An unprecedented decision. In Quebec, a man was suspended from custody of his 12-year-old child because he was not vaccinated against Covid-19. The court ruled that it was not in the “best interests of the child” to have contact with his father if he did not go through the vaccination box.
This decision dates from last December 23, and was revealed on Wednesday January 12 by the Quebec newspaper The duty. According to his information, this would be the first judgment depriving a parent of custody of his child in connection with the vaccination.
In its judgment, the court stated that “it would normally have been in the best interests of the child to have contact with his father, but not in his best interest to have contact with him if he did not. ‘is not vaccinated and is opposed to health measures in the current epidemiological context. “
Before this case, the mother of the child had custody, and the father custody rights “every other weekend” as well as a week during the holidays. The man then applied to the court to review his custody rights, wishing to see more of his child during the holidays, which the mother refused. She then asked for the suspension of rights, expressing her fears about the non-vaccination of her ex-spouse and her alleged membership of conspiracy movements and antivax.
Pinned social media posts
The judge did note that extracts from the father’s social media posts “reveal that he does indeed appear to oppose vaccines and health measures” and “suggest that he is indeed what is commonly called a “conspiratorial”, so that the court has strong reasons to doubt that it complies with the sanitary measures as it claims to do in its written statement. “
Faced with the ever-increasing traffic of variant Omicron, the judge therefore suspended the father’s custody rights until the beginning of February, unless the latter decides to be vaccinated, which could be a game-changer.