Thread by @bilnaben

1. Transports Canada has enacted an Order under the Aeronautics Act that prohibits Canadian citizens who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 from travelling by air. Here is this measure is unconstitutionnal:

2. Section 6(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures the mobility rights of every Canadian citizen. This freedom includes the right to enter or leave Canada;

3. Access to planes is still the safest and most efficient way for Canadian citizens to exercise this right and the Canadian government has an obligation to ensure access to it for everyone;

4. Transports Canada's ban is discriminatory against Canadian citizens based on their non-vaccinated status against COVID-19, violating the right to equality under section 15(1) of the Charter;

5. This Order provides for a general prohibition on boarding an aircraft for non-vaccinated Canadian citizens against COVID-19 but allows it to non-vaccinated foreigners who present a negative test for COVID-19;

6. Transports Canada foresees more stringent measures towards its own citizens compared to the foreigners, hence discriminating on the basis of their citizenship and violating once again the right to equality provided for in Article 15(1) of the Charter;

7. This discrimination is also at odds with the principles of the Citizenship Act, which states that Canadian citizenship confers rights, powers and privileges in Canada;

8. Furthermore, these violations of rights and freedoms are not justified in a free and democratic society, contrary to section 1 of the Charter and the jurisprudential criteria established in Oakes for the following reasons;

9. There is no rational connection between the Order's objective of ensuring public safety and the means used to achieve it, which is to ban non-vaccinated citizens from aeroplanes departing from Canada;

10. Empirical evidence indicates that both vaccinated and non-vaccinated individuals contract and transmit COVID-19 and, should it be added, both citizens and foreigners;

11. Similarly, the Order only applies to flights departing from Canada; one must ask why a non-vaccinated citizen is a danger on a flight leaving Canada, but not on a flight to Canada; or on a flight between two Canadian cities;

12. If the Canadian government believes that all of this is rational, the burden of proof is on the person claiming a restriction on fundamental rights to show that it is justifiable by strong and persuasive evidence;

13. Additionally, the restriction does not satisfy the minimal impairment test since there are other ways to achieve the same objective with less impairment of rights and freedoms, such as a negative test, which is already in place in the Order for those who have been vaccinated;

14. Alternatively, the provisions of the Order contravenes Canada's international human rights commitments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

15. Article 13(2) stipulates that everyone has the right to leave any country, including his or her own. In addition to being a violation of Canadian law, this Order is a violation of an international obligation of the State;

16. For all of these reasons, and others, I have filed an application for judicial review for a declaratory judgment of unlawful act and a claim for damages in the Federal Court.