cyasoon

this thread has gone off topic with people's personal opinions about vaccinations.

I can't determine a definitive answer from those who responded as to whether vaccinations are mandatory in Canada. I checked out a number of provinces and jabs clearly are not mandatory with the easy option of submitting a letter to school/GP.

Does the Canadian public have a choice to vaccinate their children or not? or is it purely province by province.

I find it hard to believe they would be mandatory as even in the US they are not, much less the UK. I would presume a liberal
country like Canada would follow suit.

MillieF

Canada doesn't seem so liberal in lots of ways...Nanny State comes to mind with regard to some provinces and their bloody stupid bylaws. 'No Scent is Good Sense' springs to the fore, but the list is pretty long of the doos and Don'ts, IMVHO.

Maybe you can produce a waiver with regard to vaccinations? At my child's school I was told it was mandatory, but it didn't matter as I came here from France, where it is very definitely mandatory, so I had all the paperwork in any case.

Zoe Bell

No honestly it isn't
Personal anecdote wins every time over research
Found this out the hard way , many times

SchnookoLoly

You haven't found a definitive answer because there isn't one. Some schools will say it's mandatory and some will not. Some may also only require certain ones to be mandatory from the list and others they may be okay with a waiver. You won't know until you contact the specific school to find out their policy. My mom works in a school board, she said it varies by province, by school system (public v Catholic v private), by school level (some vaccines are mandatory at primary school but not at secondary school), by school board, and in some cases by individual school (schools in "higher risk" areas, or areas with histories of outbreaks may have specific rules). So it's a giant "it depends".

Generally speaking, parents do have the choice. The consequence, though, is that it may limit school choices. It's a parent's choice whether or not to vaccinate, and it is a school's choice whether or not to allow non-vaccinated children to attend.

Hope that helped!

Zoe Bell

Probably the best answer

MillieF

[QUOTE=SchnookoLoly;

Hope that helped![/QUOTE]

Don't know about the OP, but I found it most informative, many thanks.....I had wondered about the whys and wherefores on this.

Oakvillian

I don't know that he was the first person to say it, but one of my favourite quotes from Ben Goldacre (author of "Bad Science" inter alia) is "the plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'." It's amazing how many people think it is.

dbd33

One of my children, who was born in Canada, completed high school, two rounds of university and worked as a nurse in a trauma unit without ever being vaccinated against anything. So, yes, it can done.

Failure to vaccinate is, of course, stupid and irresponsible and risks intervention by the authorities. I certainly hope you can't import an unvaccinated child, you can't import an unvaccinated horse.

cyasoon

After looking at the regulations, and more I see that vaccinating one's child is entirely voluntary and that most provinces if not all, have no legal authority to vaccinate one's child.

While a school may balk at ones child not being vaccinated, there are actually no legal grounds to deny a child an education based on whether they are vaccinated or not.

As for the rhetoric that is going on in this thread, about vaccinations, none of it is based on empirical evidence, fact or research - purely opinion and personal bias.

I apologise for creating this thread and advise that I have now found out what I need to know. But continue if you want to, to project your opinions. For others reading this thread either now or in the future, however, I strongly advise you do your own research and find the facts.

dbd33

Only the view that there's a justification for not vaccinating, surely? You may not wish to vaccinate your child but one assumes you accept that such failure puts the child and others at risk. It may be that you think your child is more specialer than any other and so won't get ill and that you simply don't care about other people but you can't seriously suggest that you do so based on any sort of evidence; all the evidence points the other way.

Oakvillian

Ah, you see that's where you are mistaken. True, every advocate of not vaccinating children has as a basis for that decision a shedload of unfounded opinion and personal bias, and the discredited (and subsequently withdrawn) research of Dr Andrew Wakefield. Every advocate of vaccination, on the other hand, has as a basis for their decision the entire weight of evidence-based medical research, regulated controlled testing, and the advice of every public health professional known to man. But no, you are free to make your choice as you see fit - it's your child's health you're gambling with after all.

cyasoon

That's nice. More rhetoric though. Regardless of the rhetoric, there is no law in Canada stating that children MUST be vaccinated 'or else'. The need for a few judicial reviews may be in order by those who have succumbed to bullying from schools, but in terms of the law, nada.

dbd33

That only relates to a specific vaccine, indeed a specific combination of vaccines. If I follow cyasoon's posts correctly, she objects to all vaccinations. Terribly limiting as regards holiday destinations one might think.

cyasoon

I haven't actually told you anything of what I think, or whether I or my child is vaccinated.

No one has been able to answer the original post. This is why parents must use due diligence when protecting their children's health and know the facts when they go to Canada, or any country. Based on their beliefs, and/or what they know, there is nothing in Canada that says you must vaccinate. In fact, I am quite sure that to vaccinate a child against the wishes of a parent is against the parent and child's rights and liberties under the charter of freedoms.

dbd33

The way it works is that schools, and some employers, require proof of vaccination at enrollment. There's no need for a law in order for vaccination to be, in effect, mandatory.