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CALGARY, Alberta (LifeSiteNews) – A group of active and non-active WestJet employees suing the airline and Canadian federal government over forced COVID jab mandates in the aviation sector has swelled to 140 people, with hopes to add even more.
Rob Simpson, spokesperson for the Cause for Action, Justice for WestJetters group, told LifeSiteNews that their legal counsel, Alberta-based civil liberties lawyer Leighton Grey, has informed them a “statement of claim is ready” to file.
“(Grey) has told us we can file the paperwork as Tuesday of next week. We are in the process of basically capturing all people who are interested in joining the lawsuit,” Simpson said.
Simpson worked for WestJet for 11 years, most recently as a training captain on Boeing 737s, the aircraft that make up the bulk of the airline’s fleet.
He told LifeSiteNews that they are hoping for even more WestJet employees, active or former who have had their rights violated by COVID mandates, to join their lawsuit.
“The boldness and courage required for an active employee to call upon that feeling that they have inside to push against this and actively sue their employer is monumental,” Simpson said.
“People are just crippled with fear, of what sort of reprisal might happen, but the fear is unfounded there will be reprisal legally anyway. Someone whose actively employed at WestJet fearing reprisal from joining this lawsuit, that’s against the law to fire somebody.”
Simpson said that they are “really happy” about having 140 people joining the lawsuit, up from just under 100. He said the litigants in the suit are both union and non-union people placed on leave, active, or those terminated, due to COVID mandates.
The group’s stand against the COVID jab mandates placed on the aviation sector by the Canadian federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and WestJet was first announced earlier in the month.
The group said that the Trudeau government collaborated “with airlines and other corporate stakeholders” to implement “punitive and divisive COVID vaccination mandates, creating a two-tier society stoked by fear, division, and anger.”
“Our objection lies in the coercion, discipline, and denial of informed consent used to achieve the government’s goals of mass vaccination,” the group said.
“Achieving informed consent under such a heinous act of forced compliance is not only unethical and unconstitutional, it is un-Canadian.”
Grey in recent months has taken on many cases involving workers in various levels of government at the local and federal levels, who were impacted by mandatory COVID jab mandates as a condition of work.
Both WestJet and Air Canada last fall mandated that all of their employees be vaccinated. This resulted in hundreds losing their jobs.
Some pilots who lost their job last year recounted their stories to LifeSiteNews and explained that they began to fight back through the creation of the group “Free to Fly.”
The group’s goal is to “seek relief for WestJet employees and set the record straight to ensure these mandates never return, benefiting all Canadians.”
In October 2021, Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 jab mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector and said the un-jabbed will no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train, both domestically and internationally.
Trudeau “suspended” the COVID travel vaccine mandates on June 20, however, those without the jabs still must quarantine for two weeks upon return home.
New WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech in late May called for an end to all travel COVID mandates. However, he has made no public comment regarding the airlines’ jab mandate. It should be noted he came on board after the mandates had been put in place.
Pilot: Charter rights matter
Simpson told LifeSiteNews that he decided to go against the COVID mandates as he has a “deep spiritual opposition to this, and part of that is a very private nature of mine.”
He noted that he was trying to do his “very best to keep” his medical status private, but eventually was terminated from his job for not complying with the airline’s mandate.
“My grievances are pending with my union,” Simpson told LifeSiteNews.
Simpson told LifeSiteNews that the “fundamental” thing about the lawsuit is that “it’s a group of WestJet employees who know deep in their hearts that their human rights have been trampled on.”
“The fundamental push is that we are just looking to clear and correct … we just need to fix this before it gets any worse,” Simpson said.
Simpson said the “(the Charter of Rights) means something, if you read the documents there are very powerful statements, and our body is own property, and nobody has a power of attorney over that unless we sign it over them.
“They can’t just steal it, they can’t just take that.”
The group has created a GiveSendGo fundraiser to raise money for its legal defense, which Simpson says has been very helpful in getting some people who don’t have the means, to join the lawsuit.
The group says that due to emerging evidence regarding the COVID jabs’ negative effects, it is “abundantly clear that a great deal of scientific information was never communicated to the public.”
“Harm from the COVID vaccine mandate is irrefutable,” the group says.