Live Updates: BC healthcare workers challenge Dr. Bonnie Henry's COVID-19 mandate in Supreme Court

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

Hundreds of healthcare professionals in British Columbia who lost their jobs due to COVID-19 mandates issued by Dr. Bonnie Henry's government are having their case heard today in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

British Columbia is one of the only jurisdictions in the world to still have a vaccine mandate that prohibits thousands of healthy, vax-free healthcare workers from working in certain healthcare settings.

Despite the province experiencing a critical healthcare shortage, Dr. Bonnie Henry shows no signs of rescinding the draconian measure.

A group of B.C doctors and other healthcare professionals with the Canadian Society for Science & Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM) hope to quash the mandate via a judicial review being heard Monday to Friday this week in the Vancouver Supreme Courthouse.

A full report including an interview with some of the lead petitioners on the case will be coming soon.

Rebel News reporter Drea Humphrey is in court and will be providing live updates.

Follow along below:

17. Gall submits that we’ve reached the point where “precautionary should no longer dictate things … you can’t continue to use the emergency power to achieve this objective.”

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

16. Judge questions whether or not it’s on the record that Dr. Henry doesn’t think unjabbed healthcare workers should be in their field.

Gall says yes it is.

You can watch how intolerant the PHO is of such heal are heroes below. pic.twitter.com/yBkx6IRpNN

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

15. Gall submits that Dr. Bonnie Henry has expressed the view that people who unvaccinated in healthcare really shouldn’t be in healthcare in the first place.

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

14. Gall submits that the PHO (Dr. Henry) is turning this vaccination mandate into a permanent order. “At least there is no sign that she intends to end this.”

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

13. Essentially, this CSSEM is challenging the newest vax mandate against BC healthcare workers on the grounds that the reasonableness has not been met.

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

12. Gall submits that the declaration of the emergency was unreasonable.

“It is a finding and a fact that the circumstance that there is an immediate threat to public health no longer exists.”

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

11. Gall says all along the way there were examples of there not being a
public emergency “but as the time goes on it becomes more clear that there was no state of emergency.”

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

10. Gall says secondly, Secondly, the mandate is not serving any real benefit or health purpose anymore.

The question of appropriateness is on justification on why ether the order is justified by the law.

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

9. Gall submits that there is no longer an emergency and therefore there is no legal authority to continue the vax mandate that is preventing jab free healthcare workers from caring for patients in certain settings.

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

8. Gall reads through some of another order where Dr. Henry (PHO) begins to extend mandates.

Henry says the ongoing mutation of SARS-Cov-2 constitutes a regional event. There continues to be a reasonable risk that it could have a significant impact on public health .

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

7. The first public health order Gall brings up is one dated on March 17, 2020. This was when the Provincial Health Officer PHO (Dr. Bonnie Henry) declared that there would be a "public emergency" on March 18, 2020.

*you can find links to the various that will likely be…

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

6.The CSSEM has been crowdfunding for a stacked legal team.

Presenting submissions on their behalf right now is lawyer Peter A. Gall, K.C., partner at Gall Legge Grant Zwack LLP. pic.twitter.com/pRw3vMB9T9

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

5. The hearing was scheduled for courtroom #34 which only had around 24 seats.

It filled immediately with people standing at the door.

The Justice ruling over the matter has decided to move the hearing to courtroom #54 to accommodate the public more comfortably.

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

4. BC’s Health Minister Adrian Dix claims the province is doing all it can to address the provinces critical healthcare shortage.

Watch Dr. York Hsiang, one of 3 petitioners for this judicial review, call Dix’s bluff on that. https://t.co/fNm8lwC3R5

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

3. British Columbia and Nova Scotia are 2 of the only jurisdictions in the entire world still forbidding COVID vax-free healthcare workers from saving lives.

Below is an interview with a BC paramedic who explains how much of a danger Dr. Henry’s lingering mandates…

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

2. You can find more about the CSSEM and their petition behind this judicial review below.

I will be live tweeting todays proceedings for @RebelNewsOnline https://t.co/ewZ1KoHzhm

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023

1. Alas!

A group of BC doctors with the Canadian Society for the Advancement of & Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM), are finally in the Vancouver supreme courthouse to challenge the reasonableness of Dr. Bonnie Henry’s COVID mandates against healthcare workers. https://t.co/Czwju22EIU

— Drea Humphrey - Prepping and Politics (@DreaHumphrey) November 20, 2023