Canadian gov’t employee granted back pay, extra $5,000 after challenging COVID suspension

(LifeSiteNews) – An employee of Canada’s Department of Public Safety who was suspended for refusing to take the COVID shot as a condition to work has won back pay and $5,000 after an adjudicator ruled in his favor.

Christopher Rootham, who is with the Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board, ruled in favor of Mathieu Lemay, a 15-year federal employee, for what he termed “loss of dignity.”

“The grievor is entitled to damages of $5,000 under the Canadian Human Rights Act,” wrote Rootham, adding that the $5,000 payment reflected “the loss of dignity and self-worth he incurred by being placed on leave without pay.”

Lemay had worked for the federal government for 15 years but was not successful in getting a religious exception for a COVID jab workplace mandate put in place in 2021 by the Liberal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

According to Lemay, the COVID jab “contradicts my belief in God’s superiority over man,” he noted to a supervisor.

“I cannot use medicine, in this case a vaccine, when it is not absolutely necessary to sustain my life, as it shows no faith in God’s power to heal,” he noted, adding, “Thus, accepting the vaccine is in contradiction to my beliefs and would be renouncing my faith in God.”

According to Treasury Board records, however, as noted by Blacklock’s Reporter, most federal employees who had asked for a religious exemption to the COVID shots were not successful in getting approval. Records show only 540 of 2,042 who asked for such an exemption were approved.

Lemay argued that his “commitment” to his career in “public service” was an “important” part of his life, but his employer “perverted the nature of employment by reducing it to mere compliance to a policy that infringed my beliefs.”

“But they are the same beliefs that guided my work ethic and dedication towards modernization of the public service, to honour Canadian taxpayers’ fiscal efforts,” he added.

According to records, the Labour Board estimates that there have been “over 350 cases like” Lemay’s, noting, “Being placed on leave without pay because of a sincerely held religious belief interferes with freedom of religion in a way that is more than trivial or insubstantial.”

LifeSiteNews has reported on the many cases where the Labour Board ruled in favor of Canadians federal workers who were discriminated against for not choosing to get the COVID jabs.

Other 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.

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.