'God-given duty': Worker claimed COVID vaccine violated his faith, contained ‘unclean additives’
The Alberta Human Rights Tribunal has upheld the dismissal of a discrimination complaint from an employee who was suspended for refusing COVID-19 vaccination.
The tribunal ruled that personal religious statements are insufficient without objective evidence linking beliefs to specific religious tenets.
In the decision dated Oct. 29, 2025, Member of the Commission Evaristus Oshionebo found that Nicholas Pothier failed to establish his objection was based on a sincerely held religious belief and that he frustrated the accommodation process by refusing to complete required exemption documentation.
Pothier, an employee at Canadian Natural Resources who began working from home in March 2020, opposed the company's mandatory vaccination policy on religious grounds. He stated he was a Christian who believed COVID-19 vaccines violated his faith because they "used aborted human fetal cells and cell lines in various research, development, production and manufacturing phases of their production" and contained "unclean additives."
In his complaint form, Pothier wrote: "I have a God-given duty to protect the physical integrity of my body against unclean food and injections" and that "My religious belief require[s] me to prioritize what the Scriptures teach before all other authority."
However, the tribunal found these subjective statements inadequate. The...
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