many of these restrictions have been justified, but not all. And, due to the relative invisibility of the Constitution, we have become progressively desensitized. Vaccine passports were unheard of a year ago. At the time, compulsory vaccination would have been condemned as unbridled totalitarianism.

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This policy has yet to be spoken that way, in no uncertain terms. It is worrying that prominent politicians and a growing number of Canadians seem increasingly comfortable with this idea. Punishing the unvaccinated will not solve the pandemic, but it will surely cause significant and lasting damage to the society we hold dear.

Balance and common sense have been in short supply at many points in the pandemic. Undoubtedly, many of those who are not vaccinated are guilty in this regard. But, as recent rhetoric about them has revealed, many of those vaccinated are also to blame.

Brian Bird is an assistant professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia. .

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