The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed a class action lawsuit launched by 473 Ontario healthcare workers who refused to get vaccinated during the COVID-19 pandemic and were suspended or terminated.
In a lengthy ruling released last week, the court dismissed the workers' claim due to lack of jurisdiction, abuse of process and failure to disclose a reasonable cause of action, and awarded court costs against the plaintiffs to the tune of $190,000.
The action named various government defendants, including Premier Doug Ford, former health minister Christine Elliot, current health minister Sylvia Jones, and former minister of long-term care Paul Calandra.
It also named 54 hospitals and hospital groups across Ontario, including Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital (OSMH).
Several employees — Wendy Baerg, Rachel Blake, Paula Burke, Brianna Grantham, Norma Smith and Andrew Wilgress — from OSMH were part of the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs said the directive they get vaccinated, along with other measures, breached their Charter rights, breached various forms of legislation, and "amounted to misfeasance of public office, conspiracy, intimidation, and intentional infliction of mental anguish."
The court ruled it has no jurisdiction over the claims made by unionized employees.
The court also said the claim constitutes an abuse of process because "the scope of the action is prejudicial, the pleadings are frivolous and vexatious and many of the plaintiffs weren't named or improperly listed."
"It pleads bald allegations without material facts."
The claim failed to prove the defendants were working to conspire with each other to declare "a false pandemic and implementation of coercive and damaging measures" that violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights.
"It strains all credulity to accept that the Premier of Ontario, a number cabinet ministers and 54 non-governmental defendants somehow conspired to concoct a plan to declare a 'false pandemic' all for the predominant purpose of harming the plaintiffs," reads the court ruling.
Together the hospitals sought to recoup $235,589 in legal fees while the province set its partial indemnity costs at $21,425.
The plaintiffs didn't think any costs should be awarded because they are "public interest litigants."
Their lawyer suggested that if costs were awarded, they should be fixed at an amount no higher than $47,462 which reflects their own partial indemnity costs.
Instead, the court, taking into account "the claim's inflammatory, unfounded, and outlandish allegations of conspiracy and misrepresentation" sought punitive measures against the plaintiffs and awarded reduced costs to the hospitals, including disbursements at $175,000.
The plaintiffs will also have to pay the province's costs of $15,000.
