Arbitrator sides with anti-vaxxer mother

Kids infected as arbitrator backs no-vaccine side

TOrOnTO • A family law arbitrator has upheld an Ontario mother’s refusal to have her children vaccinated, citing a leading advocate in the U.S. anti-vaccination movement who claims vaccines do more harm than good.

Earlier this month, the Toronto-based arbitrator also directed the father — who had requested an order forcing the kids to be immunized — to pay $35,000 of his ex-wife’s legal costs.

“Choosing not to vaccinate is not illegal, negligent nor immoral. it is a personal choice,” wrote lawyer Herschel Fogelman in his arbitration decision last year.

“i am unable to find any risk to (the children) if they remain unvaccinated. Further, i am satisfied on the evidence the vaccines may pose additional risk to them.”

in fact, while the case was being heard, both children contracted whooping cough — or pertussis — one of the diseases covered by standard childhood vaccinations. arnaud Presti, the father, said his new partner was pregnant at the time, and had to receive a pertussis booster due to the potentially deadly effect whooping cough can have on newborns.

Though he’s not a judge, Fogelman’s decision is binding on the parents.

The arbitration has come to light amid growing concern about the impact of parents declining to vaccinate their offspring, with outbreaks of previously rare childhood illnesses occurring regularly, especially in the U.S. and Europe.

Presti says he plans to challenge the ruling in court and has started a Gofundme campaign to underwrite his legal costs, arguing “the system is broken.”

“I really feel a sense of injustice,” said Presti. “It doesn’t seem normal that the government is not helping my child get vaccinated.”

The children’s mother, who asked not to be named, did not comment on the immunization dispute, but said in an email the couple had agreed to keep the arbitration confidential.

“Mr. Presti has breached our agreement by contacting you about our case,” she said. “Unfortunately this will now mean legal action.”

The couple was granted joint custody of their two sons — now aged 12 and eight — in a 2015 divorce settlement that included a process for resolving disputes.

Among a handful of issues dealt with in Fogelman’s ruling, Presti demanded the children be vaccinated.

Unlike him, his wife had a lawyer at the hearing and called two witnesses.

One was Shiv Chopra, a late Health Canada scientist best known for his high-profile whistle-blowing dispute with the federal government. He later became involved in the anti-vaccination world.

The arbitrator said the boys’ mother relied mostly on Dr. Toni Bark, a medical doctor who has shifted her practice chiefly to alternative medicine such as homeopathy. She appears frequently at anti-vaccination events in the U.S., says law professor Dorit Reiss of the University of California Hastings, who studies legal aspects of immunization.

The Ontario arbitrator allowed her to testify as an expert on vaccination, something judges refused to do in at least two recent cases in the States, qualifying her only as an authority on general medicine, noted Reiss. “There is very little grounds to see her as an expert on vaccine or even on medicine,” the law professor said.

And in most similar divorce cases in the U.S., courts have ordered the young people vaccinated, she said.

According to Fogelman’s decision, Bark outlined a litany of perils related to vaccination. Yet studies point to vaccination causing almost entirely minor side effects, while preventing a slew of illnesses.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, for instance, says it received 53 confirmed reports of people who died some time after receiving one of almost 110 million doses of HPV vaccine, and found no evidence that any deaths were caused by the inoculations.

Fogelman said the “most compelling” part of Bark’s testimony was her suggestion that the mother had a genetic mutation that made it more difficult to clear the “toxins” in vaccines, and that her sons may have inherited that mutation.

Variations in the MTHFR gene are a popular villain in the anti-vaccination movement. But only one published study — from 2008 — has pointed to any link between the gene and vaccine side effects: an increased risk of mild reactions like fever and skin rashes in people with the variation who received the smallpox vaccine. It is no longer given to children.

The arbitrator’s award of legal costs to the mother included $11,000 for Bark’s fees.