DND failed to honour ‘religious exemption’ to COVID vaxx mandate, Labour Board says
'I … never thought the day [will come] that I will have to justify my beliefs in order to … do what I love doing,' wrote Marvin Castillo. 'Such are the times.'
A federal labour board criticized the Department of National Defence for denying a religious exemption from its vaccine mandate, ruling "sincere religious beliefs" were sufficient to decline a COVID shot.
An employee's career was cut short by the 2021 vaccine mandate, but an adjudicator ruled he was "entitled to an exemption because he has a sincere religious belief that he should not receive the vaccine."
The mandate led former Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) member and 25-year civilian employee, Marvin Castillo, to break his long-held conviction against discussing his “deeply rooted religious beliefs” at work, as stated in his affidavit.
“I … never thought the day [will come] that I will have to justify my beliefs in order to … do what I love doing and what I was hired to do,” wrote Castillo. “Such are the times.”
Labour board @PSLRB overturns suspension of @NationalDefence staffer who sought religious exemption from vax mandate, rules "sincere religious beliefs" were sufficient. https://t.co/VaYkuwOmZ3 #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/h09ok7wLLU
— Blacklock's Reporter (@mindingottawa) September 10, 2025
In 2021, the CAF member claimed his willingness to risk his livelihood and the welfare of a Guatemalan family and the Tanzanian orphanage validated his beliefs, according to Blacklock’s.
Castillo then cited Scripture in not complying with the COVID mandate. “God created man in his own image (Genesis 1:27) and therefore I can’t alter my body in any way as my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 6:19) and by injecting gene therapy as defined by Pfizer I’m introducing genetic material that will alter or modify my cells’ own genome,” he wrote.
Castillo also cited the use of fetal cell lines in vaccine development, stating, “All injections used by Canada to deal with COVID have been developed, produced or tested using, at any point, cells, tissue or DNA from aborted fetuses.”
“… sin does not have an expiry date,” he added, referring to abortion. “God says all lives are precious.”
The Board upheld Castillo’s protest, marking another ruling that vaccine mandates violated Charter rights. On May 19, the Board overturned suspensions of a Catholic meteorologist and Pentecostal IT analyst by the National Research Council due to similar breaches.
Alex Dhaliwal
Journalist and Writer
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.
Help fund Alex's journalism!
COMMENTS
-
Bruce Atchison commented 2025-09-12 22:27:38 -0400Leftists DO NOT respect either people’s beliefs or biology. All that matters to them is power. So we must push back on their anti-human and inhumane beliefs. Humans are radically different from animals and other living things. Common sense alone tells us that.
