A Canadian judge has reportedly stripped an unvaccinated man of child custody amid concerns that his immunocompromised child could catch Covid from him.
Justice Nathalie Godbout of the Court of Queen’s Bench ruled against the unnamed man, who refused to get vaccinated against Covid despite the health status of his 10-year-old son.
The News Brunswick judge also debunked the man’s own “research” into the Covid vaccines, and sided with the boy’s mother who had asked for sole custody rights because of Covid concerns, according to CBC News.
“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,” the justice ruled on Wednesday.
Godboit added that it was “with a heavy heart” that the man had his right to see his son and two other children removed, but that science was “no contest”.
“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,” the court ruled of the man, who was allowed to see his children 50 per cent of the time before this week’s ruling.
It was reported that a new order allows the man to speak with his children virtually, and that he may regain custodial rights if he gets vaccinated against Covid.
Sheila Cameron, a family lawyer from southwest New Brunswick, told the Canadian broadcaster that Covid had created situations such as this one that “I’ve never seen in 29 years of practice, and thankfully we have judges giving us guidance on those things”.
The ruling was thought to be a first in the Canadian province, and comes amid a week-long demonstration against Covid vaccine mandates carried out by truckers.
