Appeal Court tosses case brought by B.C. health executive fired for vaccine refusal

Needles are seen filled with the vaccination for COVID-19 at a truck stop along highway 91 North in Delta, B.C., Wednesday, June 16, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by a fired B.C. health executive to seek employment insurance benefits, nearly five years after he lost his job for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.

Donald Sturgeon was the Interior Health authority’s executive director of medical affairs, but was fired in November 2021 due to his refusal to be vaccinated.

Sturgeon’s bid for benefits has gone through several layers of appeals, including from the Social Security Tribunal, the Federal Court and now the Appeal Court.

He argued his bid for benefits wasn’t a challenge to the health authority’s vaccination policy, but rather the tribunal’s apparent “failure” to interpret how misconduct is weighed against religious freedom that is guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Appeal Court found he didn’t properly raise his Charter arguments with the tribunal, and dismissed his appeal on Tuesday in Vancouver.

Sturgeon’s lawyer Lee Turner says he believes the court and the tribunal have not properly considered religious freedom arguments in respect to the Charter, and they’re considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Turner said Sturgeon had been self-represented and didn’t fill out his appeal form correctly, raising access to justice issues for non-lawyers navigating the system.

He said it’s very difficult for laypersons to represent themselves and is a “real concern (for) what people are expected to go through to have these rights adjudicated.”

The Federal Court dismissed Sturgeon’s case in 2024, finding that his appeal fell outside the tribunal’s mandate.

Sturgeon told The Canadian Press at the time that he had followed his “moral conscience” according to his Roman Catholic beliefs in refusing the vaccine.

He said he wanted to give a “voice” to other employees who had also lost their jobs.

“I was in a leadership position at Interior Health and I was aware of staff like a single mom who has children in a mobile home who lost her job because of this decision and she received no severance, just like me, and she received no employment insurance,” he said after the 2024 ruling.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2026.