You’re invited! Join LifeSite in celebrating 25 years of pro-life and pro-family reporting at our anniversary Gala August 17th in Naples, Florida. Tickets and sponsorships can be purchased by clicking here.
(LifeSiteNews) – In a decision that lawyers are blasting as an affront to freedoms, an Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench judge ruled Tuesday that one’s constitutional rights do not apply to persons seeking organ transplants.
The legal decision comes from a case in court by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) concerning 57-year-old Sheila Annette Lewis, who has a terminal condition known as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
In March 2021, Lewis was told that she would no longer be on the wait list for organ transplantation unless she submitted to the COVID shots.
In her legal affidavit, Lewis noted that getting the “vaccine offends my conscience.”
“I ought to have the choice about what goes into my body, and a lifesaving treatment cannot be denied to me because I chose not to take an experimental treatment for a condition,” Lewis noted.
Allison Pejovic, JCCF lawyer and legal counsel, said that “the Court’s decision is deeply disappointing.”
“AHS has an obligation to ensure that doctors that are carrying out their duties within the provincially funded transplant program are upholding the Charter, and it seems that the court has effectively ruled that AHS can contract out of its Charter obligations,” she added.
In Alberta, organ transplants are funded by Alberta Health Services (AHS), with both the program and health authority having policies in place that mandate COVID shots before transplant surgeries.
The JCCF said Pejovic was clear in that “AHS and the treating doctors, either made the policies, were aware of the policies, or enforced the policies.”
According to the JCCF, Justice R.P. Belzil found that Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to AHS, in this instance “the proposed AHS policy, which has not been completed, mirrors the recommendations of the treating physicians which are exercising clinical judgment.”
However, the JCCF said that neither the “treating physicians’ nor AHS’ Covid vaccination policies for transplant patients are written, but both were communicated to Ms. Lewis by her treating physicians.”
The JCCF noted that the evidence “in fact showed that one of the treating physicians advised Ms. Lewis in November 2021 that AHS required Covid vaccination for transplant candidates.”
According to the JCCF, Lewis brought an application “in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench asking that the court uphold her Charter-protected right to conscience, bodily autonomy, and freedom to choose (the COVID jabs) without coercion.”
The JCCF said the case is under a publication ban that prohibits the disclosure of the names of the doctors involved, the hospital, and city where the transplant program is located.
Currently in Alberta, both Calgary and Edmonton offer transplant services at medical facilities. A September 2021 report by True North appears to indicate the location of the hospital involved, and the type of transplant, after news first broke of the legal case.
Vaccinologist: Benefits of getting jabs ‘so small’ it was ‘unethical to require her to get the Covid’ shot
The JCCF presented as part of its argument expert reports from two immunologists, Dr. Bonnie Mallard and Dr. Byram Bridle.
Bridle is a vaccinologist who has spoken out against COVID jab mandates.
The immunologists’ oral testimony said the JCCF “illustrated that the Covid vaccines are still in clinical trials and will be in clinical trials until late 2022 at the earliest, and that the peer reviewed research and raw scientific data lead them to seriously question the safety and efficacy of the Covid vaccines as compared to traditional vaccines that have been around for decades.”
Also filed was an expert report from Dr. Benjamin Turner, a surgeon with a master’s degree in health Care ethics. The JCCF noted that Turner “testified that the benefit of vaccination for Ms. Lewis was so small that it was unethical to require her to get the Covid vaccine prior to her transplant.”
“Justice Belzil declined to address the scientific and ethical arguments advanced because he determined that the Charter did not apply to the treating physicians,” the JCCF said.
The JCCF will review the ruling and decide at a later time whether or not to appeal the decision.
Virtually all Canadian provinces had in place COVID mandates for healthcare workers. While these mandates have been dropped except for British Columbia, many provinces are desperately now looking to rehire the unvaccinated workers.
All COVID vaccines approved for use in Canada are still experimental, with clinical trials not being completed until 2023.