AToronto police officers who are not fully vaccinated by November 30 will be placed on an indefinite unpaid absence and will not be permitted to enter TPS buildings or facilities.
Toronto police officers who ignore vaccine mandate will be placed on ‘indefinite unpaid absence’
“Effective on Nov. 30, 2021, any member, uniform or civilian, who has not disclosed their vaccination status or is not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will have rendered themselves unable to perform their duties,” Toronto police said in a statement Thursday.
AToronto police officers who are not fully vaccinated by November 30 will be placed on an indefinite unpaid absence and will not be permitted to enter TPS buildings or facilities.
Taking their strongest stance yet on mandatory vaccination, Toronto police announced Thursday that officers who don’t have both doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of November will no longer be paid and can’t come into work, having “rendered themselves unable to perform their duties.”
As of Nov. 30, any Toronto police employee who is not fully vaccinated or has not disclosed this status will be placed on an “indefinite unpaid absence” — a move lauded by one physician as a “positive step” towards protecting the public, who often have no choice but to interact with officers. These employees will also not be permitted to enter Toronto police buildings or facilities.
And, effective immediately, unvaccinated officers — a category that includes anyone who has not disclosed their status to police — are ineligible for promotion to supervisory or management positions. In the statement, Toronto police chief James Ramer stressed that COVID-19 vaccination “protects the health and safety of each of our members, our workplaces and the public we serve.”
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Responding in a public statement on Thursday, Toronto Police Association (TPA) president Jon Reid stressed that the union is encouraging all members to get vaccinated, but that it also has a “duty of fair representation, which means that we must continue to represent and support all members regardless of their choice.
In an email to members Thursday and obtained by the Star, the TPA went further, saying it had filed a policy grievance “alleging that the Chief’s order and policy is unreasonable.”
“An independent arbitrator will address both an interim relief order and resolution to our grievance through an accelerated grievance process,” the email said.
The officers’ union in August opposed the mandatory vaccination policy due to missing “critical details,” and later negotiated an arrangement with Toronto police where members who did not disclose their vaccination status were not disciplined.
As of right now, any moves to place employees on an unpaid absence could affect more than 10 per cent of the workforce — as of Thursday, 90 per cent of Toronto police’s approximately 7,500 employees had disclosed their status, and of those 94 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Kent Roach, a University of Toronto law professor whose expertise includes policing, said Thursday that the policy announced by Toronto police “seems very sensible” but noted it will be interesting to see the TPA response.
Should the union raise a challenge, “I predict much of the public will be non-supportive,” Roach said.
In their statement, Toronto police said any accommodation under the Human Rights Code “will be respected.” The service also noted that the restrictions announced Thursday are consistent with the approach taken by many others, including the City of Toronto, which has said that employees who do not provide proof of two doses by the week of Nov, 1 face six weeks’ suspension without pay.
Waterloo and London police services, too, have said employees will be placed on an unpaid leave if not vaccinated by a certain date.
Dr. Naheed Dosani, a Toronto-based palliative care physician and health justice activist, said he was concerned that it has taken as long as it has for Toronto police to announce these restrictions, but was happy with the move.
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“This is a very positive step in the right direction to prioritize, health and safety of a public who often doesn’t have a lot of control about whether or not they will interact with police officers,” Dosani said.
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