A former Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) captain and helicopter pilot has been granted permission to appeal a denial of his Employment Insurance (EI) benefits after he was terminated from the military for declining a COVID-19 shot on the basis of his religious beliefs.
Captain Michal Zagol was granted leave to appeal to the Appeal Division of the Social Security Tribunal (SST) on Aug. 23. Permission was necessary to challenge the General Division’s rejection of Mr. Zagol’s EI benefits, a decision made on June 9 due to alleged “misconduct.” The pilot submitted his appeal on July 4.
The Appeal Division grants leave to appeal only in circumstances where it can be shown that the General Division of the SST failed to follow a fair process, failed to decide a matter which it should have ruled on, failed to follow the law correctly, or misunderstood or overlooked important facts.
In issuing leave to appeal, tribunal member Pierre Lafontaine said Mr. Zagol’s claim “has a reasonable chance of success.”
“My religion is not misconduct,” Mr. Zagol said. “I researched at length and discovered all of the vaccines were tested on human fetal cells. Taking the COVID shots would be immoral.”
He said despite a number of meetings with his commanding officer explaining his religious beliefs and discussing why they prevented Mr. Zagol from being vaccinated, he was declined an exemption at the beginning of December 2021.
The denial came after the CAF had already escalated administrative penalties against him, said Mr. Zagol. He submitted a grievance but was terminated from his position with the Air Force Division of CAF on June 13, 2022, after hours of training on specialized aircraft and helicopters.
He began flight training in a Grob G120A fixed-wing trainer, a two-seat aerobatic low-wing aircraft with a tricycle landing gear, specifically designed for agility and precision.
“I didn’t think they would really go through with terminating me,” said Mr. Zagol. “It caught me by surprise. I was totally blindsided. I never intended or planned to transition to civilian life.”
“I probably had over a million-dollars-worth of training,” he added. “I had a job with job security, I was paid well, my pay was adjusted to inflation. I had always wanted to fly.”
“It was really upsetting,” he said.
At that point, released from the military and into the civilian world, the former captain was a highly trained pilot without a private pilot’s license. Regardless of his hours of flight training as a CAF captain, Mr. Zagol still has to go through the same commercial pilot training requirements as anyone else, according to the Canadian Aviation Regulations (CARs).
The former military captain spent a number of months unemployed and was denied EI benefits. Mr. Zagol recently moved to Calgary, Alberta, in search of new work and a transition into civilian aviation.
Mr. Zagol’s attorney, Jody Wells, told The Epoch Times that her client’s employer, the EI Commission, and the SST General Division “all accepted that the reason for his inability to receive COVID shots was his sincerely held religious beliefs, yet they still deemed it misconduct under the EI Act.”
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) told The Epoch Times that a fundamental principle of EI benefits is that an employee needs to have lost their employment “through no fault of their own.”
ESDC said the EI Act “does not discriminate based on a prohibited ground within the meaning of the Canadian Human Rights Act, including religion.”
“‘Misconduct’ refers to any inappropriate action, offence, or professional fault committed willingly or deliberately by a person while working for an employer. This does not refer to one’s religious beliefs,” said a spokesperson for the department, adding, “Vaccinations as a condition of employment may lead to workers being dismissed or suspended without pay from their employment if they refuse to comply.”
“The Canadian Armed Forces always bases its decisions on vaccination by considering the most up-to-date medical evidence and advice, the current federal posture, and the need to be operationally ready in terms of both force health and ability to act in an environment where any vaccine-preventable illness is a hazard to individuals and the mission,” said the ESDC.
Mr. Zagol’s appeal is scheduled for Nov. 30.
