OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) failed to honor religious exemptions for the COVID shot mandate, according to a federal labor board.

In a landmark decision, the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board has ruled that the DND was wrong to deny a military member’s religious exemption from the COVID shot, according to information published September 10 by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“He was entitled to an exemption because he has a sincere religious belief that he should not receive the vaccine,” board adjudicator Christopher Rootham wrote.

In 2021, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member and 25-year civilian employee Marvin Castillo was fired from his job after refusing the COVID shot for “sincere religious beliefs.”

“I have served both in the Canadian Forces and as a public servant for almost 26 years and never thought it will come the day that I will have to justify my beliefs in order to be able to do what I love doing and what I was hired to do,” wrote Castillo. “Such are the times.”

“The fact I am willing to risk my livelihood and that of a family stricken by unemployment in Guatemala who depend solely on me and an orphanage in Tanzania that counts on my monthly contribution for food and shelter should aid you in dissipating any doubts you may entertain about the sincerity of my belief,” he wrote.

Similar to many Catholics and other Christians, Castillo refused the mRNA shot because it would permanently alter the genetic makeup of his body, and therefore, any of his future offspring as well.

“God created man in his own image (Genesis 1:27) and therefore I can’t alter my body in any way as my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19) and by injecting gene therapy as defined by Pfizer I’m introducing genetic material that will alter or modify my cells’ own genome,” he wrote.

Additionally, as a strong pro-life advocate, Castillo pointed out that every available COVID shot involved aborted babies during some point of the development process.

“All injections used by Canada to deal with Covid have been developed, produced or tested using, at any point, cells, tissue or DNA from aborted fetuses,” wrote Castillo. “Although the abortions might have taken place in the 1960s and 70s, sin does not have an expiry date. God says all lives are precious.”

Recent rulings have gone in favor of employees who were fired for refusing the COVID shots. As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canada’s second-largest airline has been ordered by a judge to compensate one of its employees who refused to take the COVID shot and was “wrongfully terminated.”

In October 2021, Trudeau announced unprecedented COVID-19 shot mandates for all federal workers and those in the transportation sector and said the unvaxxed would no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train, both domestically and internationally.

This policy resulted in thousands losing their jobs or being placed on leave for non-compliance.

Documents from the Treasury Board, which were tabled in Canada’s Parliament, showed that most federal employees’ requests for a religious exemption from the COVID shots were denied. Out of 2,042 federal employees who were seeking a religious exemption, only 540 were approved.

LifeSiteNews has published an extensive amount of research on the dangers of the experimental COVID mRNA jabs that include heart damage and blood clots.

The mRNA shots have also been linked to a multitude of negative and often severe side effects in children and all have connections to cell lines derived from aborted babies.