The COVID mandates violate certain rights and freedoms from our Canadian Charter (this is expected when a situation is deemed an emergency).
The rights and freedoms directly affected by the mandates:
- Freedom of the press and other media (censorship, shadow bans, cancel culture) (sect. 2.b)
- Freedom of assembly (gathering limits, vaccine passports, “bubbles”) (sect. 2.c)
- Right to leave Canada (Vaccine passports) (sect. 6.1)
- Rights to life, liberty, and security of the person (Some say vaccine requirement for employment/ livelihood is a violation, others say it’s a choice with reasonable consequences) (sect. 7)
Section 1 of the Charter states that we have “reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified” – this justification is determined by the Oakes test:
- Is the law urgent and necessary?
- Proportionality analysis (action matches goal – ex. don’t use a chainsaw to cut an apple)
- Does the violation have basis in the law? (Needs to make sense for your purpose)
- Minimal impact on the violated right (Do the least necessary)
- Acceptable proportionate effects (Is the price too high?)
Lawmakers took their direction from Health Canada, who deemed the measures necessary, appropriate, and reasonable.
The federal government imposes the vaccine and mask mandate for planes and trains.
The provincial governments impose the rest of the public health restrictions (vaccine and mask requirements for public spaces, social distancing, curfew, gathering limits, etc).
Each province and territory also has a version of a Public Health Act, enabling public health authorities to take action when the safety of public health is at risk.
Dig deeper:
- Side 1: Mandates pass Oakes test
- Side 2: Mandates fail Oakes test
