Case Conference Sought In Stale Military Injection Pass Case

Parties in a 2023 case over injection passes in the military are asking the Court what to do next. The disagreement comes over how to proceed. The Defendants want to bring a Motion to Strike — to throw out the case — while the Plaintiffs want to pursue other steps first.

The lawsuit itself hasn’t progressed since the pleadings were filed in 2023.

The information about the Plaintiffs is interesting, and the paths they’ve taken are varied. The lengths of service for some exceed 25 years. They’re located all over Canada, and are involved in many occupations. Some of them were kicked out for refusing the shots, or forced to retire. Others took them, and have ongoing health problems.

From the information listed in the Statement of Defence, any preliminary challenge would most likely be based on 2 ideas:

1. Lack of jurisdiction (a.k.a. alternative system available); and
2. Insufficient detail pleaded in Statement of Claim

15. The Plaintiffs had recourse through the grievance process established under the National
Defence Act (“NDA”). The CAF grievance process is set out in sections 29 to 29.15 of the NDA and Chapter 7 of the Queen’s Regulations and Orders (“QR&O”). Subsection 29(1) of the NDA provides that any officer or non-commissioned member of the CAF who has been aggrieved by any decision, act or omission in the administration of the affairs of the CAF for which no other process for redress is provided under the NDA is entitled to submit a grievance.

Just as in Qualizza and Neri, the Government here claims that Plaintiffs “should” have filed grievances, similar to how unionize workers do. This is invoking the defence that the Federal Court has no jurisdiction to hear the case, regardless of the merits. This has gotten many related suits thrown out.

The Statement of Defence also says that current and former veterans have the option of applying for compensation, which must be exhausted prior to commencing litigation.

The Government also criticises the quality of the Statement of Claim itself. While over 30 declarations are sought, critical detail is missing from the pleading.

A complaint here (and common in these cases) is that necessary detail is missing to even theoretically advance. For example, while many Plaintiffs claim to have a religious objection to the shots, under Section 2(a) of the Charter, not one of them explains what the objection actually is. Here’s a primer in what should be added.

True, one could easily argue that the Charter is useless, and it largely is. But then, why makes such claims in the first place?

While the Statement of Claim makes many accusations against the military, and very serious ones, they do need to be spelled out in much greater detail.

Unfortunately, far too few people get their “day in Court”. In an ideal world, every valid case would get to Trial. However, thousands of Plaintiffs have seen their cases thrown out (often for lack of jurisdiction) prior to any ruling on the merits. And others are bogged down by drafting deficiencies.

(1) Bruce Statement Of Claim
(2) Bruce Statement Of Defence
(3) Bruce Reply Statement
(4) Bruce Notice Of Discontinuance McLaren
(5) Bruce Notice Of Discontinuance Radford
(6) Bruce Letter To The Court