An unvaccinated Canadian man has lost custody of his three kids after a judge ruled he posed a risk to his immunocompromised 10-year-old daughter.
An unvaccinated Canadian man has lost custody of his three children after a judge ruled he posed a risk to his immunocompromised 10-year-old daughter.
The father, identified only as Mr F. in court documents, had in-person access to his children suspended by a judge in the province of New Brunswick last week. She also ruled that the children’s mother could have them vaccinated against Covid-19 despite his objections, The Canadian Press reported.
Justice Nathalie Godbout said in her written decision that she was revoking the father’s access “with a heavy heart” but that the children “must be given their best possible chance at evading infection from Covid-19”.
“As the parents who are caring for [the child] 50 per cent of the time, in close quarters, unmasked and unvaccinated, they are well positioned to transmit the virus to [the child] should they contract it, this despite their best efforts,” the ruling said.
“It is no contest – the current science in the face of a highly contagious virus far outweighs Mr F.’s layman wait-and-see approach.”
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She also dismissed the father’s concerns about the safety of the Pfizer vaccine, saying “his own anecdotal research on such a highly specialised topic carries little to no weight in the overall analysis when measured against the sound medical advice of our public health officials”.
“This research is not set out in [his] affidavits in any meaningful way, other than his subjective assertion that it informs his choice and is from ‘credible sources,’” the judge wrote. “[He] may find himself conducting ‘research’ for information that supports his position, leaving him blind to evidence that does not.”
The couple were married for a decade before they split up in 2019, and had been sharing custody on alternate weeks.
The mother, Ms M., discovered in July last year that neither the father nor his new partner had been vaccinated, and the father refused to sign consent forms for the children when they became eligible.
She filed a petition in October to have his custody revoked, and the hearing was held on January 24.
In her decision, the judge said she would grant him “generous” parenting time via phone or Zoom — and that he can file an urgent request for the suspension to be reviewed if he gets vaccinated.
Speaking to CBC, the mother’s lawyer Grant Ogilvie said the three children had already received their first doses of the vaccine since the ruling on Monday.
“She was ecstatic in some regards,” Mr Ogilvie told the broadcaster. “But this isn‘t a case where she wants to take the children away from their father. This is what’s best for the children, period. She’s acknowledged this is going to have an impact on the children, but she said, ‘I have to do what’s best for them’.”
Toronto-based family lawyer Emma Katz told The Canadian Press the ruling was not surprising.
“We have seen vaccine cases that predate Covid-19,” she said. “Courts have taken judicial notice of the safety and efficacy of vaccines, meaning they have outlined that that’s basically a known fact. And that has continued in the face of the Covid-19 vaccines.”
It comes after a similar court ruling in neighbouring Quebec in December.
In that case, a father temporarily lost the right to see his 12-year-old child after a judge ruled it would not be in the child’s “best interest”, due to a recent increase in Covid-19 cases in the French-speaking province, the BBC reported.
Last year, a US mother was also stripped of her parental rights over her refusal to get the vaccine.
The Chicago judge reversed his order after the case gained national media attention.
frank.chung@news.com.au
Originally published as Unvaccinated father loses custody of three children
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