Unvaccinated Dad Loses Custody Of Children After Refusing COVID-19 Jab

A man in the Canadian province of New Brunswick has been prohibited from seeing his children after he refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and also attempted to block the kids, including his immunocompromised daughter, from receiving their jabs.

Justice Nathalie Godbout of the Court of Queen's Bench temporarily suspended the unidentified father's in-person access to his three children "with a heavy heart" in a written decision issued Monday, which also ruled that the kids’ mother can have the minors vaccinated against the coronavirus despite their father's objection, The Canadian Press reported.

The former couple had shared custody of the children on alternate weeks since they split in 2019, but the mother filed a motion with the court in October 2021 to have the father's in-person parenting rights suspended after she discovered last July that neither the father nor his new partner had been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the news agency.

Additionally, the father also refused to sign the consent forms allowing the children's vaccination when they became eligible for the jab, prompting the mother to also ask permission to have the three get jabbed without their father's consent in her appeal.

One of the pair's children — a 10-year-old girl — is currently undergoing treatment for non-cancerous tumors in her blood vessels, a report by CBC News said.

The father had concluded that the COVID-19 vaccines posed a risk to his immunocompromised daughter after he did his own "research" regarding the subject, according to the judge.

However, the judge pointed to the credible public health advice contradicting the father's claims and noted that his daughter's doctor recommended for him to get vaccinated in order to protect the child from the coronavirus.

"This research is not set out in (his) affidavits in any meaningful way, other than his subjective assertion that it informs his choice and is from 'credible sources.' [The father] may find himself conducting 'research' for information that supports his position, leaving him blind to evidence that does not," Godbout explained.

The father's refusal to get vaccinated against COVID-19 has consequences for him and his children, who "must be given their best possible chance at evading infection from [the virus]," according to the judge.

Despite his decisions, Godbout still allowed the man "generous" parenting time via phone or video.

He can also file an urgent request for the suspension to be reviewed if he gets vaccinated, the judge said.

The former couple's three children have received their first doses of the vaccine since the Monday ruling, according to Fredericton lawyer Grant Ogilvie, who represented the mother.

"She was ecstatic in some regards. But this isn't a case where she wants to take the children away from their father. This is what's best for the children, period. She's acknowledged this is going to have an impact on the children, but she said, 'I have to do what's best for them,'" Ogilvie was quoted as saying.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains that COVID-19 vaccines are "safe and effective." The agency urged immunocompromised people to get vaccinated as they are "especially vulnerable" to the virus.

Canada has reported a total of 3,096,217 coronavirus cases and 34,381 deaths, publicly available government data showed.