OTTAWA —
“Core” federal public servants will have to attest to being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 29 or face being put on leave without pay by Nov. 15. And, anyone who wants to board a plane or train in Canada will have to prove they’re vaccinated by Oct. 30 with “limited exemptions,” the federal government has announced.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland outlined the details of the new COVID-19 vaccine mandates on Wednesday.
“This is about keeping people safe on the job and in our communities,” Trudeau said. “If you’ve done the right thing and gotten vaccinated, you deserve the freedom to be safe from COVID-19, to have your kids safe from COVID, to get back to the things you love.”
For the approximately 267,000 federal workers that fall under this new policy, it’ll be applicable whether employees work remotely or from the office, as well as if they work outside of Canada. The plan differentiates between those who are unable to be fully vaccinated, and those who are unwilling to be vaccinated.
There will be exemptions made for “certified medical contraindications,” as well as for religious reasons. Though, these accommodations will only be granted under certain parameters, including providing documented medical proof of the requirement for the exemption or testifying under oath to their religious beliefs, according to senior government officials that briefed reporters on the policy on a not-for-attribution basis, ahead of the announcement.
In addition to being put on unpaid leave, employees who do not attest to their vaccination status, or attest that they are unvaccinated, will be required to take an online training session on COVID-19 vaccines. They will also not be able to access their workplace or any off-site events or meetings. Travel for business, including to attend conferences, will also be prohibited.
These work-related measures will also be imposed on partially-vaccinated workers, though they will have up to 10 weeks to receive their second dose before being put on unpaid leave.
The mandatory vaccination policy includes the RCMP, as well as full-time employees, casual workers, students and volunteers for federal departments, agencies, and offices such as the Department of Health, Veterans Affairs Canada, Service Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Correctional Service of Canada, and the Canada Border Services Agency.
The new rules do not apply to members of the Canadian Armed Forces, though Freeland said that the Chief of Defence Staff will be moving to make vaccination mandatory under its own parameters. As well, separate agencies and Crown corporations like the Canada Revenue Agency are being asked to implement vaccine policies mirroring the requirements announced Wednesday.
Officials suggested that while this policy does not extend to all employees in federally-regulated workplaces, such as banks, the government is working with them to “ensure vaccination is prioritized for workers in these sectors.”
“We are taking this step to protect those who work in the federal public service, their families, and their communities. This measure also protects everyone who does business with the public service, whether it is getting access to your benefits at a Service Canada office, or safely traveling across our borders,” Freeland said.
Rather than requiring employees to provide their vaccine receipts the way that many Canadians are being asked to now to access certain public spaces such as restaurants and gyms, federal public servants will have to submit an online attestation of their vaccination status but could be asked to show proof “at any time.”
Defending this, the government said that because the federal public service is so vast, a system was needed that could be enacted quickly, but verifications will be done.
“It’s very straightforward: If you want to continue to work for the public service of Canada, you’re going to need to be fully vaccinated. And the way to ensure that that happens as quickly as possible, is to allow for the vast majority of public servants who are vaccinated, to make a simple straightforward attestation… That allows managers and departments to focus in on those people who will not,” Trudeau said.
Officials said that the tracking system opens Wednesday for some employees to begin submitting their attestations. There will be some flexibility granted for employees who, because of the work they are currently doing, are unable to access vaccination or provide their attestation by the deadline. They will have two weeks from the date they have access to both to become compliant with the policy.
“If an employee submits a false statement they risk disciplinary action, which could ultimately cost them their jobs,” said a senior official.
Reacting to the news, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) President Chris Aylward told CTV News Channel that the union has concerns about what’s been proposed, saying that while the organization supports a vaccination policy, this one appears “rushed.”
Aylward said that when it comes to the accommodations for those who are unvaccinated, the policy “falls short,” suggesting remote work or reassignment should be options.
PSAC represents more than 160,000 federal public workers.
“When the prime minister first talked about a vaccination policy on Aug. 13, he said that they would be talking to, to the unions. Unfortunately that did not happen. There was no meaningful consultation on this policy,” he said.
The government is considering workers to be fully vaccinated 14 days after they have either received a full vaccination series of a Health Canada authorized vaccine, received a NACI-approved mixed dose vaccination series, or if a Quebec resident, received a lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection followed by at least one dose of an authorized COVID-19 vaccine.
Officials said that if boosters become a widespread requirement, the policy could be adjusted accordingly, and that the policy will be re-assessed every six months to determine whether it needs to remain in place, citing the objective being public health.
PROOF FOR PASSENGERS
In addition to federal workers, employees and passengers in the federally-regulated air, rail and marine transportation sectors will have to be fully vaccinated as of Oct. 30.
This means that any worker—including at retail or hospitality establishments in restricted sections of airports— or passengers boarding any domestic flights, or interprovincial trains or cruise ships will have to provide proof of vaccination. Ferry passengers are not included in these new rules.
There will be a short period of time where proof of a negative COVID-19 test will be acceptable to board, though by the end of November that option will no longer be available.
There will be limited exemptions for Indigenous communities that require fly-in services like medical care.
This policy will apply to any passenger ages 12 and older, as they are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccines authorized by Health Canada.
To qualify, people will have to have received their last dose 14 days prior to travelling.
The government said that it is still working with employers on the “operational details” of implementing the new mandate, but for now it will be incumbent on companies such as Via Rail or WestJet to determine how they check the proof provided by their employees and passengers.
“Part of the work that we’re doing with the major carriers in this country is to integrate the proof of vaccination digital codes into their online booking process, so that when you print out your boarding pass either at the airport, or in advance, there will be a clearly marked proof of vaccination thumbs up or checkmark, so that the gate agent does not have to be checking documentation,” Trudeau said.
The government said it and will impose a “strict vaccine requirement in place for cruise ships before the resumption of the 2022 cruise season.
“Our message to all unvaccinated travelers is clear: If you’re planning a trip in the coming weeks, you need to book your vaccine appointment now,” said an official.
Trudeau also said that work is continuing to work with the provinces and territories, which hold Canadian’s vaccination records, to develop a pan-Canadian proof of vaccination for Canadians to use for international travel.
“The standardized, pan-Canadian proof of vaccination is a factual document that shows a traveller has been vaccinated against COVID-19. It is expected to have a common look and include the holder’s COVID-19 vaccination history, such as the number of doses, vaccine type(s), and date and place where doses were administered,” said Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Sonia Lesage in an email to CTV News.
“This standardization will help both foreign and Canadian border officials to recognize it as a reliable Canadian document and to assess whether the traveller meets their country’s health and entry requirements,” she continued, suggesting it could also be used for inter-provincial travel proof when required.
WHAT ABOUT PARLIAMENT HILL?
While MPs don’t fall under the new mandate for federal workers, departmental staff do, as do administration staff in the House, Senate, and Library of Parliament.
Asked Wednesday whether he wants to see a vaccine mandate for MPs and their political staff, Trudeau said that while many staff within the parliamentary precinct will be covered, because of parliamentary privilege, MPs will have to “figure out how to move forward,” specifically referencing members of the Conservative caucus.
The Liberals, New Democrats, and Bloc Quebecois have said that all their MPs are fully vaccinated, though the Conservatives continue to not confirm the vaccination status of their MPs.
“We know that all other MPs in this House will be vaccinated, so it is something for Erin O’Toole and the Conservative Party to deal with. They will have MPs not able to get on planes to come to Ottawa if they’re unvaccinated. They will have MPs putting their fellow colleagues at risk in a large but closed, windowless room in the House of Commons, who may be sitting beside or near someone who is unvaccinated,” Trudeau said.
“We will of course engage in as constructive a way as possible, but Canadians expect us both to lead by example, and not be vectors of transmission to each other.”
In early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was just in its early days, the House of Commons suspended its proceedings until an arrangement could be made for altered sittings that accommodated the needed public health precautions.
After months of holding ad-hoc emergency meetings, all sides eventually agreed on a hybrid sitting format that allowed MPs to virtually vote and participate from their homes or offices and still appear, via screens, inside the chamber where a small number of usually nearby MPs participated in-person.
Introduced before the mass immunization effort allowed all eligible Canadians to roll up their sleeves to receive the additional protection against the novel coronavirus, the hybrid sitting format was intended to be a temporary solution.
Now, a new agreement will have to be ironed out before MPs kick off the 44th Parliament, which will happen sometime before the end of the fall, according to the prime minister. So far, caucuses appear split on whether the hybrid format should be revived.
Because of the way rule changes for MPs are generally handled, any future agreements that would allow MPs to continue to participate virtually would likely require the agreement of all parties in the House. Any decision around requiring vaccinations would likely have to be made by the Board of Internal Economy, the cross-party committee of MPs that oversees the workings of the House of Commons.
With a file from CTV News’ Sarah Turnbull
Correction:
This story previously incorrectly stated that staff at Veterans Affairs Canada and Service Canada were excluded from this policy.
Premier David Eby is proposing an all-party committee investigate mistakes made during the British Columbia election vote tally, including an uncounted ballot box and unreported votes in three-quarters of the province’s 93 ridings.
The proposal comes after B.C.’s chief electoral officer blamed extreme weather, long working hours and a new voting system for human errors behind the mistakes in last month’s count, though none were large enough to change the initial results.
Anton Boegman says the agency is already investigating the mistakes to “identify key lessons learned” to improve training, change processes or make recommendations for legislative change.
He says the uncounted ballot box containing about 861 votes in Prince George-Mackenzie was never lost, and was always securely in the custody of election officials.
Boegman says a failure in five districts to properly report a small number of out-of-district votes, meanwhile, rippled through to the counts in 69 ridings.
Eby says the NDP will propose that a committee examine the systems used and steps taken by Elections BC, then recommend improvements in future elections.
“I look forward to working with all MLAs to uphold our shared commitment to free and fair elections, the foundation of our democracy,” he said in a statement Tuesday, after a news conference by Boegman.
Boegman said if an independent review does occur, “Elections BC will, of course, fully participate in that process.”
He said the mistakes came to light when a “discrepancy” of 14 votes was noticed in the riding of Surrey-Guildford, spurring a review that increased the number of unreported votes there to 28.
Surrey-Guildford was the closest race in the election and the NDP victory there gave Eby a one-seat majority. The discovery reduced the NDP’s victory margin from 27 to 21, pending the outcome of a judicial review that was previously triggered because the race was so close.
The mistakes in Surrey-Guildford resulted in a provincewide audit that found the other errors, Boegman said.
“These mistakes were a result of human error. Our elections rely on the work of over 17,000 election officials from communities across the province,” he said.
“Election officials were working 14 hours or more on voting days and on final voting day in particular faced extremely challenging weather conditions in many parts of the province.
“These conditions likely contributed to these mistakes,” he said.
B.C.’s “vote anywhere” model also played a role in the errors, said Boegman, who said he had issued an order to correct the results in the affected ridings.
Boegman said the uncounted Prince George-Mackenzie ballot box was used on the first day of advance voting. Election officials later discovered a vote hadn’t been tabulated, so they retabulated the ballots but mistakenly omitted the box of first-day votes, only including ballots from the second day.
Boegman said the issues discovered in the provincewide audit will be “fully documented” in his report to the legislature on the provincial election, the first held using electronic tabulators.
He said he was confident election officials found all “anomalies.”
B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad had said on Monday that the errors were “an unprecedented failure by the very institution responsible for ensuring the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”
Rustad said he was not disputing the outcomes as judicial recounts continue, but said “it’s clear that mistakes like these severely undermine public trust in our electoral process.”
Rustad called for an “independent review” to make sure the errors never happen again.
Boegman, who said the election required fewer than half the number of workers under the old paper-based system, said results for the election would be returned in 90 of the province’s 93 ridings on Tuesday.
Full judicial recounts will be held in Surrey-Guildford and Kelowna-Centre, while a partial recount of the uncounted box will take place in Prince George-Mackenzie.
Boegman said out-of-district voting had been a part of B.C.’s elections for many decades, and explained how thousands of voters utilized the province’s vote-by-phone system, calling it a “very secure model” for people with disabilities.
“I think this is a unique and very important part of our elections, providing accessibility to British Columbians,” he said. “They have unparalleled access to the ballot box that is not found in other jurisdictions in Canada.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
WINNIPEG – A public memorial honouring former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into residential schools, Murray Sinclair, is set to take place in Winnipeg on Sunday.
The event, which is being organized by the federal and Manitoba governments, will be at Canada Life Centre, home of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.
Sinclair died Monday in a Winnipeg hospital at the age of 73.
A teepee and a sacred fire were set up outside the Manitoba legislature for people to pay their respects hours after news of his death became public. The province has said it will remain open to the public until Sinclair’s funeral.
Sinclair’s family continues to invite people to visit the sacred fire and offer tobacco.
The family thanked the public for sharing words of love and support as tributes poured in this week.
“The significance of Mazina Giizhik’s (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) impact and reach cannot be overstated,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday, noting Sinclair’s traditional Anishinaabe name.
“He touched many lives and impacted thousands of people.”
They encourage the public to celebrate his life and journey home.
A visitation for extended family, friends and community is also scheduled to take place Wednesday morning.
Leaders from across Canada shared their memories of Sinclair.
Premier Wab Kinew called Sinclair one of the key architects of the era of reconciliation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Sinclair was a teacher, a guide and a friend who helped the country navigate tough realities.
Sinclair was the first Indigenous judge in Manitoba — the second in Canada.
He served as co-chair of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba to examine whether the justice system was failing Indigenous people after the murder of Helen Betty Osborne and the police shooting death of First Nations leader J.J. Harper.
In leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he participated in hundreds of hearings across Canada and heard testimony from thousands of residential school survivors.
The commissioners released their widely influential final report in 2015, which described what took place at the institutions as cultural genocide and included 94 calls to action.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
OTTAWA – Members of Parliament studying the federal government’s decision to buy a $9-million luxury condo in Manhattan are preparing to recall Canada’s consul general in New York to answer more questions about his involvement in the purchase.
The Conservatives put forward a motion on Tuesday to have Tom Clark return to the House operations committee. The move was supported by other opposition parties after new information emerged that contradicted his previous testimony.
Clark told the committee in September he had no role whatsoever in the purchase of the new condo, or the sale of the previous residence.
But reporting from Politico on Tuesday indicated Clark raised concerns about the old unit two months after he was appointed to his role as Canada’s representative in New York.
Politico cited documents obtained through access-to-information, which were then shared with other media by the Conservative party.
A May 2023 report from Global Affairs Canada indicates Clark informed government officials the residence needed to be replaced.
“The current (consul general in New York, head of mission) expressed concerns regarding the completion of the … kitchen and refurbishment project and indicated the unit was not suitable to be the (consul general’s) accommodations,” the report reads.
“It does not have an ideal floor plan for (consul general in New York) representational activities.”
The final call on whether Clark will face further questions has not been made, however, because the committee adjourned before the motion went to a vote. The committee’s next meeting is next week.
Tuesday’s meeting featured Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly as a witness, and she faced questions about Clark’s involvement in the purchase.
“This was not a political decision because this was an operational decision,” Joly told the committee in a testy exchange with Conservative MP Michael Barrett.
“(The committee) had numerous people, officials of mine, that came to see you and said that. So, these are the facts.”
Joly later told the committee she only learned of the decision to purchase a new residence through media reports, even though her chief of staff was notified weeks earlier.
“The department informed my chief of staff once the decision was taken. Because, of course, it was not a political decision,” Joly said.
Shortly before Joly was excused, Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie put forward the motion to recall Clark for two more hours to answer more questions.
Bloc MP Julie Vignola proposed instead to have him testify for only one hour — indicating she would support the motion with that change.
“One hour is more than enough to know whether he lied to us,” Vignola told her colleagues in French.
NDP MP Taylor Bachrach also said he would support the move, given the contrast between the new report and Clark’s testimony about whether he spoke to anyone about a desire to move into a new residence.
“What really irks me is the consul general was so clear in response to repeated questioning at committee,” Bachrach said.
“Mr. Clark said, ‘Never.’ One-word answer, ‘Never.’ You can’t get more unequivocal than that.”
The Liberal government has argued that buying the new residence will save Canadians taxpayers millions of dollars and reduce ongoing maintenance costs and property taxes while supporting future program needs for the consul general.
The former official residence is listed for sale at $13 million, but has yet to be sold.
In her remarks Tuesday, Joly told the committee other like-minded countries have paid more for their Manhattan residences than Canada has — including $11 million for the U.K., and France’s $19 million purchase in 2015.
Joly said among the countries that have residences in New York, only Afghanistan and Bangladesh were not located in Manhattan.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 5, 2024.
