'It sets a certain precedent': Quebec judge suspends unvaccinated father's visitation rights with child
CTV
A Quebec Superior Court judge has temporarily suspended a father's right to see his child based on evidence that the man is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and appears to oppose government anti-pandemic health measures.
Superior Court Justice Sébastien Vaillancourt ruled that the order was given to protect the 12-year-old child, who is double vaccinated, given his father’s vaccination status and because “the pandemic situation has evolved unfavourably since then due to the Omicron variant.”
“It would normally be in the child's best interest to have contact with his father, but it is not in his best interest to have contact with him if he is not vaccinated and is opposed to health measures in the current epidemiological context,” the judge wrote in his Dec. 23, 2021 ruling.
The father admitted in court that he was not vaccinated against COVID-19. The judge also described him as a “conspiracy theorist” based on evidence from his Facebook page, “so that the Court has strong reasons to doubt that he respects health measures as he claims to do in his written statement,” the ruling stated.
Sylvie Schirm, a Montreal-area family lawyer who was not involved in the proceeding, said the case could set a precedent as she is not aware of another case like this in Quebec.
