Hamilton pastor claims to give ‘thousands’ of exemptions letters for the COVID shot

A Hamilton pastor says he's giving out thousands" of letters to exempt individuals from the COVID shot on the basis of religion.

But despite his claims, there are few places that accept religious exemptions to the vaccine. Patrons inside restaurants, event spaces, gyms and theatres, for example, cannot show proof of a religious exemption in place of vaccination.

In sermons this month, the senior pastor at Kingdom Worship Centre on the central Mountain claimed he wrote thousands" of exemption letters, including for a Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) worker. But HHS said it has only given out medical exemptions.

Hopefully, we'll give out hundreds of thousands," said Peter Marshall in an online video.

In March, the church was the site of a COVID-19 outbreak where 11 parishioners tested positive after an indoor service with dozens of maskless participants. The church voluntarily closed at the time. The city also fined Kingdom Worship Centre $1,000 for infractions under Hamilton's face-covering bylaw related to the service.

In a statement to The Spectator, Marshall said the church gives the letters upon request from those individuals who have Christian religious beliefs and carry out those beliefs in their daily lives."

Testing of the vaccines on aborted fetal cells goes against the conscience and religious beliefs of people of faith," the statement added, noting this is outlined in the letters alongside other biblical creeds."

COVID vaccines don't contain fetal cells. They may have been tested on fetal cell lines, which are different from actual cells in that cell lines grow in labs for decades and the cells multiply, creating generations of fetal cell lines," according to Doctors Manitoba, a group representing the province's more than 3,000 physicians. This means that the cells scientists use today no longer contain fetal tissue."

The issue has caused concern in some communities, with the Vatican's doctrinal office weighing in last December.

When ethically irreproachable COVID-19 vaccines are not available ... it is morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process," said the office. It noted that the moral duty to avoid such passive material co-operation is not obligatory if there is a grave danger ... in this case, the pandemic spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19."

Despite the Hamilton pastor claiming to make exemption letters readily available, there are limited places that would accept them.

Ontario's mandate that requires vaccination to enter venues such as restaurants doesn't allow religious exemptions. Neither does its mandate for long-term-care workers.

Some workplaces with their own vaccination policies, however, do include religious exemptions.

Organizations must try to balance the rights of those who aren't vaccinated on the basis of the Human Rights Code with individual and collective rights to health and safety," the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) said in September. While the OHRC says there's a duty to accommodate medical and disability-related exemptions, its stance is that a person who chooses not to be vaccinated based on personal preference does not have the right to accommodation under the code."

For individuals with creed-based beliefs against vaccination, the duty to accommodate does not necessarily require they be exempted from vaccine mandates, certification or COVID testing requirements," the OHRC says.

While Marshall claimed he gave a religious exemption letter to a worker at Hamilton General Hospital, the only exemptions HHS had accepted as of Nov. 25 were medical, and there were fewer than five.

All exemption requests must be reviewed and approved by HHS to be considered valid and in compliance with our policy," said spokesperson Wendy Stewart in an email.

Some post-secondary institutions are also allowing non-medical exemptions. At Mohawk College, individuals who got one dose of a Health Canada-approved vaccine, or who claimed an exemption or wish to remain unvaccinated, are allowed on campus this semester, said spokesperson Bill Steinburg.

But anyone not fully vaccinated must complete rapid antigen tests every seven days - plus an education program, unless they have a medical exemption. The number of religious exemptions at Mohawk was not available, but Steinburg said about 300 people on campus this semester are getting regular testing, including those with medical and other exemptions.

Next term, Mohawk will only allow exemptions for formally adjudicated" medical and non-medical human rights grounds, he said.

McMaster University permits medical and human rights exemptions, but granted fewer than 10 religious exemptions as of Nov. 24, said spokesperson Wade Hemsworth in an email. Unvaccinated individuals must take an educational session and a rapid COVID test every seven days.

Though Marshall points to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as the basis of his doings, a bioethicist at the University of Manitoba said none of those rights are absolute.

Your right to religious freedom stops when it endangers the life, the health, the safety of other individuals and the community," said Arthur Schafer, founding director of the university's Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics.

Maria Iqbal is a reporter at The Spectator. miqbal@thespec.com