This campaign is to support paramedics' litigation against the BC Government and the Provincial Health Officer.

In November of 2021, Dr Bonnie Henry issued an order requiring healthcare workers to accept a medical intervention or be precluded from work. She did this without having to produce any evidence that the products she was endorsing would actually prevent transmission. She did this at a time when the US CDC acknowledged these products don't prevent transmission, and at a time when the manufacturer's own monographs were silent on transmission. Dr. Henry invoked her emergency powers to put healthcare workers on leave at a time she acknowledged we were experiencing severe stress, and were stretched beyond capacity. Despite this leave being issued on the basis of an emergency, the BC Government took the additional and permanent step of calling for our termination.

Our paramedics include those with over 30 years of service. Our paramedics served through the worst days of the pandemic, during a time when everyone's fear was at its highest. In September of 2021, Bonnie Henry announced there would be accommodations for strongly held beliefs, six weeks later she said this was not the right profession for us. One strongly held belief of our profession is that of informed consent, a precept that is impossible when one is coerced. Informed consent is not just a fundamental ethic in healthcare, it is a fundamental human right. It is appalling our top doctor is not with us on this.

It is one thing for the PHO to claim it is too unsafe for us to work face-to-face with patients for the duration of this emergency, it is quite another for decision makers in government to say we have done something wrong that deserves punitive measures: paramedics who were terminated were denied severance and precluded from EI. Accommodation is part of our employment agreement, having to accept newly introduced medical interventions is not. Our claim is that our government's intervention, based on Dr Henry's order, constitutes an unlawful interference with our employment contract.

Why did Bonnie Henry believe the products she endorsed prevent transmission?
Why did the government opt for punitive termination for healthcare workers who had no physical contact with the public?
Why did the government opt for termination for healthcare workers who could have been reassigned or put on leave for the duration of the emergency?

Our case could be the first to depose Bonnie Henry, allowing us to ask her under oath to account for the evidence she relied on to justify the claims she makes in her Public Health Order.

Our case could be the first to show that the BC Government violated workers' rights by calling for the unnecessary and punitive termination of healthcare workers.

By helping us, you are also helping to answer these questions for everyone.

Please feel free to read our Civil Claim and help us with a donation. Litigation is expensive, especially when you are up against the government. Each day in court costs about $10,000, and this does not include all the legal work done before trial. By helping us, you will help set a precedent to safeguard everyone's rights from government overreach. All donations go to our trust fund with our lawyer, Umar Sheikh.

This campaign is unpublished.

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