Federal data outlines exemptions
More public servants claimed religious reasons than medical concerns
More federal public servants got out of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for religious reasons than for medical concerns, according to new data from 55 departments and agencies.
The numbers show that, as of March 14, just a fraction of government workers in these organizations were granted exemptions to the vaccination requirement that kicked in last fall. Of more than 319,000 employees, more than 3,000 applied for exemptions.
That included 2,040 workers who sought religious exemptions, and 1,184 who applied to opt-out for medical reasons.
Religious exemptions were granted to 540 people, while 357 workers got medical exceptions.
A Star analysis of the data found a similar proportion of exemption applications and approvals across all organizations included in the release.
The data was published through the House of Commons on May 17 in response to a question from Conservative MP Pat Kelly.
Timothy Caulfield, the Canada research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, said the low numbers of exemptions in the federal public service represents a “public science communication win,” even if he is concerned some employees may have sought religious exemptions out of personal conviction against vaccination rather than sincere religious belief.
“Having a strongly held view about vaccines is not a religious position. Having an ideological position against vaccines, that’s not a religious position,” Caulfield said.
“It really has to be something that is a sincerely held belief that is tied to your faith, it’s tied to your religion. It’s not just, you don’t believe in vaccination.”
According to the federal Treasury Board, exemption applications are assessed by an employee’s department on a “case-by-case” basis. Employees could also be punished or fired for providing false statements about their requests for exemption from being vaccinated.
In order to be granted a religious exemption, an employee was required to “demonstrate a sincerely held individual belief that is rooted in religion, not whether the belief was recognized by other members of the same religion,” Treasury Board spokesperson Barb Couperus told the Star by email.
“It had to be a religious belief (not a personal moral belief) and the request had to explain the nature of the belief and why it prevents vaccination against COVID-19.”
James Fu, an employment and labour lawyer in Toronto with the firm, Borden Ladner Gervais, said it is no surprise that more federal workers got religious exemptions. That’s because one should expect the number of medical exemptions to be quite low, given the narrow ground upon which they can be awarded, Fu said.
Ontario’s Ministry of Health, for example, lists only two pre-existing conditions that may qualify for a medical exemption: if someone has a recent history of myocarditis — heart inflammation — or documented severe allergic reactions to a component of a COVID-19 vaccine.
But Fu said the religious exemption should also be granted in “relatively rare” circumstances. He pointed to a report from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the United States, which charts how major religions — including Buddhism, Islam, major Christian denominations, Hinduism and Judaism — condone vaccination in general, while only a select few, smaller Christian sects have a “theological objection” to them.
That includes some Dutch Reformed Congregations, and “faith healing” denominations like Endtime Ministries and Church of the First Born.
Noting that more than half of the federal employees who applied for religious exemptions were rejected, Fu said the government likely had a “robust system” to determine whether the application was linked to a sincere religious belief.