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Police association calls on employer to drop vaccine mandate

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Local and provincial police associations are calling on the Windsor Police Service to drop its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, something nearly every other force in Ontario has already done.

Although less than two per cent of the 676 Windsor police employees — about 10 or 12 uniformed and civilian members — remain on unpaid leave because they’re either not vaccinated or did not disclose their vaccination status, Windsor Police Association president Shawn McCurdy called the mandate “completely unreasonable,” considering the easing of restrictions across Canada and declining COVID case rates.

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Earlier this month, the federal government dropped its vaccine mandate for the RCMP, he said. In Ontario, only the Windsor and Stratford Police Services still have vaccine mandates in place.

“In our opinion, it’s impacting our staffing levels, and it’s impacting these individual members greatly,” McCurdy told the Star. “It’s a small number, but everybody we can get back is important. We’re a busy police service.”

Hiring new officers and civilian members “and getting them up to speed” is costly, McCurdy said. “We have able and willing individuals that are waiting to come back to work.” He acknowledged the affected employees made a personal choice not to get vaccinated or disclose their vaccination status at the height of the pandemic, but said they should be able to get back to work now.

In a written statement to the Star, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, chair of the Windsor Police Services Board, said the service has a policy regarding COVID-19 vaccinations. Dilkens has previously said that policy is reviewed by the board every 13 weeks.

“(The board) is awaiting staff recommendations to determine if or how this policy should be amended, going forward,” Dilkens wrote. “Our goal has always been to create a safe and healthy workplace for Windsor police and to ensure that the public they interact (with) are protected as well.”

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Mark Baxter, president of the Ontario Police Association, told the Star he thinks it’s hypocritical of the mayor to push for the removal of vaccination requirements at Canada’s border — Dilkens called on the federal government to eliminate the ArriveCAN app to revive cross-border tourism earlier this month — but not lift the requirement for police.

“Our members have a very difficult job to do. They want to be at work and they want to be protecting their communities,” Baxter said. “They can’t do that when they’re at home.”

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Most other police services in Ontario previously adopted a vaccine policy that allowed unvaccinated members to continue working as long as they agreed to once- or twice-weekly COVID-19 testing, he said. Toronto, Windsor, Stratford, and a few other police services opted instead to make vaccination mandatory. The Toronto Police Service ended its mandatory vaccine policy at the start of this month.

“As we’re coming out of the pandemic, this is a different world. We’re in a different environment than we were last August when these mandates started to come into place,” Baxter said. Windsor and Stratford police refuse to “get with the times and lift their mandates — it’s unfortunate and honestly, it’s irresponsible.”

The Windsor Police Service did not respond to the Star’s request for comment.

The Windsor police board next meets on July 7.

tcampbell@postmedia.com

twitter.com/wstarcampbell

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