Western University to Continue Mask Mandate Until End of Fall Semester

A building at Western University in London, Ont., in a file photo. HnSCarbone/Shutterstock

Western University announced it will keep its mask mandate until the end of the fall term in an update from the vice-president on Oct. 17.

“After careful consultation with health experts and members of our community, Western’s masking requirement will continue until the end of fall term,” provost and VP Florentine Strzelczyk said in a letter posted on the university’s website.

Western’s policy requires students to wear medical-grade masks in instructional places such as classrooms, labs, and seminar rooms.

Strzelczyk’s letter also said “safety ambassadors” would continue to drop in on classrooms to make sure mask mandates are being followed. She said the university made medical-grade masks available for students in the library and in front of the major classrooms.

A June 29 update said Western was dropping its mask requirements in the Western Student Recreation Centre. It said this was the beginning of the school “gradually lifting safety protocols.”

“Public health continues to encourage the use of masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Please respect those who choose to continue to wear masks,” the update said.

Strzelczyk said the decision to continue with mask requirements “is driven by our desire to protect the in-person learning environment. We also want individuals who are at a greater risk to remain safe in class.”

The only change, she said, is that leaders of research labs could make their own mask requirements based on their environments.

Vaccine Mandate

Western is also continuing with its controversial three-dose vaccine mandate. It was opposed by the University of Western Ontario Staff Association, which said it violated the union’s collective agreement and the province’s human rights code. Also, hundreds of students marched across the campus in protest of the mandate on Aug. 27.

Initially, the deadline for the third dose was October 2022, but it has now been pushed ahead to January 2023.

On Sept. 30, The Democracy Fund (TDF), a charity dedicated to constitutional rights, announced it would appeal the decision of an Ontario Superior Court judge which denied its claim that Western’s collection of COVID-19 vaccine data violated privacy laws.

“It should not be the case that an institution can get around specific prohibitions against collecting private information by simply drafting a policy, authorizing it, and then calling that policy its ‘activity,’” TDF lawyer Mark Joseph said in a press release.

“Specific legislation always takes precedence over a general grant of powers.”

On Oct. 18, Seneca College in Ontario announced that it will end its vaccine mandates on Dec. 31, due to being “unable to independently and accurately verify vaccination status.”