Metro Vancouver school board seeking legal opinion on mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for staff
CTV
A school board in Metro Vancouver plans to seek a legal opinion on whether it can require vaccinations for all staff.
A school board in Metro Vancouver plans to seek a legal opinion on whether it can require vaccinations for all staff.
The idea was proposed at a New Westminster Board of Education meeting Friday. Trustee Maya Russell described her recommendation as "another piece" to protect students, especially those under 12 who can't get vaccinated. Trustees were unanimously in favour of Russell's suggestion.
In response, Education Minister Jennifer Whiteside said Monday public health is using all tools available to manage the pandemic, including in schools.
"Certainly public health is monitoring the development of the situation with respect to schools and will make appropriate decisions in that regard and it's important for boards to be looking to public health for direction," she said.
Health officials have previously said employers have the right to require their workers to be vaccinated. Whiteside said it's the districts who are the teachers' employers, adding that the province is focusing on mandating vaccines for all health-care workers right now.
"We have heard from the (B.C. Teachers' Federation), their own internal assessment of the vaccination situation with their members, is that vaccination rates amongst educators are very high," Whiteside said. "If there's anyone out there who has not yet had their shot, now is your time."
Russell did acknowledge vaccination rates in the district's schools "are very, very high," saying she was "a little bit torn" about her own proposal.
The mother of an accused mass killer has testified he sent her cryptic messages in the days following a shooting that killed five at a Winnipeg rooming house.
Saskatchewan’s scrap tire recycling program remains under scrutiny after the provincial government agreed to a $4.8-million settlement with Saskatoon-based Shercom Industries.
Saskatchewan’s scrap tire recycling program remains under scrutiny after the provincial government agreed to a $4.8-million settlement with Saskatoon-based Shercom Industries.
A defence lawyer for Canadian businessman Frank Stronach is set to continue cross-examining one of his accusers today.
More than 1,000 doctors have left Quebec’s public health-care system and one advocate attributes the departures to a lack of resources and recent government reforms.
Ottawa police say a man died following a stabbing on Rideau Street near the Rideau Centre on Thursday evening.
Standing in the B.C. legislature Thursday, Surrey-White Rock MLA Trevor Halford didn’t mince words.
Curling has been thrust into the limelight following a rules controversy at the Olympics in Cortina, Italy and it has curlers around the world talking.
This week’s blizzard left Prince Albert blanketed by more than a foot of snow and left transit users with limited options.
The Alberta government intends to hold a referendum on immigrants’ status, their access to social services and federal influence over provincial laws and services in October this year.
Reaction to Premier Danielle Smith’s provincewide address was swift Tuesday night, with critics challenging her government’s framing of immigration, economic pressures and Alberta’s finances.
Under the changes announced last week, a Coquitlam family believes their individualized direct funding will drop from $6,000 a year per child to half that amount.
The fallout continues from this week’s contentious Planning and Environment Committee meeting.