(LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian labor board has ruled in favor of a Christian man who refused to comply with a workplace COVID shot mandate due to his objection that the shots used aborted babies’ cell lines in their development. The man was denied a religious exemption and was suspended from his job.
In a recent ruling, Brian Russell, a Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board adjudicator, found that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) violated its collective agreement and the Canadian Human Rights Act when it suspended Ottawa manager Steven Porter without pay because he refused to get the COVID-19 shot.
Porter had asked for a religious exemption from the federally mandated COVID jab policy, which was put in place by the former Liberal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Per Blacklock’s Reporter, the CRA was ordered to pay Porter some $5,000 in damages for violating his rights.
“I concluded the employer violated the collective agreement and the Canadian Human Rights Act,” wrote Russell in his decision.
Porter is an evangelical Christian and has been actively involved with his church since 1999. His religious beliefs had stopped him from taking the abortion-tainted COVID jabs over their use of babies’ cell lines in testing and development.
LifeSiteNews has published an extensive amount of reporting about the dangers of the experimental COVID shots, which include heart damage and blood clots.
The shots have been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects, including in children, and all have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies.
Canada’s public health officials had even admitted the known connection between the COVID shots and aborted babies’ cell lines.
Porter had told the CRA that his Christian faith compelled him to both “protect and honour” all states of human life. Doing so otherwise would be a violation of his conscience.
“Christ is my supreme King and Lord and I am subject to His final authority alone in all matters of life, faith and conscience,” Porter had written in his exemption request to his superiors at the CRA.
Additionally, Porter has told his employer that he would have to “stand before God to give an account” of all his life’s actions.
According to adjudicator Russell, the CRA’s own collective agreement bans any form of disciplinary action that is based on one’s religious beliefs.
Of note is that the decision went back to a 2004 Supreme Court of Canada case ruling, Syndicat Northcrest v. Amselem. This ruling found that the courts should not be the ones to determine the validity of religious doctrine and instead should look at whether or not a person’s beliefs are sincerely held.
“The state is in no position to be, nor should it become, the arbiter of religious dogma,” Canada’s Supreme Court had written in 2004.
As a result, Russell said that Porter had met this legal test of sorts to be able to obtain a religious exemption for the COVID shots.
“He met the burden,” he wrote, adding, “He explained how he lives his life in a way that is consistent with his religious beliefs.”
Porter’s case is one of many recent rulings that have gone in favor of Canadians who have refused workplace COVID jab mandates and were discriminated against.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, a court in Poland has ruled in favor of a Canadian embassy employee who was effectively pushed out of her job for not complying with Canada’s now-defunct mandatory COVID jab decree for federal workers.
In October 2021, Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 shot mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector and said that the unvaxxed would no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train, both domestically and internationally.
This policy resulted in thousands losing their jobs or being placed on leave for non-compliance.
Trudeau had disparaged Canadians who chose not to get the COVID shots, saying those opposing his measures were a “small, fringe minority” who hold “unacceptable views” and do not “represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other.”