The problem arises when the father requests an extension of his specified visitation period (Representative)
Québec:
A Canadian father, unvaccinated against Covid and “opposed to health measures”, has lost visitation rights to his 12-year-old son after a Quebec judge ruled that his visits would not “best interests” of the child.
The decision, which was initially reported by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir and consulted by AFP, was made on December 23 and suspends the father’s visitation rights until February, unless he decides to have an injection. room.
“It is not in the child’s best interest to be exposed to their father if he is unvaccinated and opposes medical measures in light of the current epidemiological circumstances,” the judge said in the ruling. his report, referring to a spike in Covid cases due to the Omicron variant.
The problem arose when the father requested an extension of his allotted visitation time during the holidays.
The mother objected to his request. She told the court she had recently found out he was unvaccinated and showed his previous social media posts expressing opposition to the health measures.
The judge noted that while the child was vaccinated, their protection “seems to be diminished against the Omicron variant that is widespread in Quebec at the present time.”
The mother also lives with her partner and two other children, 7 months and 4 years old – too young to receive the vaccines Canada has allowed since the age of five.
“In these circumstances, it was not in the interest of any of the three children to send a 12-year-old child to visit his father,” the judge ruled.
Although more than 90% of adults in Quebec are vaccinated against Covid-19, the province has seen a sharp increase in cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks due to the rapidly spreading variant of Omicron.
In an effort to stem a new wave, Quebec announced on December 30 the return of certain restrictions, including a 10 p.m. curfew and a ban on private gatherings.
The French-speaking province will also impose a new health tax on unvaccinated people in the coming weeks and has banned them from entering non-essential shops.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
