(LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian federal arbitrator has ruled in favor of a VIA Rail locomotive engineer who was fired for not getting the COVID shots as a condition of employment, saying the government-owned passenger rail line did not have “sufficient cause” to terminate him.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, Graham Clarke, who was the case arbitrator, wrote that “VIA did not have just and sufficient cause” to fire Louison Tessier, who worked as a VIA engineer for 19 years.
Noted Clarke, VIA Rail of its “own initiative” decided to add “disciplinary consequences for non-vaccinated employees.”
This, said Clarke, meant that VIA Rail breached the Canada Labour Code over Tessier’s COVID jab status.
Tessier was fired on January 24, 2022, however, through the help of his union, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, he was successful in fighting back against his termination.
According to the Teamsters contact, no employee could be fired without a “fair and impartial hearing.”
Clarke said that at the time of Tessier’s firing, there were no new recommendations from health authorities relating to COVID shots and workers.
“VIA never explained why on January 24 it was necessary to immediately terminate Mr. Tessier’s employment rather than keep him on leave without pay,” noted Clarke.
The arbitrator added that VIA’s COVID jab mandate was “unreasonable” and then ordered that VIA rehire Tessier and remove from his file “any reference to the termination of employment.”
As it stands, Tessier and his union are negotiating compensation for time lost with VIA Rail.
In November of 2021, the Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau put in place a COVID workplace jab mandate for all federal workers. This policy was suspended in June of 2022.
A member of Trudeau’s cabinet, Attorney General David Lametti, claimed at the time that mandating one to take a COVID shot as a condition of employment was done on a “solid legal footing.”
The case involving Tessier and VIA rail shows otherwise.
Records compiled together, as noted by Blacklock’s Reporter, show that no less than 2,560 federal employees were suspended for not taking the COVID shots.
Last week, Canadian vaccinologist Dr. Byram Bridle, known for speaking out against COVID jab mandates said that anyone in Ontario who was fired or not allowed to attend school because they chose not to get the COVID jabs should consider getting legal help to launch a wrongful dismissal case, in light of recent comments made by the province’s top doctor.
Some federal agencies, such as the Bank of Canada, suspended its workers who did not have the jabs, even if they were working from home.
Now largely considered to be unfair, COVID jab mandates led to the unprecedented display of public resistance in the Freedom Convoy of early 2022, which resulted in Trudeau using the Emergencies Act to crush the protests.
Beyond just a legal footing, many have also pointed out that COVID jab mandates were made without scientific rationale either.
Namely because COVID jab trials have never produced evidence that the vaccines stop infection or transmission, and experts like Dr. Peter McCullough have consistently warned the shots carry many potentially serious risks.
Moreover, as reported by LifeSiteNews, worldwide data also shows there has been a large surge in what analysts and experts refer to as “excess deaths” since the rollout of the vaccines when compared to pre-COVID times.
The concerning data comes from Ireland, England, mainland Europe, America and Canada.