John Nesbitt is an accounting clerk, employed by the municipality of Uptown, Ontario, in the town's financial services department. Like all municipalities, the town has an elected group of councilors and a mayor, who meet to set policy and enact bylaws under the authority of the Ontario Municipal Act. The town employs a large group of employees, from those who work out of doors maintaining streets and roads, to those who work in the town hall itself, serving the public and managing the complex business affairs of the municipality.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the town's offices have been mostly closed with many employees working remotely. The town plans to fully reopen its offices in a month's time. In anticipation of the reopening, the town council has passed a by-law that requires that all employees be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Employees with a documented medical reason for not being vaccinated, such as potential allergic reactions, will be exempt from this requirement. However, all unvaccinated employees will need to be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis.

Nesbitt is very upset about this by-law and feels it is an unwarranted intrusion on his personal freedom. He does not have any known allergy to the vaccine but has his own personal reasons for not wanting to receive the vaccine. One of Nesbitt's concerns is that he feels that the vaccines have not been fully tested.

Is the by-law valid under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms? Provide a full 3-step legal analysis for each of the following questions:

1. Is the Charter applicable to the by-law? (Hint: See section 32 of the Charter.)

2. If the Charter is applicable to the by-law, what Charter right or freedom of Nesbitt is infringed by the by-law? (Hint: See section 7 of the Charter.)

3. Is that infringement an acceptable limit of the Charter right or freedom under section 1 of the Charter?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The charter applies to the bylaws because the by law 1 would only in favour of the employees who liv... View the full answer