# 2023-016 Careers, COVID-19

Case summary

F&R Date: 2025-08-19

The grievor disputed Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS) Directive 003 on Canadian Armed Forces COVID-19 Vaccination for Operations and Readiness (CDS Directive 003). The grievor argued that Directive 003 ordered Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members to make personal health decision based on a draft Public Health Agency of Canada report, failed to reference policy instruments that they believed set the conditions on which vaccination can be ordered and continued to breach the Privacy Act by requiring vaccination information be stored in Monitor Military Administration Support System (Monitor MASS). 

The Initial Authority determined that because the grievance concerned a decision, act or omission of the CDS, the grievance must go directly to the Final Authority.

The Committee noted that CDS Directive 003 removed mandatory COVID-19 vaccination for all CAF members except for certain roles and units, and allowed for those not choosing to become vaccinated to be reassigned to positions not requiring vaccination. Therefore, the Committee found that the grievor had not established how CDS Directive 003 personally aggrieved them as required by subsection 29(1) of the National Defence Act (NDA). 

The Committee also noted that the grievor misinterpreted section 126 of the NDA and article 103.58 of the Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Forces as these instruments detail the conditions when a member could be considered to have committed a service offence for refusing vaccination. Again, the Committee found that the grievor had not sufficiently connected the non-inclusion of these instruments to any personal impact.

The Committee found that the storage of vaccination information within Monitor MASS was reasonable during the pandemic to maintain operational readiness. However, the Committee recommended that because COVID-19 is no longer considered a global pandemic, the Final Authority should consider reassessing the requirement under CDS Directive 003 for the attestation of COVID-19 vaccination status in Monitor MASS, in order to align the management of COVID-19 vaccination status with the management of other inoculations required by the CAF and stored within the Canadian Forces Health Information System. 

The Committee recommended that the Final Authority not afford the grievor redress.