Editorial Staff
16/03/2023

Editorial Staff
16/03/2023

St Vincent government files appeal in vaccine mandate case

Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan

The Ralph Gonsalves government in St Vincent and the Grenadines will be moving ahead to appeal a judge ruling that it was unconstitutional to fire hundreds of public servants who refused to take the Covid-19 jab.

The courts in St Vincent ruled on Monday in favor of the workers who insisted that they were dismissed wrongfully by the government during the peak of the pandemic

“We have advised the government that we believe there is considerable merit in an appeal. We have also advised them that in the public interest, an appeal is required for the very simple reason that the government needs to know and have the guidance of a higher court on what should be done when a government is confronted with a crisis and an infectious disease that kills and hospitalized citizens,” Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan said. He was the lead attorney in the matter

According to Astaphan, “we ought not to lose sight of the context, which was decisions made to protect the life and the health of public servants and the general population amid a Covid-19 crisis that was ravaging the entire world with considerable loss of life…” he said.

He said the case arose because the government took measures to protect the health of public servants based on the advice from the medical director of the chief medical director which Astaphan says was uncontradicted during the trial.

Justice Henry said in her ruling that the dismissal letters issued to the claimants, including letters issued by St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, violated the Constitution.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, St Vincent and the Grenadines government fired more than 300 public sector workers over their failure to take a COVID-19 vaccine, as mandated by Cabinet.

The judge said, however, legislation by the government was unconstitutional.

 

3 Comments

  1. Nuffield Burnette

    “Law and order in Antigua and Barbuda and beyond”have determined ever since that the forced vaccine which transcended into force vacation and termination of employment is unconstitutional. The present ruling has just confirmed our position!

    Reply
  2. Sio

    Not even God forced Adam and Eve to obey him they had a choice. But more importantly the experiment on citizens with new medicine with out the relevant medical check’s and responsible assistance for people who have adverse effects is a crime in my book against humanity.

    Reply
  3. A better way

    Absolutely a violation of our God-given human rights to be forced to take a vaccine, particularly one that was insufficiently tested for long term side effects and not proven to be effective at preventing spread in the first place. The governments should have simply made the vaccine available to those who wanted it and then used other methods such as reduced crowding and improved sanitation on job sites to minimize spread. They should have also allowed employees to have more sick days during the pandemic to encourage persons to stay home until fully recovered. They should have also permitted employees to work virtually from home when needed if they or a family member was sick. They should have had food and grocery distribution support to families who needed to quarantine at home for a while so that they would not be tempted to leave home until recovered. Firing people just made them more likely to get sick from lack of food and sanitation supplies since they would have no money to stay healthy.

    Reply

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