News
Featured Image
 Shutterstock

(LifeSiteNews) — The president of one of Canada’s largest unions representing dockworkers has asked the federal government and Transport Canada to leave them alone when it comes to mandating COVID jabs.

According to a Western Standard report, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) president Rob Ashton wrote in a letter to Marc-Yves Bertin and Julie Gascon of Transport Canada that “no third-party intervention is necessary.”

“Our track record speaks for itself this far into the pandemic, and we feel that what we have been and continue to do is working very well,” wrote Ashton in his letter, which the Western Standard says is dated October 14.

According to its website, ILWU Canada Longshore Division is involved in the “loading, unloading and checking of cargo to and from vessels, and the storage of these goods on the docks and in warehouses across the country.”

It represents over 7,200 workers in British Columbia and is the official bargaining agent for those employees at all levels of government.

In his letter to Transport Canada, Ashton wrote that Canada’s Labour Code mandates that workers have a right to have a “say in safety at their workplaces.”

“The Government of Canada should not take this right away from us,” wrote Ashton.

In early October, Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau announced draconian and unprecedented COVID-19 jab mandates for all federal workers, and said the un-jabbed will no longer be able to travel by air, boat, or train.

Along with mandating all federal workers be jabbed, Trudeau also said that all federally regulated industries such as airlines, and marine transportation, would also have to mandate COVID injections.

It is estimated there are around 267,000 employees who work in the federal service. They have until October 29 to disclose their jab status or risk losing their job.

Constitutional groups have blasted Trudeau’s COVID-19 jab mandate for travel and work, as well as many provincial and municipal COVID jab mandates. Some unions have fought back.

In August, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) said it is “unacceptable” that Canada’s federal government would use “discipline” to mandate its new requirement that all civil servants receive COVID-19 vaccines by October.

In September, the union representing Canada’s national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said it would stand by officers who decide to not get the COVID-19 jabs.

The Canadian government says that for now, employees need only to sign an attestation form saying they are fully vaccinated. They do not need to show proof of their “vaccination” status. At the same time, the government says it will be performing random audits to verify one’s jab status.

Trudeau said only a “limited” number of medical exemptions will be made for those who are un-jabbed and want to travel or work in the public service.

People can ask to be accommodated under the Canadian Human Rights Act, but they must first sign an attestation form.