My Canadaian university denied my religious vaccine exemption request, what type of lawyer do I speak to? I am situated in Canada. And go to a Canadian university (in Toronto). My university has a vaccine mandate for the Covid-19 vaccine, which I have requested an exemption to, due to issues with the vaccine and my religion. Anyways, I would like to know more about why I was denied and how I can remediate this, and think that speaking to a lawyer about this (my response to the denial) is my best move. So, since im not from Canada (from US), I dont know what type of lawyer to try and contact...?
Canadian lawyers who handle this kind of matter usually describe themselves as &quot;human rights&quot; and/or &quot;discrimination&quot; lawyers. No formal regulatory specialty is recognized or required, however. Any licensed lawyer in good standing is legally permitted to take on such a case.
Religious protection from federal warrants is not a First Amendment issue. If protected at all, the best argument would be in RFRA, the federal statute implemented in 42 U.S.C. §2000bb-1 et seq. It provides that the "Government shall not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion..." except if the burden "is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest." It is my guess that every court in the U.S. would agree that a search warrant issued upon probable cause is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest, and having an agent or two walk through the house (or whatever is necessary in order to exercise that warrant) is the least restrictive means of furthering that interest.
south-africa It is legal for South African employers to adopt a mandatory vaccination policy. The guidelines for such policies are described in Annexure C of Consolidated Coronavirus COVID-19 Direction on Occupational Health and Safety Measures in Certain Workplaces, released in June 2021. Briefly, it appears that employers may impose mandatory vaccination policies. However, employees can object to being vaccinated policy on &quot;constitutional1 or medical grounds&quot;. If the employee does so, the employer must &quot;counsel the employee&quot;, refer them for further medical examination (if a medical exemption is claimed), and provide &quot;reasonable accommodations&quot; so that employees who remain unvaccinated can remain employed. What exactly is a &quot;reasonable accommodation&quot; is in the eye of the beholder. Working from home is mentioned as a possible accommodation in the above-linked document. Other possible accommodations might include being transferred to a position that involves less public interaction, being required to wear a mask at all times, or working at different hours or a different location from other employees. If reasonable accommodations cannot be made due to the nature of the employer and the employee's position &amp; duties, then the employee may be dismissed. Ultimately, what types of accommodations are &quot;reasonable&quot; will depend on the specific circumstances of the employer and the employee. If you are considering going this route, it would be worth your while to consult with a lawyer. If you have a trade union that represents you, it might be worth consulting with them as well. Finally, while the above outlines your legal rights to refuse to be vaccinated, I feel obliged to encourage you to just get vaccinated. The risks are minuscule and the benefits to you and those around you are substantial. 1 &quot;Constitutional&quot; here refers to religious beliefs but also to Section 12(2)(b) of the South African Constitution, which guarantees that everyone has the right &quot;to security in and control over their body&quot;.
You clearly cannot provide data that you haven't stored – and not storing data is a good thing under the Art 5(1)(c) Data Minimization Principle. Despite the Art 20 data portability right being conditional on that the data subject has provided data and not on that data has been stored, I think responding to such a request with “sorry, as per our privacy policy we do not store this data” would be perfectly fine. It is also curious that you are using consent as the legal basis for the purpose of selecting the website language. How do you obtain consent from visitors? How can you prove that you got consent? In many ways, consent is the legal basis of last resort, and I'd think that legitimate interest would be a much more straightforward approach in your case.
How should I proceed? I am asking law friends to recommend some employment lawyers, but other than this, can I do anything else? You definitely don't need an employment lawyer for this. From a legal standpoint, the matter is very simple: If you grant their request (whether by signing or otherwise expressing your acceptance), you would be waiving any remedies currently available to you for their breach of contract. The company's attempt to override its contract with you is quite naive, but the company can always (and evidently does) try to get away with its liability nonetheless. I would not be surprised if the company subsequently tries harder to intimidate you, but that does not change your legal position &amp; merits unless you sign the waiver the company is pursuing. Asking for your post-termination availability reinforces the notion of company's poor planning and subpar management.
According to the EEOC, in general: An employee cannot be forced to participate (or not participate) in a religious activity as a condition of employment. But how religious is this party? Simply calling it a "Christmas party" (or "holiday party") doesn't really make it a "religious activity". Many nonreligious people celebrate Christmas as a general holiday. If the party is nonreligious, then your religion is mostly irrelevant, whether or not it celebrates a winter holiday. The law requires an employer or other covered entity to reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of the employer's business. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice his or her religion. So, they'd likely have to serve something you could eat if they're serving food, as that would be a reasonable accommodation. (But you'd have to inform them of your needs beforehand; asking them to go out and buy something during the party would probably not be "reasonable".)
The vaccine card doesn't have a specific legal status under US law. There are federal laws against fraud which would encompass vaccine card fraud, but tidying up disparate notices into a single notice is not fraudulent (there is no attempt to deceive), as long as you don't falsify signatures, seals, or specific information. From a practical perspective, though, the official vaccination record from your state is a better and more official way to have a single proof of vaccination. There is probably no practical way to transport vaccinations from a foreign country into the US system, but that is a question best asked on Travel, since it's not about the law, it's about quasi-legal mandates authorized under broad laws that say &quot;in an emergency, the government can stipulate necessary rules&quot;.
You don’t “accept” a waiver Waiving a right is a unilateral action - you aren’t involved. You can neither accept it nor reject it. What you can do is rely on that waiver as an estoppel to them changing their mind latter.