Attorney Natalia Manole says that the rights of healthcare workers are being violated and that patients will pay the price in the end.
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The superior court of Quebec will decide whether the province’s forced vaccination mandate is a violation of the rights of health workers.
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Attorney Natalia Manole is asking the court to rule on a safeguard order, an urgent legal filing, to temporarily halt the province’s suspension without pay of all unvaccinated healthcare workers. Manole will file the request Tuesday in hopes of arguing the case Thursday, the day before the measure takes effect.
If the safeguard order is granted, Manole will argue on the merits of the case at a later date in hopes of obtaining a court order suspending the province’s order. Manole said he represents about 150 healthcare workers who say they don’t want to get vaccinated but feel they can still safely perform their jobs and limit the spread of the virus.
“It is a violation of the rights of health workers and this decree also goes against the public interest,” Manole said. “There is already a lack of health personnel. You can’t stop (15,000) people from going to work on Friday. It will be chaos and just collapse. The situation is already critical. This situation is going to create a disaster ”.
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Manole said the healthcare workers she represents say they are willing to be tested regularly, and she intends to show that regular testing is more effective in preventing the spread of the virus than mandatory vaccination mandates, especially since vaccines disappear or may be ineffective. .
“It is not reasonable,” he added. “A decree is supposed to be made in the public interest; our position is that this is not in the public interest. “
He added that the government has not produced any proof that the vaccine mandate would actually help prevent the spread of the virus more efficiently than regular testing of workers.
Unvaccinated health workers were also supported by hundreds of protesters who marched through the streets of downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon. They asked the province to repeal the mandatory vaccination mandate.
On Twitter, Health Minister Christian Dubé reiterated the government’s commitment to institute the vaccine mandate. He said the province is undergoing a major reorganization of its 330,000 healthcare workers to alleviate a shortage of approximately 15,000 workers who are currently not fully vaccinated and will be suspended without pay starting Friday.
Reference-montrealgazette.com