Can Manitoba businesses turn away unvaccinated customers?
Eating inside restaurants with friends, domestic travel without quarantine, and visiting loved ones in long-term care are freedoms double vaccination gets you in Manitoba right now. These stipulations are written in public health orders, which won't be around forever. Now, with Manitoba getting closer to post-pandemic life, questions remain about whether businesses will be able to require full vaccination from their customers. Arthur Schafer, professor and founding director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba, said private businesses, organizations and services providers are entitled to restrict who can access their services to a certain degree. However, they cannot violate the provincial Human Rights Code. "It's not wrongful discrimination so long as the distinction is to promote a pressing goal and it's necessary and it's proportional," Schafer said. "The harm you're preventing is much greater than the harm you're causing." Schafer said reasonable accommodations would also need to be made, where possible, for people who are not vaccinated, like a restaurant offering take-out or online training through a gym. Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba's chief provincial public health officer, said on Monday that there is going to be more guidance on this. He noted the idea is to get as many people vaccinated now to reach a level that benefits the whole population. "We know right now that those under age 12 for instance, are unable to get vaccinated currently," Roussin said. "The more people that are vaccinated around them, protects them, you know, and if we have all doubly-vaccinated people around them, those doubly-vaccinated people are protected too. So you can really see that the population-level benefits." Roussin said public health wants to get to a place where there are only recommendations, not public health orders. As for those who have a condition that prevents them from getting the vaccine, Schafer said a medical exemption should be added to Manitoba's immunization card to include immuno-compromised people.