The BC Court of Appeal sidestepped a Charter challenge to the province’s COVID-19 vaccine passport scheme for failing to create a workable system for medical exemptions, disappointing plaintiffs and their advocate.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) helped three patients named Sharon, Veronica and Erica put their case forward. Sharon had developed a neurological condition called brachial neuritis after receiving one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Erica, a teenage girl, developed a type of heart inflammation called pericarditis. Veronica is a medically complex individual with a long history of adverse outcomes in response to surgeries and drugs, who declined vaccination.

In Kassian v British Columbia, 2025 BCCA 20, Justices Groberman, Abrioux, and Skolrood ruled, “The only remedy that is sought is declaratory, and it would have no practical effect. Given the factual complexity of the constitutional issue, and the absence of any practical effect, the Court declines to address the issue of whether the failure of the initial regime to provide for blanket exemptions was a violation of s. 15.”

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