Tue Aug 17, 2021 – 4:05 pm EDT
POWELL RIVER, British Columbia (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian provincial Supreme Court judge has ruled that lawyers are not allowed to ask potential jurors if they have received COVID-19 vaccinations.
Crown prosecutors had sought permission to request that the vaccination status of individual jurors be made known to the public as part of a given trial. According the Canadian Blacklock’s Reporter, the Justice who oversaw the ruling, Geoffrey Gomery, stated that the request was not acceptable because the issue was “private and personal.”
Gomery wrote that “panelists might well have reasons to wish not to discuss their vaccination status in public in the intimidating environment of a courtroom.” In the estimation of the judge, disclosing personal medical information is inappropriate.
According to the judge, courts have taken what health officials consider the necessary precautions to avoid a COVID-19 outbreak. Various measures have been put in place, including distancing measures and plastic dividers.
Gomery stated that “until quite recently it could be assumed most jurors were unvaccinated,” and that he cannot recall a single outbreak “that has been traced to the conduct of a criminal or civil trial.”
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