'People are dying': Northern Sask. hotel owner bans unvaccinated customers
The owner of the Loon Lake Hotel isn’t allowing unvaccinated customers inside the hotel and bar.
“People are dying. It’s a proven fact,” Ray Lussier said. “I choose my life, my wife’s life, just everybody’s.”
He’s offering unvaccinated patrons off-sale liquor and take-out services only.
He says he has some health issues and smoked for nearly 50 years and thinks he might not live if he contracted COVID-19 and had to be put on a ventilator.
He has also asked his unvaccinated friends and family not to visit his home.
“I believe in being vaccinated. It worked for polio,” he said.
The hotel reopened on July 11. Lussier says he chose to close the business for eight months to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Lussier redesigned the bar’s seating to allow for physical distancing, including six feet of spacing between the VLTs. The hotel bar has a capacity of 176 people.
EMPLOYEE QUITS OVER POLICY
Lussier says he also asked all his employees to get vaccinated – one of whom quit over his stance.
That former staff member, Alicia MacIntosh, told CTV News she was uncomfortable with denying service based on vaccination.
“It was definitely very stressful. I was worried about the backlash due to privacy. It’s causing a lot of stress and controversy," she said.
“People who cannot get the vaccination due to medical reasons, religious beliefs. How do you turn them away?”
However, requiring staff to be vaccinated appears to run afoul of provincial labour regulations.
Under the Saskatchewan Employment Act, employers are not allowed to ask for personal health information such as proof of vaccination unless it was previously determined in an employment contract, says Sameema Haque, executive director of employment standards with the Ministry of Labour Relations and Workplace Safety.
“Vaccinations and testing are personal health information, employers are not allowed Under the Saskatchewan Employment Act to get this information from an employee,” said Haque.
She recommends employers seek legal advice prior to asking employees for personal health information and review the privacy legislation in the Health Information Protection Act and Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
According to the Ministry of Health, of the 2,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in June, more than 80 per cent were among unvaccinated people.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Health Canada to change sperm donor screening rules for men who have sex with men
Health Canada will change its longstanding policy restricting gay and bisexual men from donating to sperm banks in Canada, CTV News has learned. The federal health agency has adopted a revised directive removing the ban on gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men, effective May 8.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer denied bail after being charged with killing Canadian couple
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
LeBlanc says he plans to run in next election, under Trudeau's leadership
Cabinet minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to run in the next election as a candidate under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's leadership, amid questions about his rumoured interest in succeeding his longtime friend for the top job.
U.S. vetoes a widely supported UN resolution backing full membership for Palestine
The United States has vetoed a widely backed UN resolution that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for the state of Palestine.
Sports columnist apologizes for 'oafish' comments directed at Caitlin Clark. The controversy isn’t over
A male columnist has apologized for a cringeworthy moment during former University of Iowa superstar and college basketball’s highest scorer Caitlin Clark’s first news conference as an Indiana Fever player.
Bayer recalls hydraSense baby product over 'potential contamination'
Bayer announced Thursday it is recalling two lots of its hydraSense Baby Nasal Care Easydose due to a potential contamination.
N.L. gardening store revives 19th century seed-packing machine
Technology from the 19th century has been brought out of retirement at a Newfoundland gardening store, as staff look for all the help they can get to fill orders during a busy season.
Cat found on Toronto Pearson airport runway 3 days after going missing
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Grandparent scam suspects had ties to Italian organized crime, police allege
A group of suspects that allegedly defrauded seniors across Ontario and other parts of Canada using a so-called emergency grandparent scam appear to have ties to 'Italian traditional organized crime,' according to an investigator involved in the OPP-led probe.