(LifeSiteNews) – A University of Toronto Latin and Medieval Studies tenured professor quit his job because of the school’s now-suspended COVID jab mandates, saying that such dictates go against his “beliefs” and in good conscience he can’t work for the school anymore.
As noted by The Epoch Times, Alexander Andrée in a December 29, 2022, letter to students and staff expressed why he felt compelled to leave.
While Andrée was on leave in his native Sweden in 2021, he said he received letters from the university asking him for proof that he had the COVID jabs. If he did not show proof, he would be placed on forced leave or be fired.
“It appears that it was always the question of a test of obedience to authority,” he wrote.
He added that when it came to the test of obedience to authority, he “failed,” but noted he did not have an issue with this.
“U of T is no place for me anymore,” he said.
Last May, the University of Toronto dropped its COVID jab requirement after being hit with a human rights complaint.
However, according to the school’s website, while the COVID jab mandate has been suspended, “vaccination requirements may be reinstated with little notice, which could result in de-enrolment” for unvaccinated students.
Many institutions along with governments in Canada rescinded vaccine mandates and vaccine passports last year, but not after causing much harm to the unjabbed.
Like many post-secondary institutions in Canada, the University of Toronto implemented in 2021 a COVID jab mandate for all staff and students.
Andrée said that “tenure was worth noting” because of the jab mandates.
He has been adamant that one’s bodily autonomy is paramount, linking that to academic freedom.
He noted how the University of Toronto was being “unscientific and unworthy” in claiming to be for academic freedom while at the same time having COVID jab mandates in place.
He also said how complying with the mandate in 2021 did not make sense while he was on leave.
One of the reasons Andrée cites as leaving his tenured position is that the university’s jab mandates have only been paused and not totally rescinded.
Also, job loss threat letters he says he got from the university for not disclosing his jab status have not been retracted.
In Andrée’s letter, he also spoke out against the COVID jabs, saying the jabs were never tested to prevent the stop of spread of the virus.
He argued that this alone made the university’s COVID jab mandate baseless.
The Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) failed spectacularly at resisting the initial COVID lockdowns and vaccine mandates that were imposed by the government on freedom-loving Canadians.
Most CPC MPs subserviently complied with Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party in creating a police-state where our Charter Rights were regularly violated, but now Pierre Poilievre would have us believe they have turned a corner and nothing like it will ever happen again.
How can they rebuild our trust? Well, they can start by owning up to their terrible mistakes.
SIGN: The CPC must apologize for abandoning Canadians to Trudeau's COVID regime.
You will remember how freedom-loving Canadians were abandoned by the CPC, with Erin O'Toole calling for vaccine passports and most CPC MPs pearl-clutching about "vaccine hesitancy".
That was until the party realized how popular the Truckers' Convoy had become and got behind the movement.
It's quite possible the CPC would still be mute on vaccine mandates and lockdowns were it not for the heroic Freedom Convoy that converged on Ottawa.
Let's not forget the businesses, churches, schools and universities that were shuttered for months on end because of the COVID hysteria generated by politicians in Ottawa, and the CPC did nothing.
They did nothing when people started losing their livelihoods (with some Canadians even losing their lives to suicide) because of the government's deranged policy of locking people down.
The CPC must show they have learned a lesson from the COVID tyranny Canadians needlessly suffered and that they contributed to.
SIGN: Demand the CPC apologize for abandoning Canadians to Trudeau's COVID tyranny.
In yet another reminder of how disconnected from reality the CPC were, MPs like Leslyn Lewis, Marilyn Gladu and Rosemarie Falk were omitted from their "Shadow Cabinet" in November 2021 because they dared to question the COVID shots.
Canadians must still contend with vaccine mandates in some settings and the intrusive ArriveCAN system in order to re-enter the country, while we are among the last three countries in the world to continue discriminating against unvaccinated visitors who remain barred from entering.
As Pierre Poilievre takes the reigns of the CPC, conservative voters must demand an apology from the party that abandoned them during the COVID-hysteria of the past two years.
SIGN: The CPC can rebuild trust by apologizing for capitulating to Trudeau's COVID tyranny.
Professor: Canada has become a place of complete ‘control’
Because of the experience with the University of Toronto, Andrée, as noted in The Epoch Times, said that he has seen Canada go from displaying a sense of “whimsical freedom” to a place of complete “control.”
He mentioned that when it comes to medical treatments, people have the right to “make his or her own choices.”
Andrée said that mandating “medical products on people” with threats of losing one’s job is to his “mind, unthinkable.”
He noted how this will “inevitably lead to the slippery slope to dictatorship.”
Andrée has moved to Sweden, where he works at the Museum of the Middle Ages in Stockholm.
Sweden was one of the few nations in the world that took a vastly different approach to deal with COVID. The country chose to mostly forgo lockdowns and mandates; however, Andrée was not that positive about his home nation.
He noted how despite his native Sweden “steering a very sensible course at first,” it later tried vaccine passports, which he said was “disgraceful and created much discontent.”
There has been a growing body of data showing that COVID jab mandates and passports have been failed strategy for tackling COVID, not to mention the fact that the jabs have been linked to millions of injuries and thousands of deaths.
It is now understood that the COVID virus has a minimal risk of asymptomatic spread, and research indicates that natural immunity from infection of COVID is far superior to vaccine-induced immunity.
Some universities in Ontario, such as Wilfrid Laurier University, implemented mask mandates, which have been creatively challenged by some students.
Despite the COVID jab mandates being lifted in most of Canada, in recent weeks some public officials in Ontario and other provinces have called for mask mandates to return.
Reacting to the resurgence of mask mandates and recommendations taking place in many parts of the world, Dr. Joseph Mercola noted, “As predicted, ‘health experts’ are starting to call for voluntary indoor masking again, even though all the evidence garnered over the past three years confirms what we already knew in 2020, which is that face masks do nothing to stop viral infections.”
“Both the flu vaccine and the COVID shots are proven ineffective, yet the recommendation to get them continues. And this season, you’re expected to get both,” Mercola said.