Darryl Hiscocks on mandatory vaccination policies for federally regulated financial institutions

Sun Life Financial Inc. has become one of the first federally regulated financial institutions to announce a mandatory vaccination policy for its staff who wish to participate in their return to work pilot program.

Torys Employment counsel Darryl Hiscocks told The Globe and Mail that “while the government announcement provides guidance for some of Canada’s largest federally regulated companies, it doesn’t cover the vast majority of employees who are provincially or territorially regulated.” 

He noted that the federal government has not provided any specific guidance beyond its announcement about how employees who fail or refuse to get vaccinated can be dealt with by their employers. 

Read: Q3 Torys Quarterly: Proof of vaccination: privacy considerations for businesses 

“It’s one thing as the government to say that you’re going to mandate vaccination, which in itself invites Charter or human rights challenges, but it’s quite another to say what the specific consequences will be for employees failing or refusing to vaccinate—and so far the government appears to have understandably been dodging that question.”

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