"Companies are implementing vaccine mandates. Can employees reject them?", 23 Aug 2021

Federal and provincial governments, private businesses as well as Canada's biggest banks have in recent weeks announced plans to implement mandatory vaccination policies for many of their returning staff. 

These vaccine mandates require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. But do employers have the right to impose such mandates? What if employees refuse?...

[Regarding company legal hurdles in imposing vaccine mandates] …the law will differ …based upon a number of factors, for example, the particular industry, or whether the employees are unionized.

They can't necessarily compel, but they can certainly ask for evidence of vaccination because they have an underlying obligation to that worker and others in the workplace to provide a healthy and safe workplace…

… [I]n Canadian law, safety always trumps privacy. That means that employers will be permitted by the courts and arbitrators to have compulsory vaccination policies, except for religious and medical exemptions.

…[S]omeone who refuses to adhere to an employer's vaccine mandate because of a medical condition or religious belief cannot be fired because that would be considered discrimination under the human rights code.

But the reality is that your employer can let you go because you haven't been vaccinated. An employer can actually let you go for no particular reason at all. That's what we call a 'without cause' termination…

…[T]he [Canadian] Charter of Rights and Freedoms only applies to government action. That means, when it comes to vaccine mandates, [it] only applies for government workers refusing such a decree...