The doors of CHSLDs and other seniors’ residences remain closed for the time being to caregivers who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Judge Christian J. Brossard of the Superior Court of Quebec on Tuesday rejected their request for an injunction by which they wanted to obtain this permission.
In December, faced with the threat of the Omicron variant, the Quebec government banned – again – visits from caregivers if they are not vaccinated, to avoid the risk of outbreaks in healthcare establishments.
A group of some 80 caregivers and their loved ones went to court last week to bring their claims. In particular, they pleaded that without them, the “helped relatives” who live in these residences quickly wither away, especially those suffering from Alzheimer’s. There is an emergency, they raised before the magistrate.
Eventually, they want the measure requiring vaccination for access to be invalidated, but to move faster, they started by asking that the measure be suspended pending the proper trial.
Judge Brossard, however, said no, in his decision rendered on Tuesday.
The choice of means to protect the population in times of pandemic rests with the government, wrote the magistrate, stressing that the health measures are presumed to have been adopted in the public interest.
The court cannot replace the government in assessing this delicate balance between protecting residents from contamination and their emotional and mental well-being. Especially at such a preliminary stage of legal proceedings, when not all the evidence has been offered to the court.
He stresses, however, that the request from the caregivers raises “serious questions” about the fundamental rights of the “relatives being cared for”, “who suffer serious harm, for many irremediable, from being deprived of the support and assistance of their unvaccinated caregivers. »
Thus, the magistrate rejects their request for an injunction, but writes to have two hopes: first, that the epidemiological situation evolves so that care residences are open to them again, or that “those not vaccinated by strict personal choice over which they have full control, calmly but diligently re-evaluate their choice”.
The case is therefore continuing and should go through all the stages leading to a trial.