Kelowna doctor in upcoming court challenge of vaccine mandates for healthcare workers

Court dates have seen set for a challenge of the province’s requirement that healthcare workers must have COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Joshua Nordine, a family doctor with Rutland Medical Associates, is named in a Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms news release as one of several health care workers it is representing in the case.

He’s the only one named.

The release says that 10 days have been set aside for the B.C. Supreme Court hearings starting Nov. 28 and winding up Dec. 9. It will be heard along with three other cases that are based on similar grounds.

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The legal action is challenging the province’s right to require specific groups of healthcare workers to be vaccinated as well as the requirement for healthcare professionals to disclose their vaccine status.

Dr. Nordine is also a spokesperson for a Hire Back our Heroes campaign that is trying to get all healthcare workers rehired after they were fired for not getting vaccinated against COVID, the news release says.

"According to Dr. Nordine, the B.C. provincial health care system is short staffed and faltering because of COVID vaccine mandates," the news release says.

Dr. Nordine did not respond to a request for an interview prior to publication time.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is a Calgary-based organization that has provided legal support to challenges against COVID restrictions all over Canada.

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