For 20 years, Nadine worked as a middle and high school English teacher. In 2021, after spending 15 years teaching at a charter school, she moved to a school that offered IB English, expecting to work here until retirement.

In September 2021, she was enjoying her first month and a half of work at the Calgary French and International School when the school implemented a COVID vaccine mandate enforced through termination for cause. She had until the end of October to “comply” or be put on “unpaid leave” and then fired 30 days later.

 

Human Rights Accommodation Request

Nadine applied for a human rights accommodation on the basis of mental disability, which is a protected characteristic under the Alberta Human Rights Act. This included a letter of support and diagnosis from her psychologist which specified her anxiety around injections. This anxiety has meant that she does not receive any vaccines, not just the COVID vaccines.

The school denied Nadine’s request for accommodation. She then resigned her position before going through the humiliation of being fired for discriminatory reasons.

 

Human Rights Complaint and Court Action

Nadine submitted a human rights complaint, but after 2 years the Alberta Human Rights Commission summarily dismissed this complaint as having no reasonable prospect of success.

She subsequently applied for a Judicial Review to the Court of King’s Bench, asking the Court to overturn the decision and direct the Human Rights Tribunal to hold a hearing on her complaint. In April 2026, the Court of King’s Bench upheld the decision from the Commission in a decision that, among other things, she finds concerning regarding its treatment of mental disability. Now she is appealing this decision to the Alberta Court of Appeal.

 

Impact of the Case

During this period of vaccination mandates, employers did not consider individual cases of mental disability. This is an issue that the Human Rights Commission should address. It is never too late to set things right and to honour those whose only request was to keep their employment without discrimination. The impact of the mandates is still being felt today. It impacted not just Nadine, but her family. Losing her livelihood in such a devastating way still impacts her today and likely will for the rest of her life.

Readers who wish to support Nadine may do so here.

This article was prepared by the editorial team at Kitchen & Wells LLP
to provide general information on current legal matters.