About 300 soldiers in the Canadian Armed Forces sued the Federal government in Federal Court, alleging breach of Charter, infringement on religious freedom, etc., with each seeking $1,000,000 in damages.
Federal Crown brought a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it did not disclose a reasonable cause of action.
Federal Court agreed and struck it entirely, not requiring a trial.
As the sub-heading to the news item below summed up:
“The 330 plaintiffs in the case each sought $1 million in damages. The judge’s ruling means they will have to pay a $5,040 legal bill instead.”
The judge agreed, concluding that the soldiers had not pled facts to support their broad allegations:
I’m glad these soldiers lost. If there is one thing militaries have learned over millennia it is to maintain hygiene and avoid disease. In the US, at least, the courts have been super-duper deferential to the military when it comes to this sort of thing (cutting hair, etc).
Yes, that’s it. You folks have the Bill of Rights; we’ve got the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As far as I can tell, they were alleging religious infringement (Charter, s 2), infringement of liberty (Charter, s 7) and unreasonable search and seizure (Charter, s 8), and maybe some other stuff.
I’m not inclined to try to track down their statement of claim to read their pleadings; the judge’s summary is good enough for me.
Coughlan wrote that while most of the plaintiffs were denied religious accommodation, none of them identified a “specific religious belief or practice in which they sincerely believe.”
Only one plaintiff, Stephen Troy Chledowski, alluded to a specific belief when he applied for religious accommodation as a “Pansexual Pagan.”
Whoever advised them to proceed with this case greatly misled them. Religious accommodation is the one of few reasons they could’ve got away without getting vaxxed, but no one was serious enough to claim that right.
I’m sure ensuring the claim for religious accommodation is more difficult than it seems but, whatever the process is, I’m confident that the first step is to… present a religious belief or practice that would be counter to getting vaxxed.
Oy. Malpractice indeed (if they even bothered to use a lawyer that is)