A group of 15 students is taking legal action against Ryerson University for deregistering them from their programs after they chose not to comply with the school’s vaccine mandate.
According to the group, to date up to 3,600 students have been de-enrolled from their programs, in addition to loss of student employment, scholarships, funding, and peace of mind.
The instructions by Moore offered three options for universities to administer the mandate: accepting proof of full vaccination against COVID-19, proof of medical exemptions, and offering educational sessions about the virus. The students who filed the lawsuit argued that Ryerson did not offer the third option to them at any point in time.
“Under ‘Required Precautions and Procedures,’ section 1 c) grants Ontario Universities the option of allowing students to receive an educational session about COVID-19 vaccines instead of pursuing vaccination or an approved exemption. Ryerson University did not present this option to students. There is not a single instance in these instructions which recommended that students be de-enrolled for non-compliance,” the group said.
“Considering all aforementioned points, it appears that Ryerson University has adopted a heavy-handed approach in regards to the implementation of their COVID-19 vaccination policy.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Ryerson for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication.
“These students are women and men, undergrads and grad students, studying in fields as diverse as Economics to Engineering; from Management to Medical Physics,” O’Connor said in a series of tweets on April 6.
“Their reasons for being unable to comply with the mandate are diverse and not to stereotype. Some have faith-based reasons. Others have medical or age-related concerns. Still others believed that their university shouldn’t have access to their confidential health status.”
The lawyer went on to say many of these students had sought exemptions on religious or medical grounds.
“All of these students had their exemption requests denied,” he said. As a result, the students—and potentially thousands of others at Ryerson—were deregistered from winter term courses.
“The university had no legal obligation to deregister these students,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor said while the university has made the announcement, it did not say the mandates will be gone for good.
“[Ryerson] has not rescinded the mandate and it reserves the right to reimpose it in future academic terms if it believes this is necessary,” he said.
The lawyer said given the reluctance of Ryerson to revoke the mandates permanently, the students will seek an injunction to prevent the university from enforcing the mandate while the lawsuit proceeds through the court process over the coming weeks.
“The students hope that the lawsuit and the injunction will set a precedent for not only Ryerson students but all other university and college students in Ontario, Canada, who have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” the group said.
