Wed. Oct 30th, 2024

Four lawsuits are currently challenging the mandate in federal court and are being processed simultaneously. The government wants the court to declare the challenges moot because the Liberals suspended the travel mandate (barring international arrivals) on June 20, warning it could be brought back depending on circumstances, but applicants still want the case heard by a judge.

To defend the mandates the government presented 16 witnesses and experts in court case Karl Harrison et al. v Attorney General.

Jennifer Little, director general of the COVID Recovery Team at Transport Canada, wrote the travel mandate policy and testified on June 9 and 10 that neither PHAC nor its parent department Health Canada had made a recommendation for the mandate.

A Canadian government epidemiologist in charge of reviewing COVID-19 scientific literature testified in court that there is little information available on the impacts of vaccination on in-flight transmission of the virus.

Waddell testified as a government witness on May 31 in defense of the government’s vaccine mandate in travel. “There are not many studies that look at vaccination status, most of the research that’s been done occurred prior to widespread vaccination,” said Dr. Lisa Waddell of the Emerging Sciences Group at the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).

Waddell and her team were responsible for reviewing and assessing the evidence regarding in-flight transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Waddell testified she considers that to be low risk.

Waddell also said that the PHAC brief did not recommend vaccination as a requirement to travel by air.

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